Colorado Legislative Strategies Updates 5.7.23

COLORADO LEGISLATIVE STRATEGIES NEWSLETTER
 
May 7, 2023

Introduction
 
Happy Sunday, but more importantly – happy second to last day of session! The Senate finally had to come in on the weekend and both chambers worked Saturday and Sunday.
 
Monday will be the last day of the 2023 legislative session, and at the end of the day the General Assembly will adjourn sine die. Because you must have been saying I need more Latin in my life, sine die is a Latin phrase that literally means “without a day” and is used to describe the adjournment of a legislative body without a set date to return. However, there is a set date for the General Assembly to return (trigger warning: the 2024 session will start on January 10), so sine die is really just some unnecessary fun Latin to signal that the session is over.
 
The Colorado constitution (Art. V, Sec. 7) says the General Assembly must adjourn sine die within 120 calendar days from the start of the session. Even though it might feel like this session took years off your life, this whole thing started just 119 days ago.
 
Unfortunately, the constitution doesn’t limit the amount of hours in a day that the legislature can work, and both chambers had to use nearly every hour available this week to get through all the remaining bills. Adding to the problem is the fact that they keep introducing new bills! There was a big set of bills on property taxes introduced on Monday and there was even a new bill changing TABOR refunds that was introduced on Saturday, just three days before the end.
 
It’s often said that you can pass a bill in just three days. Because there is a rule that second reading and third reading can’t happen on the same day, three days becomes the shortest amount of time to get through all the necessary steps. That comes from the constitution too (Art. V, Sec. 22) and just so happens to also be the same provision that allows for requesting a bill be read at length, which of course was also used this week. 
 
Now let’s dive into all of the big news from the Capitol in the final full week of session.

​This Week – Last Full Week!
 
The last full week of session has to be one of the longest weeks in the history of the Capitol. Session usually starts on a Wednesday and then ends on a Wednesday, but this year's session started on a Monday and will end on a Monday. So that meant that the crucial final days of the session would fall on a weekend. It’s not usual that both chambers work both days over the weekend after a week where every day both chambers had committee hearings and debates stretching very late into the night. So while this is technically just a guess, it feels like this final full week of session had to have more total hours of work than any other week in Capitol history.
 
The reason why people had to be at the Capitol so long this week is that the legislature started this week with 156 bills left to make their way through the process. Plus they introduced even more substantial bills this week! Here’s a rundown of some of the top news from this very long week.
 
On Monday, House Republicans continued to press the issue of having the budget brought back up. As a reminder, the House Republicans submitted a formal letter of protest to House leadership last weekend regarding a minor error found in the state budget bill. House Republicans threatened to have the rest of the bills left on the House calendar read at length until the budget bill was brought back for reconsideration. However, Governor Polis signed the budget bill despite the Republican pushback. This caused some bills to be read at length.
 
On Tuesday evening, Senate Bill 098 was finally up for action in the Senate Finance committee. The bill would’ve placed additional regulations and transparency requirements on gig work companies, and was strongly supported by labor unions. After being laid over for action twice in Senate Finance (never a good sign for a bill’s prospects), Senator Mullica and Senator Priola joined Republicans in voting against the bill. The bill was postponed indefinitely on a vote of 5-2.
 
On Wednesday evening, the Senate introduced their last bill of the year, Senate Bill 306. The bill calls for renovations to the Capitol annex on the south side of the Capitol building, which is currently vacant. The plan is to move a lot of nonpartisan legislative staff to the annex to make room for all of the legislators to have their offices in the Capitol building, rather than some in the State Services Building north of the Capitol (which nobody likes going to). 
 
On Thursday, House Bill 1306, which would allow elected officials to block someone on social media, was sent to Governor Polis for signature after successfully (and quickly) passing both chambers. The bill had bipartisan sponsors and support in both chambers, but was still subject to some debate. Some legislators argued it would prevent a constituent from having access to their representative or senator, while others argued it’s similar to someone being removed from the Capitol or a town hall meeting for violating decorum policies. So watch what you post. 
 
Also on Thursday, Senate Bill 255 and Senate Bill 256 successfully passed Senate concurrence with House amendments and were sent to Governor Polis for signature, despite receiving pushback from the Governor’s Office on one of the bills. Both bills provide protections for ranchers during gray wolf reintroduction as a result of Proposition 114 in 2020, which reintroduces gray wolves in Colorado by the end of 2023.
 
On Friday, Senate Bill 279, which bans the manufacturing or possession of “ghost guns,” was also sent to Governor Polis for signature. Unlike the other gun bills we’ve seen this session, SB 279 didn’t have nearly as much floor discussion from Republicans as the four bills from Governor Polis’ gun violence prevention package earlier this year. 
 
However, not all the gun bills have made it through the process and to the governor’s desk this year. On Thursday, House Bill 1195 was postponed indefinitely in the Senate Local Government and Housing committee. The bill would have allowed local governments to prohibit an individual from unnecessarily discharging a firearm on private property.
 
Another bill that was postponed indefinitely in committee this week, Senate Bill 109would have made it a felony for someone to illegally sell a drug that results in an overdose death. The bill had bipartisan sponsors (including Minority Leader Lynch) and received bipartisan support in the Senate. However, the bill lost in the House Judiciary committee on a 8-5 vote, with only Representative Snyder joining Republicans to vote in favor of the bill.
 
Lastly, House Bill 1294 came up for second reading in the Senate on Sunday after its committee hearing that went late into Thursday night and early Friday morning. After its introduction was delayed throughout the session, the bill was finally introduced and seeks to place more oversight and regulations on oil and gas operations. Opponents to the bill spoke about the disastrous consequences for the oil and gas industry, among others, and were able to make a deal with sponsors that would ease potential negative impacts of the bill in the future by limiting the authority of the interim committee created in the bill. The bill is expected to be up for a third reading vote in the Senate tomorrow, and then go back to the House for concurrence.
 
Final Big Bills
 
Property Taxes
The last significant bill package was introduced on Monday and it deals with property taxes. County assessors warned last week to expect a sharp rise in their property tax bills in 2024 and 2025 because of a dramatic increase in home values. Senate Bill 303 seeks to put a measure on the November ballot to lessen the increase. Proponents of the measure say it would cut the projected property tax increase for the average Colorado homeowner by 62% in the 2023 tax year. Under the plan, which has a 10 year sunset, the statewide residential assessment rate would be reduced over the next decade. There would also be cuts in the assessment rates for commercial property. Most controversial, the plan includes backfilling the lost revenue to local governments by tapping into TABOR surplus revenue and expanding the revenue cap by an extra one percent. Finally, the proposal would also let seniors who claim a homestead property tax exemption continue to claim the benefit if they move to a new home.
 
Senate Bill 304 was also introduced as part of the property tax bill package. Less controversial, this bill deals with changes to property tax valuation practices and what assessors consider when valuing property. Despite lengthy debates on SB 303 in the final week of session, both bills are on track to pass and be sent to the Governor for his signature. Expect a bill signing ceremony soon.
 
TABOR Refunds
The very last bill of the session was introduced on Saturday, which was just three days before the end of session and the last possible day to introduce a new bill and it be able to pass. House Bill 1311 seeks to change TABOR refund mechanisms. TABOR is in the constitution so the excess revenue over the cap is getting refunded no matter what, but the legislature has total discretion on the mechanisms for how that money gets refunded. Over the years there have been 21 different refund mechanisms, 18 of which have been repealed. This proposal is contingent upon the voters passing the initiative associated with the property tax bill (HH).  
 
Last year, in what some called an election year stunt, TABOR refunds were changed to flat amounts for everyone ($750) and they went out in the fall instead of the spring. Without adding an equal refund for everyone, the mechanism in current law would have more money going to higher earners. Given the Democrats are in total power it was expected that they could make this change again this year. The bill only applies to the current refund and does not change mechanisms for future years. The amount that everyone will receive is estimated at $661 each. 
 
Land Use
Finally, some of the most monumental drama in the final days of session is coming from Senate Bill 213, or the land use bill. As introduced in the Senate, the bill called for state preemption of local government zoning and land use policies, in order to increase affordable housing statewide. After receiving criticism from both sides of the aisle, the bill was in jeopardy of not making it out of the Senate unless it was amended significantly. By the time the bill had made its way out of the Senate, it had been amended to take most of the state preemption language out, and refocus the bill on state housing planning.
 
And then the bill was sent to the House… On the House side, Democrats decided to add language back into the bill that had been previously removed in the Senate. This was the language that had been removed in order to gain enough support from moderate Democrats to get the bill through the Senate. Now, the bill is finished in the House (after hours of it being read at length) and has to get Senate approval on the changes that were made. 
 
The Senate can either reject the bill with changes from the House and force the House to vote on the Senate version of the bill, go to conference committee and come to a compromise with the House, or accept House amendments and pass the bill. Now that we’re getting close to twenty-four hours left in session, the pressure is on to reach agreement on the land use bill.
 
Next Week – Only One Day Left!
 
Next week is only one day and it is the last day of the session. The CLS Team has their last day of session shirts ready. It could be another long day but the end is near!
 
Have a good weekend few hours until next week.
 
P.S. Both the House and Senate are still working at the time of sending…