June 14, 2010

Legislative Wrapup . . .

The deadline for Governor Ritter signing bills passed by the legislature this session was June 11 th. Three of the bills written about in Eye on the Legislature became law without the Governor’s signature – House Bills 1124, 1350, and 1357. House Bill 1124 concerned changes to the animal welfare laws, including animal control officers, the bonding requirements for animals seized during a neglect case and reporting requirements. HB 1124 also grants discretion to courts to waive the bond requirement for indigent owners of impounded animals, requires courts to hear matters related to animal impoundment on an expedited basis and applies the Colorado rules of Civil Procedure to impoundment hearings.

House Bill 1350 increases accountability of recipients of economic development incentives. Previously, there was far too little accountability for the money poured into such economic development. The bill underwent significant revision, with everything in the bill below the enactment cause being stricken, a fate not often survived in those hallowed halls. The amended bill requires that the annual report to the General Assembly include the number of people employed as a result of any project, the average and median salaries of those individuals, and also a comprehensive plan detailing how the state can implement a program for tracking the success of every grant, loan, or tax credit program intended to generate jobs, including a means of determining a method for identifying the number of jobs created.

House Bill 1357 creates the Colorado False Claims Act and became effective immediately without his signature. By establishing this false claims act, Colorado is now aligned with federal law, and thus can increase its share of Medicaid fraud awards by 10 percent if certain conditions are met. Based on the previous fiscal year, the increase in Colorado’s share could mean up to $800,000.00 per year.

House Bill 1118, signed by the Governor on June 7th, provides the authority for a board of county commissioners to adopt ordinances that regulate distressed real property (defined as any vacant, foreclosed or abandoned real property), the minimum requirement to be that the real property be secured, maintained and insured. The bill becomes effective August 11, 2010, provided no referendum petition is filed.

House Bill 1348 was signed June 8th by the Governor, and became effective upon his signature. HB 1348 strengthens regulations regarding radioactive materials, specifically uranium processing, and if enforced, prohibits any new radioactive material to be brought to a facility or processed while a warranty is disputed. A licensee must demonstrate it has the financial resources to decommission and decontaminate a facility, and properly dispose of radioactive materials before a new facility is approved. Cotter Corporation threatened during debate on HB 1348 that passage of such a bill would mean it could not do its Mountain Taylor project near Canon City. Perhaps Cotter’s attention should have been directed at its Canon City mill long ago – by some estimates cleanup of it could take another 50 another years.

House Bill 1413 was signed by the Governor on May 25th, and becomes effective August 22, 2010, provided no referendum petition is filed. HB 1423 raises the minimum age to 16 at which a district attorney may direct file charges against a juvenile, except in cases of first degree murder, second degree murder or a sex offense combined with a crime of violence, use of or threat of a deadly weapon, previous two-year record or the juvenile is determined to be a habitual juvenile offender.

House Bill 1358, signed by the Governor on June 9th, becomes effective on August 11, 2010, provided no referendum petition is filed. The bill requires new home builders to offer home buyers water efficiency options such as water-efficient toilets, lavatory faucets and showerheads. HB 1358 also provides guidelines for dishwashers, clothes washers and front yard landscaping if those items are included in the financing of the home, or are installed/sold as upgrades through the home builder. The home builder must also offer the buyer the option of a pressure-reducing valve that limits static service pressure in the residence to a maximum of 60 pounds per square inch.

House Bill 10-1411 was signed by the Governor on June 11th and became effective at that time. The House Judiciary Committee amended the bill and under HB 1411, when an individual is denied a firearm transfer because the final disposition of the case is unknown and the individual files an appeal, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation becomes responsible for conducting the research to confirm or reverse the denial. Under current law, the individual was required to provide the necessary information about disposition of a case.

House Bill 10-1119, signed by the Governor on June 5th, becomes effective August 11, 2010, provided no referendum petition is filed. HB 1119 applies to the process by which the state annually allocates moneys for its budget, and sets forth new requirements for each state agency to address the departments’ goals and performance measures. Public testimony is to be allowed at presentations made by each state agency regarding the departments’ strategic goals. Beginning with the 2012 legislative session, the Joint Budget Committee and the Committees of Reference will scrutinize written recommendations concerning those strategic plans. Not to be taken lightly, the state auditor is to conduct performance audits for at least two departments annually so that each department is audited on a nine-year cycle.

House Bill 10-1176 was signed by Governor Ritter on June 10th and became effective upon his signature. The bill applies to state agencies that expend more than $25 million annually to determine whether overpayments to individuals, vendors and others occur as a result of pricing errors, neglected rebates, discounts, unclaimed refunds or other related general errors. A recovery audit firm is given access to various sources of information and uses proprietary software to reveal duplicate payments, pricing errors and payment for goods or services not received. Certain state agencies already have such audit programs in place. These include Education, Higher Education, Health Care Policy and Financing, Human Services, Transportation and the Governor’s Office of Information Technology – said agencies are excluded from the provisions of HB 1176.

Senate Bill 10-087, was signed by the Governor on June 10th, and became effective upon his signature. SB 087 makes changes to the regulation of lobbyists by the Secretary of State. Specifically, the lobbyist registration and disclosure periods are changed to align with the state fiscal year rather than the calendar year under current law, specifies procedures to be taken if the General Assembly or Secretary of State revoke a person’s lobby privileges or registration, imposes a new $100 per-day fine on lobbyists who fail to file disclosure statements within 10 days of the due date, in addition to the current $10 per day fine, and exempts volunteer lobbyists who register with the Secretary of State from paying registration fees or penalties from late filing of disclosure statements.

The 67 th General Assembly proved to be one of the most contentious ones since this reader started Eye on the Legislature in 2005.

End of the Session Commentary and Opinion:

The 2005 legislative session was an “action-oriented” one as House Speaker Andrew Romanoff wrote in his column at the end of that session – the session that saw passage of the “Economic Recovery Act,” also known as Referendums C and D fame. In case readers have forgotten, this is the year, 2010, when Referendum C expires. This Coloradan is left to ask what happened? Yes, the quick answer is no one could have predicted the worst recession since the Great Depression, BUT . . . Partisan politics provides lots of fodder for the on-air and print news media, but does nothing to solve the problems faced by this beautiful state. The “If C Wins, You Lose” campaign against Referendum C proved to be a really catchy slogan, but turned out to be not so great for Marc Holtzman and Bob Beauprez, the candidates for governor at the time.

As this campaign year heads into full swing, we Coloradans must ask ourselves, do those candidates inflicting the most negative and zealous rhetoric have a better answer, or are they just covering up the fact they have no solution to the state’s fiscal crisis? Voters should never mistake criticism of the opposing party as a solution to anything! Criticism makes for really lousy substantive problem solving! Pen them down to specific solutions!

That’s a wrap for the 2010 Doris Beaver’s Eye on the Legislature. See you next session.

The reader’s comments or questions are always welcome. E-mail me at doris@dorisbeaver.com.

Doris Beaver