Kirchhof Group Inc.
Legislative Update
May 1, 2017
10 Calendar/8 work days/nights left until May 10, 2017
Bills – 672 introduced, 290 + bills still in the process, 174 PI’d, 167 Signed – 1 Veto by the Governor
Transportation Funding –
HB1242 (Duran/Mitsch Bush/Grantham/Baumgardner) – died in Senate Finance on a party-line vote of 2-3.
SB 267 (Sonnenberg/Guzman/KC Becker/Jon Becker) – negotiations continue for the Hospital Provider Fee enterprise component of this bill with the sticking point being how much the TABOR revenue cap should be reset. It is pending action in Senate Appropriations.
SB 303 (T. Neville/Cooke/P. Neville/Wist) was introduced with only Republican sponsors in both Houses and without a tax increase. Below is the bill summary:
On and after July 1, 2017, section 4 of the bill requires 10% of the net revenue generated by existing state sales and use taxes to be credited to the highway users tax fund, paid to the state highway fund for allocation to the department of transportation (CDOT), and spent by CDOT first to make payments due on any transportation revenue notes (TRANs) issued, subject to voter approval, as required by section 7 and, to the extent not needed for that purpose, for highway purposes or highway-related capital improvements as specified in section 6. Section 7 requires the submission of a ballot question to the voters of the state at the November 2017 statewide election, which, if approved, requires the executive director of CDOT to issue TRANs in a maximum principal amount of $3.5 billion and with a maximum repayment cost of $5.5 billion. TRANs must have a maximum repayment term of 20 years and must be paid first from the net state sales and use tax revenue paid to the state highway fund and allocated to CDOT by section 4 and thereafter from any legally available money under the control of the transportation commission. Section 8 requires TRANs proceeds to be used only to provide sufficient funding for the completion of economically and regionally significant state highway system projects throughout the state, including a specific list of projects.
Section 2 eliminates required statutory transfers from the general fund to the capital construction fund and the highway users tax fund for state fiscal years 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20. Section 3 requires CDOT rules that govern the consideration of contractor bids for CDOT projects to require consideration of all bids submitted by prequalified contractors and prohibit shortlisting.
Section 5 requires CDOT, with respect to any transportation projects for which it awards a competitively bid contract on or after July 1, 2018, to report on its public website within 30 days of the contract award and maintain on its website for at least one year thereafter all information, excluding specific corporate financial information, from all bidders submitted in response to its invitation for bids for the project.
Construction Litigation Reform Update –
HB1279 Modified Informed Consent (Garnett/Saine/Tate/Guzman) – a compromise was reached on April 18 with the bill quickly moving through the House with a final vote of 64-0 and 53 co-sponsors. The bill is scheduled for its first hearing today in the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee. Attached is a summary of the bill as it passed the House. The Senate is being asked not to make any changes to the carefully negotiated agreement.
JBC Reaches Agreement on 2017-2018 Budget – see attached summary from Colorado Politics.
Pete Kirchhof
Click here to read the Homeownership Opportunity Alliance Support for HB17-1279
Click here to read about the Colorado Budget
