Hello everyone,
It was another relatively busy week for CSPA priorities. Early in the week, the Senate passed two bills on Third Reading that the CSPA supports. On Monday, the Senate passed SB 053 Colorado Housing & Finance Authority Mortgage POST Officers First Responders on a vote of 29 to 6. SB 053 expands eligibility for loans through the Colorado Housing & Finance Authority to peace officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, noncertified deputy sheriffs, emergency communications specialists, and corrections officers regardless of income.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed SB 026 Weight for Vehicles with Child Restraint System on a vote of 35 to 0. SB 026 is a State Patrol agenda bill that increases the gross vehicle weight rating for certain passenger vehicles required to have a child restraint system from less than 10,000 pounds to less than 16,000 pounds. With the increasing weights of passenger automobiles, it is necessary to amend statute to ensure all passenger vehicles are required to have child restraint systems. Both bills now head over to the House.
On Wednesday, the JBC held figure setting on the Department of Public Safety’s FY 2026-27 budget. This year, the JBC’s decisions were much more preliminary than they have been in the past. The JBC staff will have to come back to the Committee with more information before those decisions are finalized. Based on the JBC staff recommendation, the JBC voted to deny the State Patrol’s request to refinance $3.0 million of HUTF with General Fund to fund common policies related to compensation and the third and final phase of the Records Utilization Upgrade capital project. The JBC staff recommended that they work with the Department to reduce other HUTF-funded operating areas to realize the needed HUTF dollars. The JBC staff indicated that because the $3.0 million only represents1.3% of the Patrol’s HUTF appropriation they believed the Patrol could absorb the reductions in other areas.
The JBC Staff also initiated some budget balancing measures that were not requested by the Department. These included (1) sweeping $2.0 million from the Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) Cash Fund to the General Fund to help balance the General Fund budget, (2) eliminating the General Fund and HUTF appropriation in Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority (CATPA) – reducing the funding to CATPA by $7.2 million (or about half) – and (3) introducing legislation to increase fees paid by motor carriers and reducing the HUTF appropriation to the Motor Carrier Safety Fund. The Committee approved the first two recommendations and voted to introduce legislation to change reserve requirements to generate an additional $1 million to the Motor Carrier Safety Fund. I anticipate that the Department and the Governor’s Office may have something to say about these initial decisions and their impact on public safety in Colorado before the Committee revisits these decisions.
So far, there have been 460 bills introduced – 325 in the House and 135 in the Senate. Only 65 more days until the General Assembly is required to adjourn sine die.
Bill Skewes
Lobbyist