HB 1283-Wildfire Bill: Passed the Senate on second reading.

SB 96- Vested Rights: Killed and P.I.'d in the House State Affairs committee on a 7-6 vote.

HB 1264- Salary Bill:Passed the Senate State Affairs committee. 

HB 1012- Recoup the Costs of Mailing Motor Vehicle License Plates: Passed out of the Senate Transportation Committee and is headed to Appropriations.

HB 1101- Speaker George's Growth Assistance Bill: In House Appropriation Friday morning.

The new State Revenue Forecast will be made available to the Joint Finance Committee Thursday morning.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment held a meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 23 to discuss Phase II of the regulations for the EPA Stormwater Program. The Stormwater Program is a national and state regulation that requires certain categories of dischargers of stormwater to take steps to ensure that the water is clean. Phase I primarily applies to industries, construction sites, and large municipalities while Phase II broadens the scope of permit coverage to include smaller municipalities. A Task Force was formed and is charged with examining and developing the regulations for Colorado. If your county would like to be a part of the Task Force or if you need more information, please contact Kathy Dolan, Colorado Stormwater Program Coordinator, at 303.692.3596. 

The second round of the nomination process allows people to tell the Land Board (SLB) what parcels of state trust land they feel should be placed in the Stewardship Trust and receive special stewardship attention. Once nominations close, the SLB will contact the commissioners in all counties that contain land nominated for the Stewardship Trust and ask them for comments on the parcels. 

Local governments interested in nominating state trust lands should visit the SLB's website, www.dnr.state.co.us/slb, for a copy of the nomination form and other information.  You can also contact Stewardship Trust coordinator Kate Jones at kate.jones@state.co.us.  Phone:  303/866-3454x320.

The National Center for Small Communities (NCSC) has produced an excellent Internet resource tool for rural communities.  "Getting Online - A Guide to the Internet for Small Town Leaders" provides a wealth of information on establishing web sites, promoting public access to the Internet, and attracting high speed telecommunications services to your community.  You may request a copy of this publication by calling NCSC at 202.624.3550 or e-mailing them at natat@sso.org.

If your district/municipality is planning to place a question before the voters at this spring's election, the Division of Local Government (DLG) is ready to assist you with some important decisions. Last year's Attorney General's opinion made a new option available to local government in exempting, or "debrucing," certain revenues. According to that opinion, local voters can decide to exempt a district/municipality from the "5.5%" statutory property tax revenue limit (29-1-301, C.R.S.). 

Typical "debrucing" language grants authority to collect, retain and expend funds, dealing with the "fiscal year spending" limit. If any part of the funds your government intends to retain and expend are from property taxes, then caution must be taken in wording the ballot question. You must decide which of the three separate limits on property taxes you want the ballot to address: TABOR(7)(c) property tax revenue, the "5.5%" limit, or the TABOR(4)(a) mill limit.

Caution must be taken with the wording of any referendum, since the final decision of sufficiency will be made by an appellate court. Considerable financial impact could result if a ballot question is eventually ruled insufficient. 

AGO #99-5 states that ballot language should be "very clear and unambiguous." A taxpayer should be able to understand the intent of the questions and its effect. If the mill levy will be affected, the intended period of time should be clear and direct. If a question is to authorize excess property tax revenue only, and the mill levy will not increase or decrease for some period of time, such fact should be stated, perhaps mentioning the actual tax rate which will be maintained, regardless of the revenue it produces. 

The following is an example of a clear ballot question intended to exempt property tax revenue from both the TABOR(7)(c) and the "5.5%" limits:

 
Shall the mill levy of ______ be maintained at the 1995 level of 3.992 mills, commencing January 1, 2001 and continuing thereafter at this constant rate, and shall revenues collected therefrom be spent without limitation of Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution, and regardless of any revenue limitations in section 29-1-301, C.R.S., or any other law?

The staff at the Division of Local Government is ready to assist you in these complex decisions. If you have questions concerning ballot or other tax and revenue limit questions, please call 303.866.2156.