Legislature
After years-long fight, Colorado approves medical marijuana treatment for PTSD
DENVER – Coloradans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will now be able to treat their conditions with doctor-approved medical marijuana, bringing a close to a years-long fight.
Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 17 Monday, which will allow physicians, after consultation and a medical background review, to prescribe patients suffering from doctor-diagnosed PTSD with medical marijuana treatments. Continue reading
Criminal justice bills will become law without Hickenlooper’s signature; ‘budget transparency’ cited
DENVER – Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper will allow two criminal justice reform bills passed by the state Legislature to become law without his signature, saying he had “concerns that the bill’s full and true impact on the state budget was not fully transparent.”
Hickenlooper sent letters to the Republican-controlled Senate Tuesday informing them Senate Bill 12 and Senate Bill 19 would become law on June 10 without his signature. Friday, June 9 is the last day for Hickenlooper to sign or veto bills lest they become law without his signature. Continue reading
Colorado governor signs bill allowing women to get 12-month birth control prescriptions
DENVER – Colorado women will now be able to get a year’s supply of birth control all at once after Gov. John Hickenlooper signed House Bill 1186 Monday.
The bill passed through Colorado’s Legislature with bipartisan support. Its supporters say the new law will be a boon to women since it will mean they’ll have to make fewer trips to the pharmacy and will be less likely to disrupt their prescription cycle.
Hickenlooper also praised the bill as a win for women in rural Colorado who may have to drive a long distance to their nearest pharmacy or to get their prescriptions renewed.
Under previous rules, women were only able to get one- or three-month prescriptions.
The bill’s authors pointed to a 2011 National Institutes of Health study that showed unintended pregnancies fell by one-third in places that allowed 12-month prescriptions.
“Women in rural Colorado will see great benefits from this bill. They will be able to access the birth control they rely on, exactly when they need it. This means more time left in their busy days and less likelihood of unintended pregnancies,” said Sen. Kerry Donovan, D-Gunnison.
The Republican co-sponsors of the bill, Rep. Lois Landgraf and Sen. Don Coram, said the bill’s aim of reducing unintended pregnancies was “common sense.”
“Nine out of ten women in this country use birth control at some point in their lives. This bill breaks down a barrier to care that will have an incredible impact on women’s lives,” said Sarah Taylor-Nanista, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado.
Supporters of the bill wore pink to its signing at the state Capitol Monday.
Federal lawsuit argues Amendment 71, requiring rural input on ballot measures, is unconstitutional
DENVER – A handful of ballot measure proponents have filed a federal lawsuit arguing that Amendment 71, which changed the way constitutional amendments can reach Colorado’s ballot when it was approved by voters last year, violates the U.S. and Colorado constitutions.
The lawsuit is the first legal challenge to Amendment 71, which despite being among the more-controversial measures on last year’s Colorado ballot, was approved by 55.7 percent of the vote. Voting against the measure were 44.3 percent of Coloradans. Continue reading
Colorado Hospital Association: State budget puts dozens of Colo. hospitals in jeopardy
DENVER – The Colorado Hospital Association says the state budget for the fiscal year that starts this summer could cost state hospitals millions of dollars and have “devastating” effects on rural health care if a proposed fix doesn’t find support in the state Legislature.
The state budget has been the subject of most of the legislative debate at the state Capitol over the past few weeks – much of it centering on transportation and health care costs in trying to find a balanced budget.
But an analysis out Monday from the Colorado Hospital Association shows that the budget could have huge effects on health care across the state.
As the budget currently stands, it would cut $264 million from the Health Provider Fee, which hospitals pay to bring down hospital and health care fees for people on Medicaid and those without insurance.
The fees are redistributed after being matched by the feds through a formula that gives lower-income and Medicaid-receiving populations in Colorado a larger amount of money that providers in higher-income areas of the state.
When adding in matching funds from the federal government, which the state is due under its decision to expand Medicaid, the current budget as it stands would lead to a $528 million reduction to the HPF, according to the Colorado Hospital Association.
“In addition to potential closures, many hospitals in the state will have to consider layoffs, service line closures and delaying facility upgrades or service additions,” CHA said Monday.
The state budget writers say they need to cut money to the HPF this year in order to keep the budget under TABOR limits so they don’t have to issue taxpayer refunds, which they say would lead to cuts in other parts of the budget related to education and transportation.
The CHA’s analysis shows 80 percent of Colorado hospitals would see cuts this year – 13 of which would see reductions of at least $5 million, and six that would see cuts of at least $10 million.
Some of the most outstanding figures are as follows:
- Denver Health Medical Center would see cuts of $52.5 million;
- Children’s Hospital Colorado would see cuts of $17.3 million;
- Memorial Hospital would see cuts of $17.8 million
- University of Colorado Hospital would see cuts of $15.1 million
But CHA says the worst effects would be seen in rural hospitals, such as the Lincoln Community Hospital and Nursing Home, Kit Carson County Memorial Hospital, Montrose Memorial Hospital and San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center, which, among other rural health care facilities, face cuts of between a couple hundred thousand dollars and millions of dollars.
“Lincoln Community Hospital is the only hospital along a 160-mile stretch of I-70 and is the top employer in our 722-person town,” said Kevin Stansbury, the CEO of the Lincoln Community Hospital (Hugo). “The proposed cut to the Hospital Provider Fee would immediately move our hospital from operating in the black to operating in the red.”
“San Luis Valley Health Regional Medical Center is the only hospital that delivers babies in a five-county region in south-central Colorado and is the largest employer with more than 650 employees,” said Konnie Martin, the CEO of San Luis Valley Health, based in Alamosa. “This cut would mean that our hospital would lose more than $3.8 million this year. It will profoundly change the face of a rural community when you make these kinds of cuts, so we are hopeful that legislators will work together to get this deal done in this year’s session.”
The CHA says it is supporting a different bill that would modify state law keep the cuts from happening.
Senate Bill 267, which has bipartisan support from several Democrats and Republicans across the state, aims to make several changes to the state’s General Fund so as to help out rural Colorado.
It includes a provision that would move the HPF funds out of the General Fund so as that it is not subject to TABOR limits, which would be, at least, a temporary fix to the FY 2017-18 problem, according to the CHA.
The bill, if passed, would create a new board of governor appointees that would receive fees from hospitals and redistribute them similarly to how they are distributed under the HPF. It would, however, still be subject to review from federal Medicare and Medicaid programs as to its constitutionality. The current HPF would be eliminated.
“History will judge this legislature with acclaim or with embarrassment based on whether or not they finish the job of saving Colorado hospitals – by coming to consensus on a deal that passes SB 17-267,” said Steven Summer, president and CEO, CHA. “Failure is not an option for Colorado hospitals, communities, and the patients they serve. All legislators have a responsibility to those with so much riding on this issue. It’s time to put aside the antics and partisan speak and get this deal done.”
Senate Bill 267 is set for another hearing Tuesday in the Senate Appropriations Committee. It was amended in the Senate Finance Committee and referred back to appropriations on April 11.
The CHA says if the current budget is not amended, it will “immediately jeopardize the future of as many as a dozen Colorado hospitals.”
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In ode to Trump, Colo. House passes bill requiring presidential candidates to release tax returns
DENVER – Colorado Democrats are trying to send a message to Donald Trump and any future presidential or vice presidential candidates: show us your tax returns or you won’t be on Colorado’s ballot.
House Bill 1328 passed the House Friday on a partisan vote – just as it did when it passed the House Finance Committee on Monday. It now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate, where it faces an uphill battle.
In the event the bill does make it through the Senate, which is unlikely, and signed by Gov. Hickenlooper, all U.S. presidential and vice presidential candidates would have to release their last five years of federal tax returns 90 days before the General Election.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office would have to post the returns on its website within seven days of receiving the filings.
If any candidate fails to release their tax returns, both they and their running mate would be disqualified from being on the official ballot.
The bill also modifies code for electors by requiring them to vote for a candidate whose name was on the ballot and complied with the tax return requirement.
Though Trump is technically not lawfully required to reveal his tax returns, his failure to do so breaks with decades of tradition of candidates releasing theirs to show the public how much they earn and what their tax rates are.
Trump and his camp have long maintained that he would release his returns once a supposed audit was finished, but IRS officials have said that audits do not bar people from releasing their returns.
More than half of Americans said in a recent poll they believed Trump should be forced to release his returns, and Colorado is one of among at least 24 states that have introduced similar legislation, though some legal experts are dubious about the bills’ legality.
Thousands of people rallied at Denver’s Civic Center Park last Saturday demanding Trump release his tax returns in a Tax Day march.
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Bill awaiting governor’s signature would allow Colo. counties to levy special sales tax on pot
DENVER – A bill now awaiting Gov. John Hickenlooper’s signature would allow Colorado counties to impose and collect on a special marijuana sales tax – an ode to an ongoing spat between Adams County and three cities within the county over a tax there.
The House on Monday concurred with changes made by the Senate to House Bill 1203, which has undergone several changes since it was first heard in the House Local Government Committee in early March.
The bill sent to the governor’s desk would allow counties to levy the special sales tax in unincorporated parts of the county without voter approval, but an agreement between cities within the county on how pot would be taxed and what the money would go to would have to be signed off on.
If a local municipality gets voter approval to levy its own special sales tax, it would invalidate the county’s tax levy unless the municipality came to the aforementioned intergovernmental agreement.
Under the bill, said intergovernmental agreements would also allow the parties to decide what percentage of the special sales tax would go to the county, and how much would go to each municipality undersigned on the agreement.
Finally, under the bill, if voters approve the special sales tax, the county or municipality would be able to put the tax money toward the county or municipality’s general fund, or to any other special fund created by said county or municipality.
The bill comes in response to a yearslong battle between Adams County and the cities of Northglenn, Aurora and Commerce City, which sued the county over a 3 percent special sales tax in 2015 that the three cities argued hadn’t been approved by voters.
The Adams County District Court ruled in September 2015 that the tax would be allowed, but that decision was reversed by the Colorado Court of Appeals in December. It could now be taken up by the Colorado Supreme Court.
The special sales tax funds go to the Adams County Scholarship Fund and is matched by the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Program. Both aim to give four-year scholarships to students who are part of free or reduced lunch programs.
Some sellers in the county argue that having a higher tax rate puts them at a competitive disadvantage.
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Bill banning ‘free speech zones’ at Colorado public colleges signed by governor
DENVER – Colorado’s public colleges will no longer have designated “free speech zones” after Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill Tuesday that extends First Amendment rights to everywhere on campus.
The bipartisan Senate Bill 62 passed through both legislative houses with near-unanimous support.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, says the passage of the bill means Colorado puts “the highest premium on strengthening our constitutionally-guaranteed rights.”
Set to take effect Aug. 9, the bill prohibits the state’s public colleges from restricting First Amendment rights to any certain part of campus. So-called “free speech zones” have drawn fire nationwide in recent years, as some say they restrict the number of varying viewpoints available to students on college campuses.
“I think more free speech is really the best indicator of everybody being heard and everybody actually being able to focus on the issues that are important to them,” Neville told Denver7 late last month.
Under the new law, students will be allowed to peacefully assemble, protest, picket and circulate petitions and other written materials anywhere on campus so long as they don’t restrict anyone’s access to education.
It says that public colleges would only be able to restrict “the time, place, and manner” of the free expression if four bars are met:
- The restrictions must be “reasonable;”
- They must be “justified without reference to the content of the speech;”
- The restrictions must be “narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest;”
- The institution must “leave open ample alternative channels for communication of the information or message.”
“Once we limit free speech to a zone, we indicate to our students that free speech does not exist anywhere beyond that zone,” Neville said. “That is not the message we want to send to future generations about our core values.
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Colorado bill would establish new juvenile sexting punishments, keep teens from facing felony
DENVER – Major changes could be coming for Colorado teens caught sexting if a new bill introduced in the Colorado Legislature becomes law.
Rep. Pete Lee, an El Paso County Democrat, introduced House Bill 1302 on Tuesday.
The bill would create two new charges related to sexting involving teens: posting private images by a juvenile and possessing private images by a juvenile.
Posting a private image by a juvenile would be a class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by between 3 and 12 months in jail upon conviction.
But it would become a class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by between 6 and 18 months in jail, if a person posted the image with the intent to harass or distress the depicted person, if they had a history of doing so, or if they distributed photos or videos of three or more juveniles.
Possessing a private image by a juvenile would be classified as a petty offense, but it could be classified as a class 2 misdemeanor if the person in possession of the image had pictures of three or more different juveniles.
The new laws would not apply to people who were “coerced, intimidated, or harassed into distributing, displaying, publishing, or possessing a sexual explicit image of a juvenile.”
And the bill leaves open the possibility for courts to allow people convicted of possession to enter into a counseling program, and for district attorney’s offices to establish diversion programs for first-time offenders. Jefferson County already has a similar program.
The focus on teen sexting would also extend to schools under the bill.
It directs districts to have their school safety resource officers and center to have lessons available “regarding the dangers and consequences of sexting for school districts to use” that would include information on how students could avoid being charged under the new laws should they unwittingly become involved in a sexting incident.
Specifically, under the proposed new laws, people would be able to get out of the possession charge if they “took reasonable steps” to destroy or delete the image within 72 hours of receiving it, or notified law enforcement or school officials within that same time period.
Both new laws would apply to people who either posted or possessed the image of a juvenile without their consent.
Under current law, anyone engaged in juvenile sexting without someone’s consent is liable to be charged with sexual exploitation of a child. But it is rare that teens are ever charged with the crime, which carries a mandatory sex offender registry requirement.
A similar bill was introduced in the Legislature last year but failed to reach the governor’s desk.
The new laws would make it so juveniles would not face the sexual exploitation charge if the conditions of either new proposed law is met, or if a person is between 14 and 18 years of age, or less than four years younger than the person.
In December 2015, officials announced no charges would be filed in a sexting case that involved dozens of Canon City Middle and High School students. And in April 2016, prosecutors in the 4th Judicial District said they wouldn’t charge five Pine Creek High and Challenger Middle School students who were caught sharing photos of a partially-nude juvenile.
The bill is set for its first hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on April 11 at 1:30 p.m.
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Colorado bills placing curbs on homegrown pot move ahead in Legislature
DENVER (AP) — The nation’s most generous grow-your-own marijuana laws came closer Monday to being curbed in Colorado, where the state House advanced a pair of bills aimed at cracking down on people who grow weed outside the commercial, taxed system.
One bill would set a statewide limit of 16 marijuana plants per house, down from a current limit of 99 plants before registering with state health authorities.
The bill passed 65-10 after sponsors argued that Colorado’s generous home-grown weed laws make it impossible to tell whether someone is growing plants legally, or whether the plants are destined for the black market.
Of the 28 states with legal medical marijuana, only Colorado currently allows more than 16 pot plants per home.
Many Colorado jurisdictions including Denver already have per-home plant limits, usually set at 12. But the lack of a statewide limit makes it difficult for police to distinguish between legitimate patients and fronts for black-market weed, bill supporters argued Friday.
“The time has come for us … to give law enforcement the guidance they need,” said Rep. Cole Wist, R-Centennial.
The other bill makes is a crime to grow recreational pot for someone else, effectively ending Colorado’s marijuana co-ops.
Legislative analysts have no estimate how many collective marijuana grows exist in Colorado, though they’re anecdotally popular with pot users who pool their economic resources to share the cost of electricity, water and fertilizer.
That bill cleared the House on an unrecorded voice vote, with one more vote required. It also sets aside some $6 million a year in marijuana tax money to give law enforcement more money to investigate illegal pot growing operations.
Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, but it has a nagging black-market problem.
Colorado’s marijuana amendment legalizing recreational use included language making it legal to “assist” anyone over 21 to grow their pot, making it difficult to stamp out large-scale marijuana growing operations in residential areas.
The bills advanced by the Colorado House this week would force those large-scale operations to move to areas that are not zoned residential.
The bills passed over the strenuous objections of some medical marijuana users, who argued that homegrown pot is a key component of Colorado’s pot system.
“They’re hurting the patients, is what they’re doing,” said Jennie Stormes, a Colorado Springs mother whose 17-year-old son has a type of Parkinson’s disease and has a caregiver grow the 48 plants recommended by her son’s doctor.
Stormes called the residential plant limit unnecessary because local zoning laws and her renters’ lease already ban her growing marijuana at home.
“It’s games they’re playing,” Stormes said after the vote. “I can treat my son with what he needs when he needs it when I’m doing the growing.”
But lawmakers sided with law enforcement complaints that the limits they called generous are impossible to enforce. The grants to give marijuana revenue to authorities under the bill would give priority funding to rural law enforcement agencies.
“This is a good start to begin to help our local jurisdictions,” said Rep. Terri Carver, R-Colorado Springs.
Gov. John Hickenlooper backs the reduction in how many plants can be grown in residential areas and has called on lawmakers to send him a statewide limit.
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