Legislative Wrap - Up 2022 

by Larry Hudson, The Fulcrum Group

The 74th Colorado General Assembly adjourned in typical fashion on May 11, 2022 only after an atypical end of session filibustering and late bills dominating the final days of the 120-day session.  Since the 2018 elections, the Democratic party, who controls the General Assembly, Governor’s Office and all statewide offices, successfully passed its legislative agenda in 2022.  The caucus’s policy priorities included fiscal relief in the form of lowering fees for vehicle registrations, gas taxes, business and professional licenses, as well affordable housing construction investments, property tax relief and loans for low-income families affected by the pandemic.  Additional priority successes included millions in law enforcement grants, implementing universal pre-school and special education investments, felony charges for possession of fentanyl and protection for abortion access.

As for LTAC’s legislative involvement, the association was very successful in amending or defeating nearly all the bills we were actively engaged in through the legislative committee’s leadership.  In particular, we were fairly busy on several bills that altered a long-standing statute to protect certain government and health care workers from doxxers and threatening individuals by allowing some personal information to be excluded from the “internet”.  Through several discussions with advocates for this legislation, we discovered that some of the information being shielded could be found in public records - namely online property and tax records - and worked tirelessly to create a path in the law for the title industry to maintain access to these vital public records.  That was created in HB 1041.  Additionally, we aggressively lobbied for amendments to a mobile home park reform bill (HB 1287) that would have made mobile home property sales nearly impossible to insure in light of the burdensome notice provisions that if not properly addressed could render a property sale as statutorily “null and void.”  We were successful in removing this “null and void” provision and tempered the notice provisions in a way that is more workable for a seller to comply with and a title company to properly insure.  Moreover, we successfully defeated a bill that unnecessarily required the disclosure of whether an ILC or survey was used in closing document (HB 1036) and amended out highly restrictive mechanic’s lien provisions in a bill to address wage theft in the construction industry (SB 161). 

Click here for full Report 

Interested in learning more?  Join us for a FREE webinar on June 1st at noon.  Register Here