Some Great news Officially!
Governor Polis signed our two agenda bills this year!
1. SB23-280 – Attached - I want to thank Senator Mullica and Rep. Snyder for their work and support!
For Department of Labor – (Oil and Public Safety)
Colorado is lucky that we have one of the best storage tank programs in the country. The program run by the Division of Oil and Public Safety, funded almost solely by licensee fuel distributors and is primarily is an environmental remediation program .
- SB23-280 extended the spending authority but does not increase the revenue collected until 2033. This is important in that the companies that provide work for the state want to have the surety that the projects they sign on for will be funded.
- SB23-280 provides companies, with the approval of the Department and the Committee, the ability to have access to the fund for releases under $10,000 as the industry has fewer and less costly releases responsible parties that have traditionally not had access, now can do so.
- The bill also envisions funding again by directing existing resources to the petroleum redevelopment program. Which is a program the Department and industry jointly set up and where that money was swept during the pandemic.
For Hazardous Materials Transport –
- We are all aware of the issues that critical hazardous materials corridors have had, especially earlier this year in Glenwood Canyon and along the I-70 corridors. There is a certain section of the highway near the EJMT that has the busiest runaway truck ramps in the country…. The industry is stepping up and asking our permission to allocate additional and existing resources from the current $8 million they provide, The proposal increases the current PFAS fee by approximately 1 tenth of cent to provide additional money for enforcement for critical hazardous functions in the state.
- We are continuing the tunnel work and EJMT study group … essentially routes and rules around the EJMT are governed by 2 separate authorities – the State Patrol and CDOT – SB23-280 allows the agencies to better coordinate and if a rule change relative to tunnel access is ever considered it solves duplication of 2 rulemakings. Further it holds the rest of the routing rules around the state untouched.
- SB23-280 also now includes the Colorado State Patrol hazardous materials troopers in the Cancer Fund., the vast majority of the hazardous materials incidents this section responds to are fuel related.
For CDOT – the A-Line and the Smith and Chambers Road crossing and Keeping Glenwood Canyon Open
- Essentially what the fuel distributors are doing is asking us to authorize a fee of about 6 tenths of one cent, 10 million of which would be issued to local communities that serve the entire state and seek to address the impact of fuel distribution in those communities. With the forthcoming imposition of Reformulated gasoline by the EPA, our communities with fuel terminals during the ozone season are going to have additional burdens.
- Orbital decisions hopefully change the trajectory for these communities, but I think that interchanges on highways, rail crossings and increased traffic on critical corridors are going to have an impact and the fuel wholesale fuel distributors and trucking companies want to make sure that safety issues are addressed and the communities are resourced to provide mitigation for the safe transport of these materials.
- The additional funds are to be used by CDOT to continue the work they are doing on making hazardous materials corridors, including I-70 and I-270, but also highway 160, highway 50 and key routes safer. There is work going on relative to the A–Line, there is work on the I-70 corridor and having funds prioritizes the increasing needs of the commercial vehicle community. The expenditure of these funds will be collaborative between CDOT and the freight community.
2. HB 23-1285 – Attached – Rep. Valdez and Senator Priola helped get this over the finish line
At issue were two main concerns -
- There were certain jurisdictions that never had any intention of imposing a remittance system and as such retailers that were complying with the law by collecting the fee would have nowhere to remit the .06 cents next April (2024).
- Systems that that were trying to track collections across multiple jurisdictions, where in some cases the local jurisdiction was collecting the fee, and in others were not was confusing.
What did we do with HB 1285 -
if you are operating in in a jurisdiction that has set up a remittance process - HB23-1285 doesn't change anything for you. Simply remit the .06 cents on the local schedule.
If you are operating in a jurisdiction that has not set up a remittance process (or will not) keep collecting the .10 fee and instead of remitting the .06 cents you may use that portion to provide reusable bags to your customers or to support For any recycling, composting, or other waste diversion programs and related outreach and education activities
- Note 1 - the state agencies including the Department of Revenue don't have any responsibility nor audit power relative to HB 1285.
- Note 2 - Local jurisdictions can be more restrictive then state law (i.e. Breckenridge) they can tell you to charge more than the .10 cents or accelerate the phase out of single use plastic bags all together.
- Note 3 - While this bill will be effective upon signature of the Governor it is retroactive to January 1st of 2023 meaning that revenue you have already collected but not remitted to a local jurisdiction that has not set up a process may be used for reusable bags.
- Note 4 - The fee is not subject to state sales tax or state collected local sales tax. Home rule jurisdictions (for example Colorado springs) may impose local sales tax on the fee.
- Note 5 - CWPMA is reaching out to our partners at CML and CCI in order to try and provide at least a months’ notice if a local jurisdiction is going to begin collection process.
- Note 6 – As a reminder The carryout bag fee does not apply to a customer that provides evidence to the store that the customer is a participant in a federal or state food assistance program.