Congratulations to the Denver Broncos! The past two weeks at the Legislature have been filled with Broncos mania. Everyone was very positive that the Broncos would win the Super Bowl, and now that it is done, we will revel in the win.
It has been a great two weeks for me also. My Off Highway Vehicle bill, HB 1030, was approved unanimously by another committee, the Finance Committee, where it met its death last year. It will be debated on the House floor on second readings this week and then will be voted on for final passage. I feel good about it because we have been able to work with all of the stakeholders and work out any differences, and it is bipartisan in that I have a Democratic co-prime sponsor, Rep. Lois Court, who is also the chair of the Finance Committee.
Also, my bill to allow counties to approve and license medical marijuana testing facilities, HB 1064, was passed out of the House Local Government Committee unanimously. The La Plata County commissioners asked me to run this bill. It is actually a cleanup bill from last session. Marijuana businesses have a dual approval process under the law in Colorado. Both the state and local jurisdiction must approve any business related to marijuana.
In the law passed in 2015, local approval was left out for medical marijuana testing facilities. Under the state constitution, marijuana is legal in Colorado. My bill will allow testing facilities so that consumers know what they are buying.
HB 1083 is a bill I am running for Western State Colorado University that redefines the role and mission of that university to align closer to that of other Colorado universities. It is calendared for Wednesday in the House Education Committee.
I also introduced my South Platte River Water Storage bill. It has not been assigned to a committee as yet. This bill will study water-storage sites on the main stem of the South Platte as well as its tributaries that have been proposed in the past.
The bill requires the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the state water engineer to estimate the amount of water that could be stored at each site, what it would cost to build each site – including the cost of land that will be acquired – any other costs associated with each site and a cost-benefit analysis of each site.
Water storage on the South Platte will have many benefits, No. 1 being that it will take the pressure off of diverting more water from the Western Slope across the Continental Divide to the Front Range. It would also provide water to allow the Denver aquifer to be recharged and would stop the need to buy agriculture water, conserving and increasing agricultural production, among other benefits.
J. Paul Brown represents House District 59 in Colorado’s General Assembly. The district encompasses La Plata, Archuleta, San Juan, Ouray and Hinsdale counties and part of Gunnison County. Reach Brown at jpaul.brown.house@state.co.us.
