Date: 01/29/2009

Final
BILL SUMMARY for HB09-1137

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
A substitute motion was made to postpone House Bil
Adopt prepared amendment L.002 (Attachment I). Th
Refer House Bill 09-1137, as amended, to the Commi
WITHDRAWN - Adopt prepared amendment L.001 (Attach		FAIL
Pass Without Objection
TIE
TIE



04:18 PM -- House Bill 09-1137

Representative Judd, prime sponsor, presented House Bill 09-1137 concerning intercepting gambling winnings to pay outstanding criminal court obligations, restitution, and delinquent taxes and requiring the Department of Revenue to provide specified information to state agencies in conjunction with intercepts of tax refunds. The bill expands the Gambling Payment Intercept Act so that the following outstanding debts are to be treated in the same manner that unpaid child support debt and certain arrearages of child and medical support are currently treated under the act:

Under current law, the Gambling Payment Intercept Act contains a conditional repeal clause. The act is to be repealed if during FY 2008-09, no winner from limited gaming or from pari-mutuel wagering on horse or greyhound racing is identified in the registry created by the Department of Revenue as having unpaid child support or child support costs owed to the state. This bill removes the conditional repeal of the act.

Representative Judd discussed the fiscal note. He talked about the issue of a private business intercepting gaming proceeds which would be similar to how the state lottery operates. Representative Levy clarified that Representative Judd was only going to go forward with the victim restitution aspect of the bill rather than pursuing the rest of the remedies. The committee discussed the effective date of this bill. There was discussion about making the effective date 18 months from passage of the bill rather than being effective in January 2010.


04:31 PM

The committee continued discussing how the logistics of this new system would work. Representative Gardner asked whether the casinos should get a portion of the cost it would take to implement this type of system.

04:44 PM -- Adrienne Benavidez, Department of Personnel and Administration (DPA), spoke in support of the bill. Ms. Benavidez discussed the portion of the bill regarding certain tax information that is sent by the Department of Revenue to agencies when tax refunds are offset under the existing program. The Central Collections Services Unit in the DPA utilizes the tax refund offset program as a strong tool in the collection of outstanding state debt. Approximately $3 million was collected through the program in FY 2007-08. The DPA certifies the outstanding debt to the Department of Revenue by providing specific information. If a refund matches an individual's information, the refund is offset and forwarded to the Central Collections Services Unit for payment of the outstanding debt. The two departments would like to share current addresses of debtors and the bill would allow that. Ms. Benavidez does not believe this type of information sharing would violate any privacy laws.

04:48 PM -- Paula Brown, Colorado Department of Human Services, Child Support Enforcement, appeared to answer questions. Ms.Brown discussed the implementation of the intercept program.

04:51 PM -- Lois Rice, Colorado Gaming Association, spoke in opposition to the bill. Ms. Rice opposes the bill because the limited gaming industry is in the business of entertainment, not debt collections. It is an industry with considerable competition. She believes this bill would infringe on individual entertainment experience. She also believes the time period for creating and bringing the database online is too short. Ms. Rice responded to committee questions about other states that use gambling intercepts to pay child support obligations and the state of the gaming industry in the current economy.

05:03 PM -- Denise Washington, Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CCADV), spoke in support of the bill. Ms. Washington talked about the success of the existing law and asked that the bill be passed in order to help collect restitution for victims of crimes, especially domestic violence.
BILL:HB09-1137
TIME: 05:08:00 PM
MOVED:Court
MOTION:WITHDRAWN - Adopt prepared amendment L.001 (Attachment H). The motion was withdrawn.
09HouseJud0129AttachH.pdf
SECONDED:Waller
VOTE
Apuan
Court
Gardner B.
King
Miklosi
Pace
Roberts
Ryden
Waller
McCann
Levy
Not Final YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: TIE

BILL:HB09-1137
TIME: 05:08:56 PM
MOVED:Court
MOTION:Adopt prepared amendment L.002 (Attachment I). The motion passed without objection.
09HouseJud0129AttachI.pdf
SECONDED:Waller
VOTE
Apuan
Court
Gardner B.
King
Miklosi
Pace
Roberts
Ryden
Waller
McCann
Levy
Not Final YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: Pass Without Objection
BILL:HB09-1137
TIME: 05:24:59 PM
MOVED:Ryden
MOTION:Refer House Bill 09-1137, as amended, to the Committee on Appropriations with a favorable recommendation. Members discussed their positions on the bill. Representative Judd asked the chair to take the bill off the table while he attempted to address some of the committee's concerns. The chair took the bill off the table.
SECONDED:Court
VOTE
Apuan
Court
Gardner B.
King
Miklosi
Pace
Roberts
Ryden
Waller
McCann
Levy
Not Final YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: TIE

BILL:HB09-1137
TIME: 05:24:49 PM
MOVED:Gardner B.
MOTION:A substitute motion was made to postpone House Bill 09-1137 indefinitely. The motion failed on a vote of 4-7.
SECONDED:King
VOTE
Apuan
No
Court
No
Gardner B.
Yes
King
Yes
Miklosi
No
Pace
No
Roberts
Yes
Ryden
No
Waller
Yes
McCann
No
Levy
No
Not Final YES: 4 NO: 7 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: FAIL



05:26 PM

The chair took the bill off the table.