Date: 11/10/2015

Final
Wildfire Matters Review Committee

COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
Approve Bills A, B, C, and D and Resolution A recoPass Without Objection



09:27 AM -- Wildfire Matters Review Committee

Senator Jones presented Bills A, B, C, and D and Joint Resolution A recommended by the Wildfire Matters Review Committee. The summary report prepared for the Legislative Council Committee, copies of the bills and resolution, and the committee's charge can be found in Attachment I.

151110 AttachI.pdf151110 AttachI.pdf

The bills and resolutions are as follows:

Bill A - Change the Wildfire Mitigation Tax Deduction to a Credit. This bill eliminates the wildfire mitigation income tax deduction and creates a wildfire mitigation state income tax credit. The tax credit will be available for tax years 2017 through 2019. The amount of the credit is equal to 25 percent of the costs a landowner incurs performing wildfire mitigation on his or her property located in the Wildland-Urban Interface. The amount of the credit per tax year cannot exceed $2,500. Any amount above the limit can be carried forward for five years. Any remaining credit after five years is nonrefundable.

Bill B - Use Broadcast Burns to Promote Watershed Restoration. This bill adds broadcast burning to the types of projects and methods for which the Colorado State Forest Service may award grants from the Healthy Forests and Vibrant Communities Cash Fund and the Forest Restoration Program Cash Fund.

Bill C - Add Broadcast Burning to Wildfire Risk Reduction Grant Program and Replenish Funds. This bill adds broadcast burning to the types of projects and methods for which the Department of Natural Resources may award grants from the Wildfire Risk Reduction Fund, and authorizes the transfer of a total of $3.0 million into the cash fund: $1.5 million from the General Fund and $1.5 million from the Severance Tax Operational Fund.

Bill D - Auxiliary Emergency Communication. This bill creates the Auxiliary Emergency Communications Unit (unit) in the Office of Emergency Management in the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in the Department of Public Safety. The unit has the power to:

• establish programs for the training and credentialing of auxiliary emergency or disaster communicators across the state;
• assume all the duties and responsibilities of the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES); and
• ensure that auxiliary emergency communicators are authorized volunteers entitled to the appropriate protections and benefits of emergency volunteers when assisting local governments with the maintenance or demolition of communication facilities.

Pursuant to this authority, the DPS may develop and issue photo identification cards to auxiliary communicators, conduct criminal background checks, and reimburse emergency communicators for necessary travel and other expenses incurred in performance of their duties.

Finally, the bill increases from 23 to 24 the number of members serving on the Public Safety Communications Subcommittee of the Homeland Security and All-Hazards Senior Advisory Committee in the DPS. The additional member is the section emergency coordinator for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service of the Colorado section of the Amateur Radio Relay League.

Resolution A - Recognizing Firefighters Killed in the Line of Duty. This resolution honors and recognizes firefighters that have been killed in the line of duty.

Resolution B - Federal Budgets for Catastrophic Wildfire Response. This joint resolution with the Water Resources Review Committee requests that Congress fund the costs for catastrophic wildfire response outside the normal budgets for federal forest management agencies.
BILL:Wildfire Matters Review Committee
TIME: 09:29:37 AM
MOVED:Jones
MOTION:Approve Bills A, B, C, and D and Resolution A recommended by the Wildfire Matters Review Committee as fitting under the committee's charge. The motion passed without objection.
SECONDED:
VOTE
Buck
Court
DelGrosso
Donovan
Duran
Grantham
Guzman
Jones
Landgraf
Lawrence
Lundberg
Melton
Roberts
Scheffel
Ulibarri
Williams
Cadman
Excused
Hullinghorst
Final YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 1 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: Pass Without Objection