Date: 04/25/2006

Final
BILL SUMMARY for SCR06-005

SENATE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
Motion to refer HB 06-1058 to the Committee on AppPASS


03:46 PM -- House Bill 06-1058

Senator Williams, prime sponsor, presented HB 06-1058, which creates a schedule of surcharges to be paid by offenders convicted of crimes against children, including sex offenses against children, incest, child abuse, or contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Five percent of the revenue from the surcharges is to be transferred to the Judicial Stabilization Cash Fund for the expenses of trial courts. The remaining 95 percent is to be credited to the newly-created Child Abuse Investigation Surcharge Fund to be used by the Division of Criminal Justice, Department of Public Safety, to support training and enhanced services in programs that coordinate a multi-disciplinary team response for child sexual abuse intervention. A folder of information on children's advocacy centers was distributed to the committee (Attachment B).

The following people testified on the bill:

03:50 PM -- Ms. Maureen Cain, Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, spoke in opposition to the bill. She indicated that convicted sex offenders already have to pay a surcharge up to $3000, depending on their crime. She thought that there was no other class of offenders that have to pay two surcharges and that sex offenders already have to pay a large amount. She discussed the costs sex offenders currently have to pay.

03:57 PM -- Mr. Tony Lombard, Colorado District Attorney Council, spoke in favor of the bill.

03:58 PM -- Ms. Dana Easter, Jefferson County District Attorney's Office and Jefferson County Children's Advocacy Center, spoke in favor of bill. She addressed Ms. Cain's testimony on the costs paid by sex offenders.

04:00 PM -- Ms. Cristi Gordanier, Louisville Police Department, spoke in favor of the bill. She indicated that the bill would allow child advocacy centers to maintain their support for victims of child sex offenders and would help law enforcement with child sex offender cases.

04:03 PM -- Ms. Diana Goldberg, SungateKids, a child advocacy center, spoke in favor of the bill. She explained that the bill would help provide more child advocacy centers statewide and that the cost of victim services were expensive. She acknowledged the high costs that offenders have to pay, but that the impacts to victims were priceless. She indicated that the extra surcharge would be discretionary in cases in which the offender is indigent.

In response to Senator Teck, she indicated that she did not know what percentage of offenders do not pay their surcharges. She indicated that surcharges are charged because treatment and containment of sex offenders is expensive.

Senator Williams closed by asking for support of her bill. She commented that current surcharges are designed for services for sex offenders and that her bill would allow for surcharge revenue to focus on victim services.
BILL:HB06-1058
TIME: 04:10:11 PM
MOVED:Teck
MOTION:Motion to refer HB 06-1058 to the Committee on Appropriations with favorable recommendation. The motion passed on a 6 - 1 vote.
SECONDED:
VOTE
Brophy
No
Shaffer
Yes
Taylor
Yes
Teck
Yes
Tupa
Yes
Veiga
Yes
Sandoval
Yes
Final YES: 6 NO: 1 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS