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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Legislative Review Committee - 02/02/2006 -C r LEGISLATIVE REVIEW COMMITTEE Meeting Summary February 2,2006 Legislative Review Committee present:Doug Hutchinson,Ben Manvel,Kelly Ohlson Staff present:Darin Atteberry,Steve Roy,Wendy Williams,Ron Phillips,Mark Radtke The meeting was called to order by Mayor Hutchinson at 8:05 a.m. MEETING SUMMARY The meeting summary for the January 19,2006 Legislative Review Committee meeting was approved as corrected. NEW BILLS Mr.Radtke provided a summary of several new bills.HB 1173 would ban state and local taxation of telephone calls made over the internet.Known as Voice over Internet Protocol the calls would not be treated the same as cellular or land-line telephone calls. The City position is to oppose the bill,which was pulled from Committee consideration earlier this week. The ban on indoor smoking bill has been sent to the full House for consideration.HB 1175 was amended to exempt casinos from the ban and several other groups are pushing for exemptions.The bill continues to allow cities to enforce more stringent ordinances. Steve Roy said that would cause a problem only for Fort Collins’limitations on private clubs,which are less stringent than the bill’s limitations. The Committee discussed SB 52 which would allow counties to exceed the current cap on sales tax by a half-cent if the tax were devoted to open space.Councilmember Manvel said the ability to the County to gain voter approval for additional open space funding would be a boost to the City’s open space program.A concern he noted is the apparent insistence by the governor’s office that there be placed a 10%cap on the amount of money used for maintenance.CML Board member Ron Phillips said it is likely CML will oppose the bill because it sees sales tax as primarily a municipal revenue source and property tax primarily a county revenue source.There is concern that all this really would do is allow counties to get another half-cent of sales tax for their general fund. The Committee did not take a position on SB 52. The Committee affirmed the oppose positions against FIB 1208 and SB 169.The former requires local governments to pay at least 250o above the fair market value of properties taken by eminent domain.SB 169 eliminates “blight”as a definition allowing the creation of an urban renewal authority leaving only the more restrictive “slum” definition.It severely reduces an urban renewal authority’s ability to use eminent domain. Councilmember Ohlson said the reason these types of bills were coming forward are the 0 abuses of the urban renewal concept by several cities.He said some of the issues that curb the use of urban renewal to the original concept would be a good idea.Mr.Roy noted there have been reforms,and the City was a party to a reform bill last year that put limits on the use of urban renewal authorities in greenfield situations. The Committee was disappointed to hear that SB 18 will be postponed indefinitely in Senate Finance Committee next week.Mr.Radtke said extensive negotiations with Colorado Counties,Inc.failed to budge CCI from their position of requiring county consent for any extension of a DDA.This erosion of municipal authority over the Tif is unacceptable from the cities and CML standpoint.Mr.Radtke said the sponsor was asked to kill the bill as success was in doubt with CCI working to amend or kill it. The sponsor of HB 1159 has asked the City to assist in writing clarifying amendments to the bill.Mr.Roy asked the Committee for permission to proceed.The Committee said since we support the bill it would be to our advantage to assist with amendments. The Committee also gave approval to using the services of the City Attorney’s Office to assist local legislators or CML by proposing language for state legislation on a case by case basis whenever,in the judgment of the City Attorney,it would be beneficial to the City to do so and time and circumstances permit Mr.Roy brought forward a discussion of SB 156.He said the bill would declare that fees are not “fees”unless they are for services not normally provided by local government. Fees falling outside that definition would be required to face a TABOR vote for approval. Mr.Roy noted among the many faults of the bill,it pre-empts home rule authority over fee setting.The Committee provided a position of “enthusiastic opposition”to the bill. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION BILLS Mr.Radtke submitted a summary of General Assembly bills dealing with illegal immigrant issues that contained City department comments on the impact of the legislation Mayor Hutchinson was excused from the meeting at 9:05 a.m. The meeting was adjourned at 9:22 a.m.