SB 26-172

Senate Bill 26-172, known as the Front Range Passenger Rail District Act, updates the boundaries and operations of a passenger rail district in Colorado. It expands the district to include new municipalities and metropolitan districts that agree to join, requires future board directors to live within the district's borders starting July 1, 2026, allows for the creation of subdistricts, and changes how election costs are distributed and notified. The bill has been signed into law, meaning its provisions will now be implemented as part of Colorado’s transportation planning and governance.

Official Summary

The act changes the boundaries of the front range passenger rail district (district) to include certain listed municipalities, any municipality whose governing body and, if necessary, electors, consent for the municipality to be included in the district, certain listed metropolitan districts, and any metropolitan district that is not within a municipality, whose governing body consents for the metropolitan district to be included in the district, and that is identified for inclusion in the district by a district board (board) resolution.     The act requires that directors of the board appointed on or after July 1, 2026, reside within the district, unless that director is already serving on the board.     The act allows the board to create subdistricts within the district. The only voting members of a subdistrict board must be directors appointed by an entity that includes territory within the subdistrict and directors who reside within the subdistrict.     The act requires that any action by a subdistrict to establish or increase a tax or create a multiple-fiscal year debt must be submitted to a vote of the registered electors of the subdistrict. Before submitting a tax question to the voters, the district or subdistrict must certify that it has made every reasonable effort to secure federal, state, or special purpose authority funding.     Lastly, the act changes the method for determining the distribution of the costs of a district or subdistrict election. Under the new method, the costs of such an election are reimbursed in the same method and manner as state primary, coordinated, general, congressional vacancy, special legislative, or recall elections conducted after July 1, 2024. The act also requires that any constitutionally required notice for a district or subdistrict election be included in the ballot information booklet.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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