HB 18-1400

HB 18-1400 is a Colorado bill that increases fees for industries that emit air pollutants. The bill raises the current caps on several types of fees, such as notices and permit processing, making them higher but still within limits set by the Air Quality Control Commission. These new fee amounts will adjust with inflation each year until 2028. The extra money collected is meant to help reduce how long it takes to process permits and improve billing practices for these industries. Since the bill has been signed into law, it means that these changes are now in effect and being implemented by the Department of Public Health and Environment.

Official Summary

Current law sets the fees paid by stationary sources of air pollutants by statute and allows the air quality control commission to set the fees below the cap by rule as needed to comply with TABOR. The bill increases the statutory caps as follows: Type of Fee Current Cap New Cap Air pollutant emission notices$152.90$191.13 Per-ton fee for regulated pollutants$ 22.90$ 28.63 Per-ton fee for hazardous pollutants$152.90$191.13 Per-hour permit processing fee$ 76.45$ 95.56 The maximum statutory fees automatically increase by the rate of inflation on each January 1 from 2019 to 2028, but the actual fees collected will be set at or below the statutory cap by the commission by rule. The division of administration in the department of public health and environment shall prioritize its use of the revenues generated by the fee increases to reduce permit processing times. The division will: Engage affected industries to identify and assess measures to improve billing practices, increase accounting transparency, and assess potential efficiency improvements with respect to division activities financed by the fees; and Report to the general assembly through 2022 to provide status updates on the stakeholder process. The bill appropriates $1,555,293 to the department to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

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