The Colorado State House adopted three bills in the past week dealing with prisons, right to repair for agricultural equipment and firearms, and on the latter two, with vigorous opposition from Representative Richard Holtorf, R-Akron.

Lawmakers debates a bill that would fund more prison beds, and for the Sterling, Limon and Buena Vista correctional facilities, $4.5 million in housing incentives to boost recruiting and retention.

Senate Bill 113 sought $20.3 million for a mid-budget-year adjustment to pay for, among other things, 393 more beds and funding 16 new positions at various State prisons, mostly in southern Colorado. 

The bill went through difficult debate in both the House and Senate; Democrats and a handful of Republicans complained they couldn’t get accurate prison headcount numbers from the Department of Corrections, a complaint also lodged in a staff analysis from the Joint Budget Committee, which sponsored the bill. 

They also pointed out that the department had $20 million in vacancy savings and 1,600 vacant positions from low staffing and questioned why that money was not being used to cover the additional expenses.

Joint Budget Committee members who sponsored the bill, as well as Corrections officials, said the $20 million has already been committed, to cover high overtime costs, also tied to those low staffing levels and for retention bonuses. 

A bipartisan duo of lawmakers tried to strip out the additional beds and positions, which drew objections from Holtorf.

During debate on Feb. 15, he pointed out that during the campaign season, he heard disturbing comments from Corrections employees at Sterling, a maximum-security facility. Morale is at an all-time low and people tell him they can’t retire fast enough from DOC. “I don’t support this. If DOC says they need more money, they might actually need it.” He also noted that DOC has a new executive director “who has to right a ship that we’ve turned upside down.”

No one wants fiscal responsibility more than me, he told the House. If there’s a crime wave coming and there’s a need for more beds, “we might want to listen.”

SB 113 passed on a bipartisan 40-24 vote, with “no” votes from 16 Democrats and eight Republicans. It now goes to the Governor for signing.

A bill to allow counties to limit the discharge of firearms on private property faced furious opposition from House Republicans in the past week. 

Current law allows counties to limit the discharge of firearms in neighborhoods where there are at least 100 residents per square mile. House Bill 1165 lowers that limit to 35 dwellings per square mile and under the federal definition of dwelling that’s about 91 residents per square mile. 

The bill is the work of Rep. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, and in response to complaints in the St. Mary’s Glacier neighborhood in Clear Creek County, although Amabile said there have also been concerns raised in Boulder and Gilpin counties.

Rural lawmakers claim that when “city folk” move to rural communities, they don’t like guns and try to change the culture of their new communities. 

House lawmakers approved an amendment exempting hunting, livestock management to deal with predators and any other “wildlife management activity.” That earned Amabile, the sponsor, a “thank you” from Holtorf, who said the amendment is the first step to “bridge our division between the rural and urban folks,” Holtorf said. 

Holtorf noted he’s calving at his ranch, and premature calves were being born, along with predators waiting for the kill. Over the weekend, a coyote killed one of his calves. The amendment addressed what he did on Buffalo Springs Ranch over the weekend — a dead coyote. The amendment would ensure he could still protect his calves, he explained.

The bill went through two days of preliminary debate, a bit unusual thanks to an error made by the committee chair that didn’t allow Republicans their full opportunity to debate and offer amendments on Feb. 13. That led to a second day of debate, followed by preliminary approval.

Rep. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose, said he’d gotten more emails on the measure than any other so far in the 2023 session.

“People are panicked in rural Colorado,” he said, concerned they won’t be able to shoot a gun on their properties. “The idea that people are moving to rural Colorado” can decide they don’t feel comfortable hearing gunshots. This is a bill on what people aren’t comfortable with, he said.

Statewide, however, this is a concern and is a result of when enough folks move in from the city or another state and want to change the culture where they live. That includes right to farm, too, he said.

The House approved HB1165 on a 36-27 vote that drew “no” votes from eight Democrats, including Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, whose district includes rural counties both north and south of I-70 in the central mountains.

HB 1165 is now under consideration in the Senate. 

The “right to repair” bill for agricultural equipment is one vote away from heading to the Senate, after House lawmakers debated and then gave it preliminary approval last week.

House Bill 1011 would allow farmers and ranchers to repair their own equipment, subject to limitations in the bill. That includes any attempt to tamper with emissions mechanisms.

There’s been an absolute disregard for allowing farmers to repair their equipment, said Rep. Ron Weinberg, R-Loveland, one of the bill’s sponsors.

The other co-sponsor, Rep. Brianna Titone, D-Arvada, noted the wait time that farmers have to endure while trying to get their equipment repaired. The bill has the support of virtually every major agricultural organization, save for Colorado Farm Bureau, which has not taken a position because of an agreement on right to repair signed last month between American Farm Bureau and John Deere.

Farmers are reduced to using 30-year-old tractors, she said, so they can fix their tractors and not rely on high costs or lack of technicians from the manufacturers or dealers.

Holtorf fought back against the bill, and a Titone amendment that would impose limitations, such as barring independent repair providers or owners from permanently deactivating safety notification systems or changing the settings that brings the equipment out of compliance with emissions laws. The amendment doesn’t go far enough, he argued.

Dirt is really heavy, he said, and it takes a lot of horsepower to pull those implements through the ground. “There isn’t anyone who farms who doesn’t want more ponies to pull their equipment,” but the amendment doesn’t cover enough, such as copyright law, he said. The amendment was later changed to allow for protections for copyright and trademark.

House Democrats rejected amendments to require disclosure of repairs to subsequent buyers of that equipment, as well as impose civil penalties for failure to disclose or violations of copyright.

House Bill 1011 is awaiting a final vote in the House and if approved, will head to the Senate.