Following are highlights of the bills the IBC is lobbying on behalf of community banks at the state and federal levels.   Please call Barbara Walker at the IBC (303) 832-2000 for information on bills of interest to you and for a currnet listing of bills being tracked.
 

BILLS IMPACTING COMMUNITY BANKS

•    HB1402, Foreclosure time-out.  The “issue” of foreclosures was a key agenda item for the House Democratic Leadership during the 2008 session.  The IBC thanks the many community bankers who called our state legislature to protest this bill. As introduced, it would have severely curtailed mortgage lending in the state because of its far-reaching and onerous provisions.  A large and diverse group of both private and public interests successfully opposed the many unworkable provisions of this bill.  It has been redrafted to provide a state fund to support the Foreclosure Hotline and provisions requiring lenders to provide defaulting borrows with contact numbers for the Foreclosure Hotline and the lenders loss mitigation staff.  
•    SB33, Private Trust Companies. This bill establishes private trust companies for high net worth families, created for the exclusive benefit of family members.  The IBC successfully amended the bill to insert the word “private family trust company” throughout the bill.  
•    SB62, Share information of misconduct, authorizes the Division of Banking and Division of Financial Services to give information relating to the misconduct of persons licensed by, for example, the Division of Real Estate (such as appraisers) to that Division. The IBC worked with DORA and the prime sponsors to ensure such referrals covered licensed persons. 
•    SB158, Include County Land in Urban Renewal Authority.  The bill allows a municipality to include unincorporated county land in an urban renewal project if the land is contiguous to a project within its borders, there has been consent of the county commissioners, and each owner of real property within the land to be included.  The IBC was the only banking association working with the bill sponsors and Counties to ensure the bill did not adversely affect the value of the property. 
•    HB1053 allows a county surveyor or any other local government official that maintains a survey plat records file and index system to establish a program to accept plats for recording and filing by electronic means. IBC worked to protect the rights of lenders.
•    HB1153, supported by the IBC, amends the Colorado Probate Code to clarify the authority of the court in overseeing fiduciaries in decedents’ estates, guardianships, conservatorships, and trusts.  
•    HB1168, Financial Literacy, supported in full by IBC and the financial lobby. This bill requires financial literacy to be included in both the model content standards for mathematics and the mathematics state assessments in the Colorado State Assessment Program (CSAP).  
•    HB1195, Return of Deeds of Trust. This bill requires that parties who request the return of a release of a deed of trust from a public trustee supply current address information for the party who has paid off the debt. The bill requires the county clerk and recorder to return the release to that party using the address supplied. If a release is undeliverable, county clerks are required to retain the release pursuant to local office policy. The IBC’s lender amendment was adopted. 
•    HB1237, Regulation of Qualified Intermediaries (1031 Exchange).  The IBC played a key role in securing an exemption to protect banks from being pulled into the bill.  HB 08-1237 went thru many, many rewrites prior to its final death in House Business Affairs Committee. Several years ago the OCC issued an preemption interpretation letter regarding federally chartered banks and 1031 exchange transactions as “incidental to banking”.
•    HB1266, Filing of Notice on Statutory Liens, The bill modifies the requirements for filing lien notices and other records of secured transactions with the Secretary of State under the UCC and establishes the Colorado Statutory Lien Registration Act to set consistent requirements for the filing of notices for a variety of liens located throughout state law. The IBC lender amendment was adopted. 
•    HB1342, Child Support Enforcement.  The bill as introduced directs a brokerage firm to sell securities to satisfy past-due child support obligations when it holds securities that have a greater value than the amount of past-due child support. The entire section of the bill was stricken.
•    HB1365, regarding Foreclosures of Lien on Time Shares, allows a time share association to join multiple defendants in a single filing when foreclosing on an assessment lien. 
•    HB1367, Abandoned Property Nuisance Abatement.  The IBC successfully lobbied to address language in the bill that would have negatively impacted community banks and other lenders by requiring them to engage in nuisance abatement on abandoned property.  The bill died in Committee after hours of testimony and IBC’s efforts to amend the bill. 
•    HB1381, Mortgage Foreclosure Relief Equity Skimming, expands the definition of equity skimming, making it a crime for someone to continue collecting rent when title to the property has been transferred to another as a result of foreclosure.  The IBC carefully monitored this bill throughout the session to ensure lender rights were not impaired.

BILLS IMPACTING BUSINESS IN COLORADO

•    HB1225, Business Personal Property Tax Exemption, provides that business personal property listed on a single personal property schedule is exempt from property taxes if the actual value of such property is $4,000 in actual value in property tax year 2008, $5,500 in property tax years 2009 and 2010, and $7,000 in property tax years 2011 and 2012.  
•    HB1278, RTD Eminent Domain. The IBC worked with other business associations to ensure that the bill addressed the bill’s negative impacts on transit and transit-oriented development. The bill was killed in the Senate Local Government Committee.
•    HB1306, the “Construction Prompt Payment Reform Act of 2008”.  The bill could indirectly affect a lender by exposing them to possible claims if a draw request isn’t funded in sufficient time to allow the borrower to meet payment deadlines. The bill was killed on the House Floor after a long fight between the proponents and the business community.
•    HB1380, Single Sales Tax Factor, for income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2009, the bill changes, among other things, the method by which net income is apportioned to Colorado for the purpose of determining Colorado taxable income, eliminates the choice that multistate corporations and partnerships previously had regarding apportionment methods, and specifies that business income must be apportioned to Colorado based on the ratio of a company’s sales in Colorado to its total sales.

RENEWABLE ENERGY/ ENERGY EFFICIENCY

HB1160, Net Metering was supported by the IBC, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, many Colorado rural electric providers and others. It expands homegrown energy opportunities for consumers and businesses, including agricultural producers and rural communities statewide and promotes energy independence by allowing the extra energy generated to be credited back. The IBC took the lead for the lending community in lobbying the legislature, the Governors Energy Office, the environmental community, and others to amend several bills—SB08-184, HB08-1025, HB08-1350, and HB1386—to limit direct lending by government and to create classic public private partnerships to help finance renewable energy and energy efficiency projects by leveraging state funds, spreading financing risks—and in particular minimizing governments’ financing risks—and multiplying deployment of these projects. 

The IBC is also monitored more than 80 other bills to ensure that the rights of community banks are protected.