Gov. Bill Ritter Monday vetoed his first bill of the 2010 legislative session, shooting down House Bill 1101 (pdf), which would have removed the current requirement that county clerks thoroughly vet anyone seeking a farm vehicle registration, The Colorado Independent reports.
Sponsored in the House by Rep. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, and in the Senate by Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, the bill was meant to make it easier for farmers and ranchers to obtain cheaper farm truck registrations exempt from state emissions standards.
A bill that would have set up a task force to listen to the troubles of immigrant sheepherders died Thursday.
House Bill 1407 began as an effort by two Denver Democrats – Rep. Daniel Kagan and Sen. Pat Steadman – to make working conditions better for Peruvian immigrants who are hired to tend sheep on the Western Slope.
Agricultural lands are a small step away from rarely being declared as ‘blight’. A bill that would impose stricter requirements for declaring agricultural lands blight has passed both the House and the Senate, and is awaiting Gov. Bill Ritter’s signature, the Aurora Sentinel reports. The bill would make it more difficult for a developer to use a partially public-financing method to fund a project.
A bill to strictly limit the inclusion of prime agricultural land in urban renewal authorities got its first hearing in the Senate this week, but HB 1107 is still a work in progress and will get another hearing on Monday, the Fort Morgan Times reports. The Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Wednesday took testimony on the bill sponsored by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora. Due to time constraints, the committee delayed action on amendments and a vote on the bill until Monday.
Urban renewal zones carved out of open farmland, such as the one at east Loveland’s Centerra development, would be mostly disallowed under provisions of a measure passed Monday by the Colorado House of Representatives, The Loveland Reporter-Herald reports. The bill that now moves to the Colorado Senate targets communities such as Timnath that have taken advantage of state law permitting declarations that farmland is “blighted” in establishing vast urban renewal districts. In the case of Timnath, an urban renewal authority covers the entire town, or more than 5,000 acres of land.
A bill that proposes to raise the minimum standard for training of animal control officers and limits their authority over livestock drew hours of passionate testimony Wednesday in the House Agriculture Committee, The Pueblo Chieftain reports. Introduced by state Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, HB1124 would also change the rules governing bonds required of people accused of animal cruelty. Those bonds pay for the care of animals while they are in the care of agencies that house them while the cases involving them are adjudicated.
