A handful of bills being considered at the Colorado legislature now are likely to directly affect Boulder County residents, including items such as energy rebates, restaurant tips and road fees.

State representatives and senators from the Boulder area are sponsoring some of the bills. Other bills align with the city’s broader values, goals and interests, officials say, even if the bills themselves may not have as direct of an impact.

Below are some potential legislative highlights for this year that Boulder County residents may want to keep an eye on.

A repayment program for home energy upgrades

This bill aims to lift financial barriers for homeowners who want to make energy efficiency, electrification and renewable energy upgrades to their homes. Although there are existing tax credits and other incentives for energy upgrades, the upgrades can still be expensive. Some homeowners may want to invest in energy upgrades but may not have the money on hand to pay the upfront costs.

If this bill passes, homeowners could make these upgrades and pay for them gradually over time, which allows them to pay minimal or no upfront costs. Financing for the upgrades would be tied to owners’ utility bills instead of their credit. The bill could incentivize more people to make their homes more energy efficient and reduce their environmental impact, aligning with Boulder officials’ goals of reducing the city’s carbon footprint.

“I think (this bill is) going to help incentivize some of the good behaviors that we as a community want to do. I think Boulder is one of those communities where people are interested in environmental sustainability,” said state Rep. Junie Joseph (D-Boulder), the prime sponsor of the bill.

Joseph believes this type of repayment program would especially help lower-income and elderly residents who may have fewer financial resources at their disposal.

The bill could be introduced to the legislature as soon as next week.

A ban on the sale and purchase of semiautomatic, rapid-fire weapons

Earlier this month, Democratic legislators introduced a bill to ban the distribution, transfer, sale or purchase of semiautomatic rifles, shotguns or gas-operated handguns with detachable magazines. However, people could still legally own such firearms and would be allowed to transfer them to an heir, a person living in another state or a licensed firearm dealer.

The legislation comes amid heated national debate over gun control as mass shootings have become more frequent across the country. The memory of the March 2021 mass shooting at the King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive still looms large for many in Boulder.

Mayor Aaron Brockett testified in support of the bill. He told the Daily Camera that if such a law had been in place at the time of the King Soopers shooting, the gunman would not have been able to buy the weapon that he used. Brockett sees the bill’s potential passage as a positive step for both Boulder and Colorado.

“(In) horrendous tragedy after horrendous tragedy, the loss of life has been directly tied to the easy ability to shoot many rounds very quickly,” Brockett said. “If that ability goes away, then you see the loss of life going down.”

There already have been local efforts underway to combat gun violence. Elected officials in Boulder, Boulder County, Louisville, Lafayette and Superior all passed gun control laws in 2022 after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 students and two teachers dead. Longmont also considered a similar gun control law. Those local laws are being fought in court by gun rights advocacy groups.New fees to protect vulnerable road users

Road users such as pedestrians and cyclists face a heightened risk of being injured or killed by vehicle traffic. Some legislators want to give local governments a source of funding for infrastructure and transit upgrades that could help keep these vulnerable users more safe.

To provide that funding, a proposed bill introduced earlier this month would allow local governments to start charging additional local motor vehicle registration fees for passenger vehicles and light trucks starting in 2026. The fees would be higher for heavier and less fuel-efficient vehicles, but they could be reduced or waived for vehicle owners experiencing economic hardship.

Carl Castillo, Boulder’s chief policy adviser, said city officials support this bill, because it would help provide funding for local infrastructure improvements. Such improvements align with Boulder’s Vision Zero program, which aims to reduce, and eventually eliminate, serious and fatal injury crashes in the city.

“(The bill is) not designed to try to change behavior. … It’s more of a reflection of, heavier vehicles are more likely to be involved in fatal accidents. So it would create a revenue source that would then be made available for local governments,” Castillo said. “… We’re talking about fairly small amount — four, six, seven dollars — but we think it would be an important source of revenue.”

Forming a statewide council aimed at reducing homelessness

Boulder officials also support a bill introduced early this month that would create an interagency council on homelessness within the governor’s office. The council would set a statewide strategy for ending and preventing homelessness and ensure a coordinated homelessness response across agencies and organizations. It also would aim to expand access to supportive services like income and food benefits, health care coverage, and behavioral health support.

Homelessness has been an longstanding issue in Boulder. Housing prices have soared, goods and services have become more expensive with inflation, and growing numbers of people have been forced to rely on emergency services such as rental assistance and food banks.

Castillo said Boulder is generally supportive of this legislation, with a few minor amendments.

“The main thrust of this bill is to do just what our (City) Council wants, which is to get the state involved and play a greater role as a coordinator of the many entities that are involved in helping to combat homelessness,” he said.

The bill also would allow city officials in different places to collaborate with one another and to create special districts.

Increased credits for tipped employees

State Sen. Judy Amabile (D-Boulder) is co-sponsoring a bill, which has yet to be introduced, that would allow the tip credit for restaurant owners to increase as minimum wages increase. These credits enable restaurant owners to pay their tipped front-of-house employees less than the minimum wage, as long as the employees bring in enough tips to make at least minimum wage. This bill would allow restaurant owners to pay their tipped employees a slightly lower base wage as the minimum wage increases.

Amabile said the bill is aimed at providing economic relief for restaurants and also encouraging more local jurisdictions to raise their minimum wage amounts. Although local jurisdictions statewide are allowed to set their own minimum wage amounts, she said many places have not done so, in part because of pushback from restaurant owners.

“We haven’t seen a whole lot of uptake of this ability to raise minimum wage. I actually think that if we allow the tip credit to go up, then more other places will raise the minimum wage, and that will help everybody,” Amabile said.

Boulder is gradually upping its minimum wage over the next few years. A divided City Council voted last year to increase the local minimum wage by 8% each year in 2025, 2026 and 2027.

But that decision was controversial, and some of the fiercest opposition to raising the city’s minimum wage came from restaurant owners who said a minimum wage increase would hit them hard. In addition, some said, front-of-house employees like servers and bartenders typically make much more than the minimum wage when their tips are factored in.

One potential downside of this bill is that servers, bartenders and other tipped restaurant employees could make a slightly lower base hourly wage than they do now. However, they are expected to always be compensated to at least minimum wage, and in Boulder, that minimum wage will rise over the next couple of years.

A tax incentive for film festivals

One other bill legislators have introduced would create a new refundable tax credit, but only if “at least one qualified film festival with a multi-decade operating history and a verifiable track record of attracting 100,000 or more in-person ticket sales and over 10,000 out-of-state and international attendees (global film festival) commences the relocation of the festival to Colorado by Jan. 1, 2026.”

While the language of the bill doesn’t specifically mention the Sundance Film Festival, Amabile, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said the bill is intended to help bring Sundance to Colorado. Last year, Boulder was named as one of three finalists for hosting the iconic festival alongside Cincinnati, Ohio, and Salt Lake City/Park City, Utah.

Amabile said she believes Sundance would be an economic boon not just for Boulder, but for Colorado as a whole, especially because the festival happens in January — traditionally a slower season for business and tourism.

“The amount of economic impact is just — it’s phenomenal. Plus, it puts Colorado on the map as a real center for the arts,” she said. Amabile added that she thinks Boulder has “a good shot” at becoming the new host town for the festival.

Boulder City Councilmember Matthew Benjamin said he sees the bill as a “win-win” and has testified in support of it.

“This tax credit is an investment in our arts and culture and the communities that support them. And we know that when we invest in arts and culture, we make that investment back and then some,” he said. “And so this is a good investment at a good time for industries that need our support.”

If the Sundance festival does not come to Colorado, there would be no tax credit. But if Sundance does choose Boulder as its next landing spot, the tax credit could also benefit other, smaller festivals.

A decision from the Sundance board of directors on the next location for the festival could be coming within the next one to two months.