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During the 2018 legislative session, the General Assembly introduced numerous bills concerning crimes,criminal penalties, and law enforcement.

This memorandum provides an overview of state laws that address age of consent for sexual activity.  More specifically, it provides information about the age of sexual consent in Colorado and other states, including exemptions that allow a person below the age of consent to have lawful sex with an older person.  The memorandum further outlines the sexual abuse charges that are used to prosecute age of consent and sexual assault-related crimes within Colorado.

This memorandum provides an overview of the statewide ballot measure process; a summary of the measures approved or rejected by Colorado voters between 1880 and 2020; and links to additional resources at the offices of the Colorado Legislative Council Staff and the Colorado Secretary of State.

This memorandum provides an overview of the sentencing categories in state law for felony and misdemeanor offenses, including special offender sentencing.  The memorandum also explains the sentencing scheme for drug offenses and for habitual offenders.  There are two appendices that accompany this memorandum.  Appendix A provides a summary of sentencing legislation since 2010.  Appendix B lists the ranges for felony presumptive sentencing and special sentencing categories.

This memorandum provides an overview of the mandatory minimum sentencing schemes in Colorado law.  It provides information on the general categories of offenses subject to enhanced prison sentences and specific crimes that require a mandatory minimum sentence. Three years of sentencing data are included to show the application of the sentencing schemes for each category of offense.

This memorandum provides information concerning second look sentencing.  Second look sentencing refers to sentence modification that occurs while an offender is serving his or her term of incarceration.  This memorandum briefly describes second look sentencing and discusses the differences between it and other forms of sentence modification.  The memorandum then explains second look sentencing schemes for juveniles in other states, describing Oregon’s scheme in detail, as well as discussing a recently created Colorado program for juvenile offenders.

This memo explains enhanced sentencing requirements for two different criminal offense categories: crimes of violence and habitual offenders. It also provides sentencing data for offenders convicted of crimes of violence or as habitual offenders between 2014 and 2016.  During this three year period, 416 offenders were sentenced to the Department of Corrections (DOC) for crimes of violence and 150 were sentenced to the DOC as habitual offenders. Sentencing data for these offenders are shown by crime, felony classification, sentencing range, and county

This section contains a current listing of misdemeanor offenses. Misdemeanor offenses are categorized as follows: class 1, class 2, class 3, and unclassified misdemeanors. The penalty for the commission of a misdemeanor offense depends on its classification. The penalty scheme for misdemeanors is indicated in Table 3 below

Crime Classification Guide for Class 3 Misdemeanors

Crime Classification Guide for Class 2 Misdemeanor Traffic Offenses

During the 2021 legislative session, the General Assembly considered measures related to K-12 education, including teacher pay, recruitment, and retention; early childhood education; COVID-19 response and recovery; school health policies; curriculum and content standards; and administration, governance, and reporting requirements.

Crime Classification Guide for Unclassified Misdemeanor Traffic Offenses

Crime Classification Guide for Unclassified Misdemeanors  

Crime Classification Guide for Class 1 Petty Offenses

The memorandum provides a summary of the laws and regulations regarding the hours of operation for licensed liquor, marijuana, and limited gaming businesses.

This memorandum memorializes the process for requesting and preparing greenhouse gas emissions reports (reports) pursuant to Section 2-2-322.3, C.R.S. It outlines the number of reports per session, the process for requesting reports, the preparation and timing of reports, and the preparation of revised and final reports.

This memorandum provides an overview of the process and methodology for drafting greenhouse gas emissions reports, pursuant to Section 2-2-322.3, C.R.S.  At the 2019 legislative session, House Bill 19-1188 was passed and signed by the Governor, which requires Legislative Council Staff to prepare greenhouse gas emissions reports on certain legislative bills starting at the 2020 legislative session. This memorandum provides an overview of the process and methodology for drafting greenhouse gas emissions reports, pursuant to Section 2-2-322.3, C.R.S.

Pursuant to House Bill 19-1184, Legislative Council Staff will prepare demographic notes for up to 20 bills each session beginning with the 2020 legislative session. This memorandum provides an overview of the demographic note process, including the process for requesting a demographic note, the content of a demographic note, and methodological considerations

This memorandum memorializes the process for requesting and preparing Demographic Notes (notes) pursuant to Section 2-2-322.5, C.R.S. It outlines the number of notes per session, the process for requesting notes, the preparation and timing of notes, and the preparation of revised and final notes.

Report No. 2024-TE2

Report No. 2024-TE3

Report No. 2024-TE4

Report No. 2024-TE4

This memorandum provides information on state government enterprises under Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution, also known as the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).  From FY 1993-94 through FY 2022-23, 33 state government entities had received enterprise status for at least one fiscal year.  In FY 2020-21, the most recent year for which financial data are available, enterprise revenue totaled $27.1 billion.