House Finance advances insurance, transmission and safety bills and postpones private security measure; TABOR lawsuit debated

The House Finance Committee on June 1 considered a full slate of bills affecting insurance markets, energy transmission, road safety, wildlife collisions and criminal justice procedures, sending most measures to the Committee on Appropriations after votes largely along policy/technical lines.

The committee postponed House Bill 12‑62 — a bill that would have created baseline state regulation for the private security industry — at the sponsor’s request, clearing it “postponed indefinitely.” Representative Brooke Mabry, the bill sponsor, told the panel she wants to pause the proposal because the fiscal and administrative costs cannot be covered right now. “I’ll be asking the committee to postpone this bill today,” she said, noting the measure’s intent to require background checks and training but adding the state lacks startup funding.

The panel advanced several other bills, moving them to appropriations with recorded roll calls: House Bill 13‑02 (insurance enterprises to stabilize homeowners markets and subsidize home hardening) cleared committee 9–4; House Bill 12‑92 (state‑highway corridor access for high‑voltage transmission, with conditions) advanced 9–4; House Bill 13‑03 (crash‑prevention enterprise to fund vulnerable‑road‑user safety and wildlife crossings) advanced 8–5; and House Bill 12‑14 (narrow parole and short‑term incarceration reporting and alternatives) advanced 7–6. Separately the committee also approved House Bill 12‑68 (a clean‑energy retrofit funding package using unclaimed property funds under the terms adopted) 7–6.

The insurance package (HB 13‑02), presented by Representative Brown and supported by the state Insurance Commissioner, would establish two enterprises: one to fund home‑hardening grants to reduce hail and wind losses (the “Strengthen Colorado Homes” enterprise) and a wildfire catastrophe reinsurance enterprise to…