C.R.S. § 10-4-2001: Legislative declaration.

(1) The general assembly:

(a) Finds and determines that:

(I) Increased greenhouse gas emissions and rapidly rising temperatures are changing the climate in ways that threaten Colorado's economy, the health of its residents, and its natural landscape;

(II) These temperature increases have an impact on Colorado's environment, with drought, heat waves, windstorms, wildfires, hail, and other extreme weather events increasing in recent years;

(III) The economic impacts of these increasingly frequent and severe weather events are significant;

(IV) Colorado property owners are faced with challenges in finding insurance coverage and increasing insurance premiums, undermining the ability to purchase, sell, and own a home;

(V) There is a need in the state to encourage investments in home hardening, which means making homes and communities more resilient to extreme weather events such as hail, windstorms, and wildfire, and includes science-based hail and wind mitigation measures designed to reduce insurer losses;

(VI) Making investments in home hardening will improve insurers' financial stability by decreasing losses that would otherwise be paid by the insurers;

(VII) Investments in home hardening will also encourage insurer participation and increase competition in the insurance market to offer coverage throughout the state to all Coloradans, resulting in long-term savings for homeowners and insurers;

(VIII) Targeting homes in high-risk areas for investments in home hardening will improve the overall stability of the homeowner's insurance market for insurers;

(IX) Data from North Carolina and Alabama has shown that providing assistance to strengthen roofs results in fewer claims and lower administrative expenses, which directly increases profits for insurers;

(X) Studying ways to reduce wildfire risk in high-risk areas of the state will reduce insurer losses and administrative expenses, thereby increasing insurer capacity statewide;

(XI) Accordingly, it is appropriate to finance a home hardening program through a fee imposed on insurers that offer multiperil homeowner's insurance policies in the state; and

(XII) The fee on insurers is reasonably related to the business services the strengthen Colorado homes enterprise is providing to insurers; and

(b) Declares that:

(I) The strengthen Colorado homes enterprise provides valuable business services and benefits to insurers when, in exchange for payment of the fee described in section 10-4-2003, the enterprise uses the fee revenue to:

(A) Reduce insurer losses and administrative expenses due to hail damage claims by defraying the cost of retrofitting residential property by providing grants for the installation of resilient roof systems;

(B) Analyze data on hail losses in the homeowner's insurance market to identify the areas of the state to target for the installation of resilient roof systems to maximize insurer savings;

(C) Set standards for resilient roof systems that insurers may rely upon and ensure that there is a workforce trained to certify for insurers that roofs meet those standards; and

(D) Create codes of conduct for roofing contractors to ensure roofs are properly and appropriately installed, which benefits insurers by reducing their claims losses;

(II) By providing the benefits and services specified in this part 20, the strengthen Colorado homes enterprise engages in activities conducted in the pursuit of a benefit, gain, or livelihood and therefore operates as a business;

(III) Consistent with the determination of the Colorado supreme court in Nicholl v. E-470 Public Highway Authority, 896 P.2d 859 (Colo. 1995), that the power to impose taxes is inconsistent with enterprise status under section 20 of article X of the state constitution, the general assembly concludes that the revenue collected by the enterprise is generated by fees, not taxes, because the money credited to the enterprise is:

(A) For the specific purpose of allowing the enterprise to defray the costs of providing the services described in this part 20;

(B) Collected at rates that are reasonably calculated based on the costs of the services provided by the enterprise; and

(C) Not state fiscal year spending, as defined in section 24-77-102 (17), or state revenues, as defined in section 24-77-103.6 (6)(c), and does not count against either the state fiscal year spending limit imposed by section 20 of article X of the state constitution or the excess state revenues cap, as defined in section 24-77-103.6 (6)(b), so long as the enterprise qualifies as an enterprise for purposes of section 20 of article X of the state constitution; and

(IV) No other enterprise created simultaneously or within the preceding five years serves primarily the same purpose as the enterprise, and the enterprise will generate revenue from fees and surcharges of less than one hundred million dollars total in its first five fiscal years. Accordingly, the creation of the enterprise does not require voter approval pursuant to section 24-77-108.