The Colorado Senate on March 20 concurred with House amendments to Senate Bill 68 and then repassed the measure, which concerns allowing municipally owned utilities to voluntarily elect to participate in a program for unclaimed utility deposits.

Sponsor and floor leaders said the House clarified language to avoid conflating municipally owned utilities with privately owned utilities. After reviewing the House edits, the Senate agreed the changes addressed that concern and moved to concur.

Why it matters: the bill aims to ensure customers receive refunds of utility deposits they are entitled to while clarifying how the program should treat municipally owned utilities versus private utilities.

Key details: Senator Snyder moved that the Senate concur with House amendments. A floor speaker described the change as a cleanup to avoid a “conflation or a misunderstanding between a municipally owned utility and a privately owned utility” and said the House language resolved that issue. The Senate voted to concur with the House amendments; the clerk announced a roll call of 33 ayes, 0 no, 0 absent, 1 excused, and 1 vacant for the concurrence motion. The Senate later moved for repassage of Senate Bill 68; that motion passed with the same tally announced for repassage: 33 ayes, 0 no, 0 absent, 1 excused, and 1 vacant.

Procedure and votes: concurrence motion adopted (33‑0 roll call, 1 excused, 1 vacancy). Repassage also recorded as 33 ayes, 0 no, 0 absent, 1 excused, 1 vacant.

What’s next: the bill will be enrolled or transmitted per legislative process steps following repassage.