Colorado lawmakers prioritized protecting the state’s agriculture industry in some of their first bill requests Monday through the Colorado Legislature’s Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee.
The 10-person committee is one of the leading entities in the legislature to address water and agricultural issues in Colorado. The committee can request up to five bills for drafting, which offers an early glimpse into their water and agricultural priorities ahead of the legislative session. Lawmakers proposed four, all focused on agriculture topics, like taxing ranches, regulating farmers markets and keeping farmland in production.
Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat, resurrected a bill idea, Senate Bill 29, that failed earlier this year.
The measure would have expanded the definition of “ranch” to make more types of ranches eligible for tax exemptions. Currently, people who raise certain animals, like pigs and chickens, for profit are not eligible for the same property tax relief options as other livestock operations, like cattle ranches.
The new bill will include more feedback from local officials, mainly county assessors, Roberts said.
“What we’re doing is trying to modernize the ag classification definition to better refine it and actually clean up some issues that county assessors have with the current definition,” Roberts said. “There are other types of agricultural producers in Colorado who don’t currently qualify for the ag classification and may want to.”
Rep. Matthew Martinez, a Democrat from Rio Grande County, pushed for more regulations for farmers markets, following a model set by New Mexico.
The Colorado Farmers Market Association currently operates independently, and lawmakers heard concerns about “counterfeit produce” being sold because of the lack of oversight. Martinez’s bill would add oversight by housing the association within the Department of Agriculture.
Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta County Republican, also took aim at “counterfeit produce,” referring to someone selling a geographically branded fruit or vegetable, like a Palisade peach, even though it’s not actually grown in the Palisade area.
His bill would allow the attorney general’s office to take enforcement action under consumer protection laws as a way to protect Colorado brands like Pueblo chiles, Olathe sweet corn and San Luis Valley potatoes.
Sen. Byron Pelton, a Republican from Logan County, focused on “protecting Colorado agriculture lands from excessive green energy projects.”
He suggested setting standards for how many renewable energy projects are happening in different areas of Colorado, like rural farmlands versus the Front Range.
For example, 55% of these projects might come from rural areas. Above that, if a landowner wants to add solar panels, they would need to use agrivoltaics, a type of solar array design that works in tandem with the needs of a productive farm or ranch.
“The whole point is to keep ag land in production,” Pelton said.
Lawmakers and legislative staff have until Oct. 8 to prepare financial analyses and draw up language for the bill drafts. Of the four bills requested Monday, the committee will be able to send three on to the Legislative Council Committee for approval to be introduced in the 2026 legislative session which begins Jan. 14. The committee will vote on which bills to introduce Oct. 29.
Individual lawmakers can also introduce their own bills outside of the committee-level process.