Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday signed 12 bills into law, including 11 companion measures that accompany the state budget and align the Long Appropriations Bill to state law.

The so-called “orbital” bills signed into law include:

• SB21-206 from Rep. Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, and Senator Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, which extends a continuous appropriation to the state Department of Education for three years;
• SB21-208 from Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, and Moreno, which transfers $100 million from the General Fund to the State Education Fund;
• SB21-211 from Herod and Moreno, which eliminates the $1,000 Medicaid adult dental benefit limit
• SB21-212 from McCluskie and Moreno, which maximizes matching federal dollars by requiring the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to align payments from the Primary Care Fund with Medicaid
• SB21-213 from McCluskie and Moreno, which extends a measure passed last year that required some cash funds to use the increased federal funds from the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to reduce General Fund obligations for the state’s Medicaid program
• SB21-214 from McCluskie and Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver, which authorizes a state payment to qualified hospice providers caring for those enrolled in Medicaid and eligible for care in a nursing facility but who are unable to find a bed in such a facility due to COVID-19
• SB21-217 from Herod, McCluskie, Hansen and Sen. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, which changes the requirement for a state Department of Human Services market rate study for the Colorado Child Care Assistance program from annually to tri-annually
• SB21-221 from McCluskie, Hansen and Rankin, which removes a $1 million limit for the state grant share of projects under the Forest Restoration and Wildfire Risk Mitigation Grant Program
• SB21-222 from Rep. Kim Ransom, R-Littleton, and Rankin, which repeals the requirement for an outside firm to conduct a recovery audit every three years, a program that has not been cost-effective in recent years
• SB21-223 from Ransom and Hansen, which allows Department of Revenue administrative tax hearings to be conducted via video conference
• and SB21-228 from McCluskie, Ransom, Hansen and Moreno, which creates a PERA Payment Cash Fund and fills it with $380 million from the General Fund. The bill also requires the State Treasurer to use those funds to make a $225 million payment to PERA on July 1, 2022.

In addition to the orbital bills, Polis also signed into law House Bill 21-1136, which changes the amount of time retired judges can perform assigned judicial duties without pay as well as the benefit increase those judges receive.

The bill comes from Rep. Kerry Tipper, D-Lakewood, and three members of the Colorado Springs delegation – Rep. Terri Carver and Sen. Bob Gardner, both Republicans, and Democratic Sen. Pete Lee. It cleared the General Assembly with bipartisan support in both chambers.