A future pay raise for state and county officials and more oversight for child-welfare investigations are among five Colorado laws that took effect with the new year. The state’s minimum wage got an immediate boost.
In one of the last bills to pass in the 2015 legislative session, the beginning in 2019.
The salary increases for lawmakers and the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer are tied to a percentage of whatever the chief justice of the state Supreme Court and county court judges are paid in 2019.
If the formula was in effect in 2015, Gov. John Hickenlooper would have been paid $116,687 a year instead of $90,000; Attorney General Cynthia Coffman would have gotten $101,998 instead of $80,000; and the other state elected officers would have made $88,430 instead of $68,500.
Legislators’ pay would have been $38,117 instead of $30,000 a year.
Senate Bill 288 also included pay increases for county officials, including clerk and recorder and sheriff, based on the size of a county and other factors.
Two child-welfare measures went into effect. One for child and family investigators, adding $27,580 for the state judicial system, $12,500 for trial court programs and $131,419 for court costs, jury costs and court-appointed lawyers.
The law cuts $143,919 that had been designated for court-appointed lawyers used by the Office of the Child’s Representative.
Another new law requires any child missing from foster care or other out-of-home placement , so that the disappearance can be forwarded to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI and other authorities.
Two transportation-related measures also went into effect, one and another adopting standards to more readable.
Separately, Colorado’s minimum wage automatically increases with the new year from $8.23 per hour to $8.31 per hour. The minimum wage for tipped employees will increase from $5.21 to $5.29 per hour.
The state Constitution mandates that the minimum wage rates be automatically adjusted for inflation each year.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or @joeybunch
