Four big dynamics drove Colorado lawmakers’ session, from defending against Trump to boosting affordability
Another regular session of the Colorado legislature has adjourned for the year. In the words of Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez: “Thank God it’s over.”
During the 120-day session, Democrats pushed through several hot-button policies aimed at restricting the purchase of certain semiautomatic firearms, further fortifying abortion rights, and expanding protections for transgender Coloradans and immigrants. A state senator from that party resigned under a cloud of allegations that she mistreated aides and falsified statements of support.
Lawmakers also nearly issued the first veto override of Gov. Jared Polis’ seven-session tenure as part of a greater bucking of the state’s chief executive that also included sidestepping his desire to delay new artificial intelligence regulations. Like every year, tensions rose at times — both among elected officials and the public
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Gov. Jared Polis’ coming labor bill veto will strain Democrat’s labor ties — and set stage for ballot fight
Gov. Jared Polis is set to veto a pro-union bill that Democratic lawmakers have urged him to sign, a move that will strain his increasingly contentious relationship with organized labor in Colorado and set the stage for a 2026 ballot fight.
Polis told reporters Thursday, a day after lawmakers adjourned for the year, that he will soon make good on his session-long threat to reject Senate Bill 5, since it is reaching his desk without amendments he’d urged. The proposal, which would make it easier for organized workers to negotiate union dues with their employers, passed the House with total Democratic support Tuesday after negotiations between Polis, labor unions and business leaders collapsed.
The governor has said he wouldn’t sign SB-5 unless business groups were comfortable with its provisions. But those groups rejected Polis’ final compromise offer.
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Legal experts say Trump is unlikely to win Colorado lawsuit against “sanctuary” policies. But he may not care.
Constitutional lawyers say a lawsuit the Trump administration filed last week to challenge immigration enforcement policies in Colorado and Denver has little chance of success if the courts follow past rulings in similar cases.
But that may not be the goal, they say.
“By using litigation as a way to inflict pain, one might accomplish policy goals even if you end up losing,” said Martin Katz, a professor who teaches constitutional law at the University of Denver.
The Colorado lawsuit, similar to one launched three months ago against local and state governments in Chicago, was filed Friday in U.S. District Court against Gov. Jared Polis, Attorney General Phil Weiser, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and other city officials. President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice takes issue with laws at the local and state levels.
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Colorado legislature ends with an AI fizzle as delay falters — further stoking talk of a special session
Colorado lawmakers wrapped up the 2025 legislative session Wednesday evening, but not before calls for a special session rang out over an impasse on first-in-the-nation regulations for artificial intelligence — and amid resignation over likely funding cuts soon to come from the federal government.
The legislature passed nearly 500 bills in its 120 days of work, which ended about 7:20 p.m. as the House adjourned, shortly after the Senate. They ranged from the relatively mundane to sweeping legal protections for marginalized Coloradans in the face of federal immigration crackdowns. A gray fiscal cloud hung over lawmakers and their lawmaking as they passed a budget that cut $1.2 billion from planned spending and grappled with how to craft policies that cost no money.
But the most dramatic fireworks were saved for a bill that died Monday.
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Bipartisan vote kills governor’s plan to lower homeowners insurance costs in Colorado
A legislative effort to attack rising property insurance costs in Colorado failed in the last days of the session.
The bill, which was supported by Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway, would have tacked a 1% fee onto property insurance policies statewide, increasing the average premium by $32 per year. The administration believed the fees ultimately would have lowered skyrocketing homeowners insurance costs.
House Bill 1302 died Tuesday in a Senate committee hearing at which Democrats joined Republicans to defeat the measure.
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Colorado House attempts late-night move to delay AI regulations, but effort fails
In a dramatic 11th hour move, House Democrats late Tuesday night tried to resurrect a dead-and-buried plan to slow Colorado’s first-in-the-nation artificial intelligence regulations from taking effect — a day after a senior Democratic lawmaker killed the planned delay and threw parts of the Capitol into chaos.
But the plan collapsed in even more dramatic fashion: The House needed to insert the regulatory delay into an unrelated bill before midnight to ensure it had time to pass before the legislature adjourns Wednesday night. But another House Democrat effectively filibustered the effort until the clock struck midnight, ending the attempted bill hijacking.
The late drama escalates what had already been a tense showdown between the legislature and a swath of senior Democratic politicians and the tech industry. It throws the implementation of Colorado’s first-in-the-nation AI regulations into further uncertainty as the legislature moves into the session’s final day.
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Colorado trans protections bill, after difficult journey through Capitol, is heading to Gov. Jared Polis
Colorado lawmakers passed much-amended legislation that would provide new antidiscrimination protections to transgender Coloradans on Tuesday, overcoming late roadblocks to send the measure to Gov. Jared Polis.
House Bill 1312 passed its last vote in the state Senate on the legislative session’s penultimate day, and late Tuesday it cleared a final procedural hurdle in the House.
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In cash-strapped Colorado, lawmakers tap an unorthodox pot of money for priorities. But is it too risky?
Facing a $1.2 billion budget gap this year, Colorado lawmakers turned to a source of money they had mostly ignored for the past several years to pay for some priorities: the unclaimed property trust fund.
The legislature looks poised to tap the fund for two bills in the waning days of the legislative session, even as critics — chief among them Treasurer Dave Young — argue against drawing from a fund made up of lost money, not taxes, to cover the cost of government services.
The trust fund holds money from Coloradans’ old savings accounts, unpaid wages, insurance payouts and other cash lost on the way to its rightful owners. The treasurer’s office has a long-running program to return that money called the Great Colorado Payback.
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Colorado House advances labor bill after negotiations collapse with business leaders, Gov. Jared Polis
Negotiations over a pro-union bill in the Colorado House collapsed over the weekend after labor officials rejected Gov. Jared Polis’ attempt to expand talks to include other deeply contentious pieces of legislation.
Democratic lawmakers on Monday instead pushed forward to pass the bill, potentially setting up a veto showdown.
The policies that the governor tried to reopen included cuts to restaurant workers’ wages, an expansion of charter schools, and privatizing the state’s last-resort insurer for workers’ compensation. The details of the discussions were confirmed by five people with direct knowledge of them, including House Speaker Julie McCluskie and bill sponsor Rep. Jennifer Bacon.
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