There are just five days left in Colorado’s 2025 legislative session and state lawmakers, ever the procrastinators, have a lot left on their plate.
Here are the top things The Colorado Sun is watching as the clock ticks down to Wednesday at 11:59 p.m., when the General Assembly heads home for the year.
The Labor Peace Act repeal remains in flux
It’s been nearly a month since there was any legislative action on Senate Bill 5, which would abolish a requirement in the Colorado Labor Peace Act that 75% of workers at a company sign off before unions can negotiate with businesses over union security. That’s when workers are forced to pay fees for collective bargaining representation —whether or not they are members of their workplace’s union.
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How the Colorado Labor Peace Act came to be and why unions want so desperately to get rid of it
Democrats in the Colorado legislature this year want to get rid of the requirement that unions take a vote before they can negotiate with an employer over imposing fees on all employees to pay for collective bargaining
Read moreThe measure is a priority for unions and loathed by business interests. Gov. Jared Polis has signaled he won’t sign the measure if it eliminates the union security vote. (Unions can form with a simple majority of support.)
All sides have been furiously trying to negotiate a compromise, but there are political complications. Business leaders know Polis likely won’t sign the bill and unions believe the next governor would be more receptive. That means there’s not much reason for either side to give in.
The business community has offered to lower the 75% threshold, which has thus far been rejected. But anything short of eliminating the union security vote would require a new bill. It takes a minimum of three days to pass a bill at the Capitol, so Monday is the last day a compromise measure could be introduced.
Right now, it looks like the House may just debate Senate Bill 5 as is. If the legislation passes, it would lead to a major showdown with Polis.
“We’re still at the (negotiating) table,” said state Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat and one of the lead sponsors of the measure. “But we’re running out of time. I would expect it to come up in the next couple days if we don’t have a deal.”
Will they or won’t they force a TABOR lawsuit
There was a lot of hoopla inside and outside of the Colorado Capitol when news broke that a group of Democrats were bringing a resolution that would direct the legislature’s lawyers to file a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. It may have been all for naught.
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Colorado taxpayers may have to pay for lawyers on both sides of Democrats’ lawsuit to dismantle TABOR
The lawsuit would essentially force taxpayers to pay for an effort to dismantle the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which was approved by voters in 1992
Read moreHouse Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, and House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, wouldn’t commit to bringing the resolution up for a vote on the House floor.
“We just have to look at what the timing that we have available,” Duran told reporters this week. “We’ve got a lot … that we need to get to.”
State Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat and a lead sponsor of the resolution, said she hasn’t been told that it won’t get a vote. But if and when that happens, she said she’ll “totally” bring it back next year.
“Along with other things” attempting to dismantle TABOR, she said.
Remember: Even if the resolution passes the House, it still has to go to the Senate. And that may be the real hold up.
Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, D-Denver, told his caucus Friday that the amount of time it would take to debate the resolution, and how it would force vulnerable Senate Democrats to take a potentially politically damaging vote, make him inclined to table it.
“It’s dead. It’s not coming to this chamber,” he said matter of factly. “I’m not pulling it up on the floor to burn another bill.”
State representatives debate legislation in the Colorado House on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Denver, Colorado.(Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)Other Senate Democrats asked him to reconsider. Sen. Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins, pleaded with Rodriguez and her colleagues to let the resolution move forward.
“People can vote how they want on it,” she said. “I think it’s really important.”
State Sen. Tony Exum, a Colorado Springs Democrat, fired back: “You’re in a safe seat.”
“TABOR is killing us,” Kipp said.
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Maybe in God’s Backyard
The governor’s big housing bill this year is the “Yes In God’s Backyard” measure, which would override local planning laws and allow religious institutions to build housing on their land whether it’s zoned for residential construction or not. It’s a priority for Polis.
But House Bill 1169 is stalled in the Senate because the proponents lack enough votes to pass it. So, for now, it would be more appropriate to call it the “Maybe in God’s Backyard” bill.
“Still counting votes,” Exum said.
Senate President Pro Tem Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Commerce City Democrat, is one of the swing votes. She’s opposed to the measure right now.
Michaelson Jenet said the pressure to back the measure has been intense. She even got a call from her rabbi asking her to support the policy.
State Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City, speaks to reporters about Senate Bill 63, which aims to prevent book bans in public schools by requiring that local communities to have written policies on the acquisition, use and removal of library resources. Michaelson Jenet, surrounded by sponsors and supporters of the measure, was speaking at the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)The holdup is local governments. They’re worried about giving up local zoning control. That also has to do with how the measure would allow public schools and universities to bypass local zoning laws as well.
Kevin Bommer, who leads the Colorado Municipal League, said the measure doesn’t do enough on affordability and it doesn’t ensure antidiscrimination.
“We hope that one of these days folks under the Gold Dome might realize we can get so much more done with partnership, not preemption,” he said.
Immigration, transgender rights, artificial intelligence and drugs
Here are a few other things percolating in the legislature that could lead to big fights in the next few days:
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Uber says it will exit Colorado if bill aimed at boosting rideshare safety becomes law
The California-based company says it could not comply with House Bill 1291 and the measure would pose too big a legal risk. It has never pulled out of a state before.
Read more Uber’s threat to pull out of Colorado, as well as skepticism from Polis, has stalled a bill aimed at boosting rideshare safety, including by requiring drivers to make audio and video recordings of trips and prohibiting drivers from offering passengers drinks and snacks. House Bill 1291 had been awaiting a preliminary vote before the full Senate for more than a week as of Friday at 9 p.m. Big changes were planned. Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, D-Denver, this week unveiled his long-awaited bill that would tweak Colorado’s first-in-the-nation artificial intelligence law. The measure is awaiting its first committee hearing. Rodriguez is working on amendments to the high-stakes legislation, which has skeptics in both business and consumer advocacy circles. The most controversial provision in House Bill 1312, which seeks to protect transgender people in Colorado from discrimination, was stripped from the measure Wednesday night in a Senate committee. But the legislation is still likely to face blowback from Republicans as it is debated on the Senate floor. In fact, even LGBTQ advocates take issue with parts of the measure, meaning more changes are needed before it can pass. The bill would prohibit transgender people from being misgendered or called by the name they used before they transitioned at work or in school, also known as deadnaming. The big provision removed from the measure this week had to do with family court consequences for parents who misgender or deadname their trans children. The House still must take up a bill brought by Democrats that aims to shield people living in the U.S. illegally in Colorado from deportation by seeking to limit where federal immigration agents can operate and blocking local governments from sharing personal data with the federal government. The measure is expected to pass, but Republicans on Friday were eating up precious time debating the bill — time that the Democratic majority doesn’t really have to spare. Cheap drugs! Now that I have your attention, the legislature in the coming days must decide on a pair of bills regarding 340B, a prescription discount program. Senate Bill 71 would effectively leave the program intact and prohibit pharmaceutical companies from limiting which pharmacies can carry their prescriptions. Senate Bill 124 would add transparency requirements for hospitals that use the program and decrease the number of pharmacies that hospitals can use to distribute medications under 340B. Both measures are stalled in the Health and Human Services Committee.☀️ READ MORE
What’s Working: Colorado’s imports and exports to China continue to drop in 2025
4:00 AM MDT on May 3, 20257:02 PM MDT on May 2, 2025Trump administration sues Denver and Colorado for allegedly interfering in immigration enforcement
9:11 PM MDT on May 2, 20259:11 PM MDT on May 2, 2025Most controversial provision cut from Colorado transgender rights bill — and more changes are still likely
2:30 PM MDT on May 2, 20252:30 PM MDT on May 2, 2025The other TABOR measure that wasn’t
One bill that would have been a big deal at the end of this year’s legislative session but won’t be introduced would have asked voters in November to let the state keep 10% of TABOR refunds to pay for rural hospitals and transportation projects.
State Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat and chair of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, was behind the proposal. He said the aim was to make sure the state doesn’t have to cut more services. That becomes more urgent if Congress cuts Medicaid funding.
“This legislation could potentially be part of that answer,” Bridges said. “But it’s extraordinarily late in session and it’s fairly incendiary to the other side. We’re working on ways to address the larger challenge early next session.”
But Democratic leadership in the Senate blocked the bill from being introduced. Senate President James Coleman, D-Denver, said it boiled down to there being not enough time and too much to do.
Senate President James Coleman, D-Denver, attends a news conference about a bill that would require emergency abortion access at the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Monday, April 14, 2025. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)“I think it could be a big fight on the floor and I want to make sure that we have time to get all of our policies done,” Coleman said.
Coleman conceded that the idea had been presented to him earlier in the session, but he hadn’t followed up with the sponsors until recently — when, in his eyes, there wasn’t enough time left.
Part of the delay was the competing TABOR measures being considered by Democrats, Bridges said.
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Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The big bills Colorado’s legislature has to deal with before the 2025 lawmaking term ends Wednesday )
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