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
Republicans, who cracked the Democratic supermajority in the House in last fall’s election, claimed victory where they could. One proposal — controversial even among Democrats — to launch a lawsuit challenging the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights died without a floor vote. The trans rights bill lost some key provisions as the GOP minority rallied around parental rights.
Across the street from the Gold Dome, budget writers from both parties trimmed, hacked, massaged and pushed off payments to balance a budget that started $1.2 billion out of whack.
The session, which concluded Wednesday, didn’t end with the fireworks or drama of recent years. But that detracts nothing from its consequence.
Here are several major takeaways.
Blue Colorado shores up defenses
With the budget crunch acting as a fiscal check on any sweeping new policy, Democratic lawmakers instead devoted considerable time and energy to defending against current or likely impacts from new President Donald Trump’s administration.
Democrats didn’t always agree on how to shore up the state against Trump, said Sen. Kyle Mullica, a Thornton Democrat. But doing so was still a priority across the Democratic majority’s ideological spectrum.
Gov. Jared Polis signs Senate Bill 183 into law at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on Thursday, April 24, 2025. Joined by state lawmakers and advocates, he signed that bill, which allows public funding of abortion and implements a voter-passed constitutional amendment, and Senate Bill 129, which aims to give more protections to abortion providers and patients. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)“There was a lot of cohesion to really try … to make sure the people of Colorado were protected — that we’re not seeing that dysfunction at the federal level here at the state level,” Mullica said. “We’re going to continue to have to fight that, depending on what we see coming out” of Washington, D.C.
The result was a proactive defensiveness. The most direct example: the creation of a $4 million fund — which can be replenished by private donations — to support legal defense against federal action, including for state officials facing criminal investigations.
Democratic lawmakers also passed bills to enshrine into state law parts of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act and a Supreme Court decision protecting the rights of people with disabilities.
The Colorado Voting Rights Act, a state-level imprint of decades-old federal protections against discriminatory voting roadblocks, cleared the Capitol. So, too, did a Democratic priority bill that could slow federal immigration authorities’ work in Colorado, particularly if they’re not armed with warrants.
“Our response (to Trump’s election) is about protecting people’s civil rights, whether that’s a newly arrived individual from another country or a person from the LGBTQ community who deserves to have protections, (or) our disability community,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie said Thursday.
But there was fear, too, that those proactive measures would draw retribution. House Republicans repeatedly raised the specter of Trump cutting state funding if Democrats passed policies the president didn’t like, and the caucus sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi asking her to investigate Senate Bill 3, the session’s marquee gun bill.
“To try to be confrontational, to be prepared to sue at a moment’s notice — that, to me, is irresponsible,” Rep. Rick Taggart, a Grand Junction Republican, said of the majority’s legislation. “It’s much better to collaborate.”
Though Polis has expressed reservations about making Colorado a target for Trump, he defended legislators’ defensiveness Thursday: “This is important work.”
House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, center, and House Republican lawmakers discuss the legislative session during a news conference at the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)Trimming budget — and bracing for Congress’ cuts
Colorado’s $1.2 billion budget gap hung over the Capitol even before lawmakers settled in for the first day of the legislative session. And after the final gavel banged, finances remained a lingering worry for lawmakers as they eyed next year.
McCluskie, the House leader, praised legislative budget writers for their work Thursday during her post-session remarks. The state avoided making the deepest, most-feared cuts to priorities like education and health care.
When the dust settled, lawmakers had even increased funding for public schools and Medicaid providers.
But uncertainty about the future of the federal budget — and how it will affect Colorado’s Medicaid funding — looms, McCluskie said. Federal money makes up much of the state’s Medicaid budget.
“Our Joint Budget Committee made very difficult choices, but they made the right choices,” she said. “They protected core services and, as their good work came forward, it was clear to us we could protect our safety net and our public schools. But I will offer that the road forward is uncertain.”
House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, a Colorado Springs Republican, said at a separate post-session event that she expected more cuts next year as Colorado battles what GOP members see as a structural deficit.
“I think we will see in the June and September (fiscal) forecasts that the state’s budget picture will continue to deteriorate,” said Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Republican on the budget committee. “It’s going to be a very telling year because we’re going to have to make decisions necessary to prioritize the most important parts of the budget.”
The state’s budget could be the impetus for a third special session of the General Assembly in as many years — especially if federal cuts to Medicaid materialize.
“Depending on what Congress does — but almost certainly if some of these big cuts to Medicaid go through … we would likely need to reconvene,” Polis said Thursday. “… It’s in the hands of our congressional delegation.”
Gov. Jared Polis signs Senate Bill 2, a measure making it easier to construct factory-built structures, in front of the West Holden Place Modular Housing developing in Denver on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)Polis vs. the legislature
With roughly 18 months until Polis’ successor is elected, lawmakers this year began to treat the governor like the lame duck he will soon become.
The Joint Budget Committee largely set aside the governor’s budget proposal, including his contentious idea of privatizing the state’s workers’ compensation insurer. He’d also sought a substantial review of the state’s many regulations — only for a watered-down version to pass after critics inside and outside the Capitol compared it to Elon Musk’s DOGE effort for Trump.
A bill that would have cut tipped workers’ pay in Denver and other places to help restaurants was pulled to and fro before emerging as a neutered and battered compromise. Another proposal to promote housing on church land faded on the Senate calendar.
Even one of Polis’ nominations for the state’s Commission on Judicial Discipline was rejected. Meanwhile, lawmakers passed a labor bill that Polis has pledged to veto, and lawmakers came close to overriding the governor’s veto on a social media regulations bill.
All of that bucking is significant: Polis has long been deeply enmeshed in lawmaking, often to the frustration of Democratic legislators trying to navigate the governor’s frequent “concerns.”
“The three branches of government are three branches of government for a reason,” said Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat who sponsored multiple bills that drew concerns from Polis’ office. She said legislative Democrats had decided to fight back against Trump, and she accused Polis of taking a more “fawning” approach to the president.
Asked whether he was a lame duck Thursday, Polis seemed unfazed.
He’d successfully passed three-quarters of his housing agenda this year, he said. That included bills making it easier to build larger apartment buildings on small lots; a tricky debate about condominium construction that finally concluded; and a proposal, signed into law Thursday, to standardize modular housing regulations — a key step in boosting housing supply.
Polis joked that, though not all of his priorities passed, this session was better than 2023. That year, his — and the entire legislature’s — housing agenda collapsed in the final hours and days of the session.
“This was one of the better sessions in terms of meeting the needs of Coloradans,” the governor said.
Promises to make Colorado more affordable
The Democratic majority’s members and their Republican counterparts entered the 2025 session pledging to address affordability. Colorado voters have consistently ranked the state’s high cost of living as a top concern. Democrats — stung by a 2024 election that turned in part on economic concerns — touted their commitment to lowering costs as the legislature returned to work in January.
Though both professed a focus on affordability, Democrats and Republicans never agreed on how to achieve it. The Republican plan included repealing a slew of laws, including renter protections and shopping bag fees, in the name of affordability.
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“Tragically, but not surprisingly, Democrats chase to stand against the people in Colorado and our efforts to bring relief,” Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen said.
Democrats, meanwhile, celebrated the passage of legislation aimed at regulating certain hidden fees, along with a heavily amended proposal to blunt price gouging in specific circumstances. They also passed a bill to ban rent-setting algorithms that, research shows, drive prices higher for Denver renters. But Polis is leery of the idea, and, with a veto possible, the bill went unmentioned during a celebratory news conference Thursday.
“We passed legislation to crack down on wage theft so that workers are paid for the work that they do and what they are owed,” House Majority Leader Monica Duran said. “We boosted the incomes of workers in the home care industry and made it easier for workers on state construction projects to create bargaining agreements that increase pay and improve workplace conditions.”
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