Colorado Legislative Strategies Newsletter - Week Seven

Introduction
Week seven at the Capitol was a short week masquerading as a long week. The Capitol was closed Monday for Presidents’ Day but the rest of the week was filled with long committee hearings, blistering cold, and enough snow on Friday morning to cause a delayed start. 
Undaunted by the snow, however, the House trekked in on Friday for a ridiculously long debate on the super important work for the state right now of condemning the January 6 pardons. It’s not like we have a budget deficit over a billion dollars to deal with or anything. 
We talk about bills a lot because, well, bills become law. But there are also resolutions. So far there have been 37 introduced this year. A concurrent resolution does seek to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot but the vast majority of those resolutions just pertain to the business of the chamber or recognize things like military appreciation and other holidays. 
And then there are some resolutions that express the will of one or both chambers. It’s basically the legislative equivalent of Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy in The Office. But politicians can’t help themselves and multiple resolutions targeting the Trump administration took up a substantial amount of floor time this week. 
The total number of bills also continued to tick up this week. We are now at 460 total bills, 282 in the House and 178 in the Senate. 
Here’s the big news to know from this long-short week at the Capitol. 
More Bad Budget News
First the bad news. The budget deficit is probably closer to $1.2 billion now. This week, state officials told the Joint Budget Committee that Colorado will need to spend an additional $73 million on Medicaid this budget year. And Medicaid costs are now expected to be $86 million more for next budget year. Medicaid costs are the biggest driver of the budget deficit. 
Read more – Colorado’s budget hole is now $1.2 billion, as Medicaid costs continue to climb
Construction Defect Battle Returns
Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” But if he were around today he’d probably have to add the issue of construction defects legislation in Colorado too.  
Last year there were dueling construction defect bills that both ultimately died. This week, once again two dueling construction defect bills were introduced. 
On Tuesday, House Bill 1272 was introduced with a powerhouse set of sponsors and the support of Governor Polis. Representative Bird has been leading this effort to rewrite construction defect liability rules for condos built in a certain price range. It’s a different approach than the bill that died last session with more options than mandates. 
Also on Tuesday, House Bill 1261 was introduced with powerful sponsors from the progressive left. That bill, like last year, seeks to make it even easier for homeowners to bring construction defect lawsuits. At the outset, Governor Polis has signaled opposition to this bill.
Governor Polis’ support for 1272 and opposition to 1261 sets a different tone for the dueling bills and will probably lead to a different result than last year. Additionally, 1272 has several Democrat and Republican co-sponsors as well. 
Read more – How Colorado lawmakers and the governor want to incentivize the construction of affordable condos
Read more – Colorado construction defects battle returns as one bill aims to ensure homes are “built right in the first place”
Senator Jaquez Lewis Resignation
The other big news this week is something you are probably familiar with by now, but just in case – on Monday night/early Tuesday morning Senator Jaquez Lewis officially resigned from her seat representing Senate District 17. The announcement came just a few hours before the ethics committee was set to go through all the evidence that has been compiled in the ethics complaint that was filed against her. 
Her resignation also came right after it was discovered that she likely fabricated at least one of the letters of support that she submitted with her answer to the complaint. This was in addition to several members of the committee describing her responses in the answer as concerning. 
It was a bizarre ending to a bizarre political career. First elected to the House in 2018, she jumped to the Senate in 2020, and was just re-elected in 2024. She never faced a primary race and won over two-thirds of the vote in each general election, despite the fact she was one of the most controversial legislators throughout her time at the Capitol. 
Eastern Boulder County has had an interesting stretch of legislators lately who were forced to resign. If you recall, Tracey Bernett took Jaquez Lewis’ house seat when she moved to the Senate. Bernett then subsequently resigned and was convicted of a felony for fraud after she lied about residing in an apartment in the district she rented for residency purposes. 
A vacancy committee will be convened to choose a new Senator for the district. That appointment will be the fifth vacancy appointment for this legislative session.
​Conclusion
Have a good weekend.