Education & Resources
POLICY UPDATES AND EDUCATIONAL ARTICLES TO HELP ORGANIZATIONS THRIVE
 Introduction
The end of this week means we are now through 14 weeks and 94 legislative days this session. More importantly (for some at least), the end of this week also means it’s Masters weekend. The House must be golf fans because after coming in for legislative work this past weekend they are not planning on doing that again this weekend. And taking off this weekend is even more fitting for the House because they share their color green with the Masters tournament. In case you didn’t know, the House chamber is covered in green and the Senate chamber is covered in red – matching the colors used in the House of Commons and the House of Lords in England. And in addition to the color of the carpet and wall panels, the Sergeants At Arms are also clad in their chamber’s color. That means that when the House Sergeants aren’t providing security, enforcing decorum, or kicking you out of a committee room, they could easily pass for Masters tournament champions in their green jackets. Moreover, you might not know that the House also has a tradition of passing down a green jacket between members, although this jacket that has gone between different members of Irish descent since 1974 is more of a pea-green than a classic Masters-green like the Sergeants. This year, Speaker McCluskie bestowed the mystical green jacket to Representative Weinberg. Legend holds that the jacket is sacred and contains the true luck of the Irish, and as such it is not allowed to be used for partisan advantage or leave the Capitol grounds. Additionally, the pockets of the jacket used to hold notes from all former wearers but it eventually became so much that a notebook containing the notes now accompanies the green jacket. We’ll let you be the judge of which green jacket club is more exclusive. Now here’s the news to know from the Capitol this week. House Budget Week This week, the House took its turn working through the budget, debating Senate Bill 206, also called the Long Bill. There were over 70 amendments offered throughout the debate, but only 13 amendments ultimately passed. Several of the amendments adopted in the House were similar to amendments also adopted in the Senate, such as restoring funding to the National Cybersecurity Center in Colorado Springs, increasing provider rates for occupational, physical, and speech therapies, and restoring funding for a capital construction project for the Colorado School of the Deaf and the Blind. However, some amendments added in the Senate didn’t make it onto the House’s version of the Long Bill. This includes an amendment that would have restored funding for obstetric services at the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in La Junta, which is planning to close its obstetric services this month. As expected, Republicans brought up several amendments to target their priority issues in the Long Bill such as immigration services and recently passed gun laws, but none passed. In total, the House debated the budget for a little more than 12 hours each day for second and third reading. Many were expecting the debate to last longer on both days, but caucus leadership had agreed ahead of time that if everyone was on their best behavior and didn’t request the 700 page Long Bill to be read at length, they could all stay home this weekend and watch the Masters instead of coming into work. Read more – House gives preliminary OK to $44 billion budget More Bill Signings And Veto Threats On Monday, Governor Polis signed Senate Bill 14, which implements Constitutional Amendment J from the 2024 election to repeal Colorado’s constitutional ban on same sex marriage. This overturns a previous constitutional amendment that was approved by voters in 2006, however that amendment was already technically null and void following the Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015. Read more – Gov. Jared Polis signs bill repealing constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Colorado On Thursday, Governor Polis signed Senate Bill 3, which is one of the most restrictive gun control measures to ever be passed in Colorado. As introduced, the bill would have banned the sale, distribution, or manufacture of guns that take a detachable magazine. Because Polis’ office indicated early on that the bill needed to be watered down in order to be signed, the bill was amended throughout the legislative process to remove the ban and instead require an extensive background check and completion of a safety course in order to purchase certain guns. Read more – Sweeping semiautomatic gun restriction signed into law by Colorado governor Also on Thursday, Governor Polis signed Senate Bill 33, which limits the number of grocery stores that are allowed to sell hard liquor, which received overwhelming support in both the House and Senate. However, Governor Polis echoed concerns from opposition to the bill in his signing statement, and expressed the need to find compromise between small, independent liquor stores, and big grocery store chains. Read more – Colorado governor signs bill halting expansion of hard liquor sales in grocery and big-box stores Although Senate Bill 5 must make it through the House before being sent to the governor, labor unions and other supporters of the bill have continued to apply pressure on Governor Polis to sign the controversial union-backed bill when it reaches his desk. But this week, it was time to bring out the big guns – U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. Earlier this week, an email to supporters from Sanders’ office encouraged Coloradans to contact Governor Polis and urge him to sign the bill, however, Polis has expressed several times that he'd like to see a compromise between labor unions and the business community. As a reminder, this bill would eliminate a requirement for a two election process in order for labor unions to negotiate with employers, by eliminating the second election in the current process. Read more – Bernie Sanders urges Coloradans to push Gov. Jared Polis to sign labor union bill Also earlier this week, Governor Polis signed House Bill 1005, which allows for $34 million in tax credits for film festivals that move to Colorado. This bill was a big priority for the Polis Administration for incentive purposes, as Boulder recently competed with Cincinnati and Salt Lake City to be home to the Sundance Film Festival. This was a movie-like ending for one of Polis’ priority bills, as it was announced a few weeks ago that Sundance would officially be coming to Boulder, Colorado. Read more – Colorado governor signs bill to support film festivals, including Sundance in Boulder Finally, Governor Polis also issued a veiled veto threat this week on a bill seeking to limit municipal court sentences that are longer than allowed in state courts. A previous bill (that Polis signed) lowered the possible sentence for several low level crimes but it only applied to state courts and not municipal courts. Now someone can face a vastly different sentence depending on where a law enforcement officer decides to send the ticket. Municipalities, not keen on anything infringing their local control and wanting to be able to sufficiently address public safety in their communities, have pushed back hard on House Bill 1147. Read more – Polis threatens to veto bill addressing sentencing disparities between Colorado’s state and municipal courts Big Bills Getting Their First Committee Hearing TABOR Lawsuit Resolution On Monday, House Joint Resolution 1023 cleared its first committee. The resolution directs the General Assembly to sue the state over the constitutionality of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). After hours of testimony, the resolution passed out of the House Finance committee on a vote of 7-6, with Democrat Representative Marshall joining Republicans in voting no on the resolution. Read more – Colorado Democrats’ bid to launch TABOR lawsuit clears first committee Several Bills on Vacancies Also on Monday, two bipartisan bills passed out of the House State, Civic, Military and Veteran Affairs committee to reform Colorado’s vacancy-filling process. The committee rejected a competing bill, which would reform the vacancy process through a constitutional amendment, which must be approved by voters. As a reminder, nearly a quarter of the legislature has been appointed to their seats via vacancy committee process, and the process has been the subject of criticism in recent years. Read more – Colorado lawmakers back new elections requirements for officials appointed to vacant seats School Finance Act Monday was a long day. On Monday afternoon, House Bill 1320 passed out of committee unanimously. The bipartisan bill is brought by House and Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle, and offers a solution to the uncertainty surrounding K-12 funding. However, some lawmakers have expressed doubt that the solution outlined in the bill is unsustainable, including Senator Kolker who is rumored to have his own draft proposal to address the issue. Read more – Education funding plan moves forward while some lawmakers doubt sustainability Is It 2026 Already? Lastly, in case you didn’t see the news there were some big announcements for the 2026 election this week. The biggest came today when U.S. Senator Michael Bennet officially announced he is running for Governor. Bennet joins Attorney General Phil Weiser in the Democratic Party primary. Read more – Sen. Michael Bennet is officially running for governor Bennet jumping in the Governor’s race scrambled the field of candidates looking at running. Joe Neguse and Ken Salazar floated the idea of running for Governor but that is less likely with Bennet now in the race. Additionally, Secretary of State Jena Griswold was initially looking at a run for Governor but in recent weeks had pivoted to a different race in anticipation of Bennet’s decision to run for Governor. And so the week kicked off with Griswold announcing that she will be running for the Democratic Party nomination for Attorney General. She joins Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty and former Speaker of the House Crisanta Duran in the primary so far. Read more – Jena Griswold is running to be Colorado’s next attorney general Watch out for even more potential announcements of current legislators seeking other offices as we get passed the budget and get towards the end of the session. Next Week Next week is very likely to be a short week at the Capitol. Good Friday is not an official holiday but the General Assembly traditionally does not work on that day. And it would be highly unusual to take off the Masters weekend but come in over Easter weekend. The Senate has already announced they will not be in on Good Friday. The House, on the other hand, likes to hold out the prospect of having to come in to keep members in line and will not officially announce their plans until later in the week. Some big things to watch out for next week include continued action from the Joint Budget Committee. They will meet as a conference committee on the Long Bill and orbital bills early next week and will also take up roughly 20 additional JBC bills that did not come out with the Long Bill orbital package. A bill could still be coming on the regulation AI and the Colorado Energy Office is still working on potential legislation to push emission reduction targets sooner. Plus several big committee hearings, floor debates, and an avalanche of bills that will start coming out of the appropriations committees. Have a good weekend. Comments are closed.
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