Dust barely settled from Colorado's 2025 legislative session, already talk of special session
Colorado's legislative session is over, now the fallout begins.
Lawmakers sent some 400 bills to Gov. Jared Polis' desk, and he's already announced he's vetoing one of them.
The bill, sponsored by Democrats, would change the state's Labor Peace Act to make it easier for unions to collect dues from non-union members. The governor said he wouldn't sign the bill without buy-in from both labor and business.
As Polis decides the fate of hundreds of bills, he's also warning lawmakers he might call a special session.
"We are watching what Congress does," Polis said during a press conference Thursday.
Polis says, if Congressional Republicans follow through on proposed spending cuts, he will likely reconvene the legislature to deal with impacts to programs such as Medicaid, which covers about one in five Coloradans.
"If we come back into a special session, it will clearly be on the Polis administration and the tax-and-spend Democrats in the legislature," said state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, a Republican who sits on the Joint Budget Committee.
Kirkmeyer says Democrats need to prioritize spending. While theTaxpayer Bill of Rights caps how much the state can spend, Democrats have hinted at a ballot measure to raise the cap after an effort by some members to dismantle TABOR altogether stalled in the Colorado House of Representatives.
"Thirty-one Democrat members of the House, 13 Democrat members of the Senate coming after TABOR, preview of coming attractions," state Sen. Paul Lundeen, a Republican, said during a press conference.
Republicans warned Democratic bills expanding protections for undocumented immigrants and transgender individuals could also cost the state federal funding. The governor worked to amend the bills and has not said if he will sign them.
Colorado Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie defended them.
"I think our response in the legislative session was about protecting people's civil rights -- whether that was a newly arrived individual from another country, or it was a person from our LGBTQ community," the Democrat said during a press conference.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Colorado last week over immigration policies and Colorado Attorney General's office has filed 18 lawsuits against the Trump administration.
Polis says he will work with the administration where possible. His priorities, Polis says, haven't changed. The first bill he signed post-session creates regional building codes for manufactured housing.
"Our challenges in Colorado around making housing more affordable, making our communities safer haven't changed," Polis said. "And who's in the White House doesn't affect the steps we need to take here."
In addition to federal spending cuts, some lawmakers are concerned an artificial intelligence law could also prompt a special session. Polis and the Attorney General asked the legislature to delay implementation of the law, which takes effect in February, but an eleventh-hour effort to do that failed.
In addition to the union bill, the governor has also expressed concerns about a bill regulating rideshare companies. He hasn't said if he will sign the bill, but Uber has threatened to leave the state if he does.
