Hello everyone,
With less than 40 days left, we are over two-thirds of the way through the 2026 session. Even with a short week (both the House and Senate were off Friday for Good Friday), there was a lot of action last week.
The main action centered around the budget. The JBC worked late into the night Monday and into the evening on Tuesday trying to balance next year’s budget. On Wednesday, they finally closed out the Long Bill. In the end, the JBC did not fund any across-the-board salary increases for state employees for next year, although they did attempt to fund step increases. The JBC did fund the Trooper Pay Statute; however, most trooper job classes were at the 99% threshold and did not require any increase. To ensure no state employee takes home less pay, the JBC voted for the State to pay 100% of the increased costs for health, life and, dental insurance next year.
To balance the budget the JBC reduced the growth in Medicaid spending, lowered the statutory reserve from 15% to 13% freeing up $335.6 million, and transferred hundreds of millions of dollars from cash funds into the General Fund. We will know more once all the budget bills are introduced; however, with the reliance on one-time transfers of cash funds to supplement the General Fund, it is likely the JBC will be facing another shortfall next session.
With the budget finalized, on Thursday, the JBC introduced 61 orbital bills. The JBC cannot make substantive statutory changes in the Long Bill. As a result, they run orbital bills concurrent with the Long Bill to make the statutory changes needed to balance the budget. Any remaining orbital bills and the Long Bill are expected to be introduced today. The entire budget package will be debated in the House this week and in the Senate next week.
We had a big win last week. On Thursday, working with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, and the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, we were able to kill HB 1330 Alcohol Beverage Entertainment Districts on Third Reading in the House. HB 1330 would have modified the operational parameters for entertainment districts in Colorado by removing the 100-acre size limit, reducing minimum licensed premises square footage from 20,000 to 5,000 square feet, and allowing local authorities to set operating hours. The main concern of CSPA and our partners was that it would have greatly expanded local authorities’ ability to allow bars to remain open past 2 am. We were able to convince enough Representatives to vote “no” that the proponents did not have the 33 votes needed to pass Third Reading. The proponents again fell short when they tried to move for reconsideration. This is the third time in the past five years we have successfully killed an expansion of bar hours.
Other wins last week included following:
On Thursday, SB 026 Weight for Vehicles with Child Restraint System passed the House 64 to 0. SB 026 is a State Patrol agenda bill that CSPA supports that increases the gross vehicle weight rating for certain passenger vehicles required to have a child restraint system. SB 026 now goes to the Governor for his consideration.
Also on Thursday, SB 053 Colorado Housing & Finance Authority Mortgage POST Officers First Responders passed the House 51 to 13. SB 053, that CSPA supports, expands eligibility for loans through the Colorado Housing & Finance Authority to peace officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, noncertified deputy sheriffs, emergency communications specialists, and corrections officers regardless of income. SB 053 must go back to the Senate for consideration of House amendments and repassage before it can go to the Governor for his consideration.
So far, there have been 563 bills introduced – 409 in the House and 154 in the Senate. Only 37 more days until the General Assembly is required to adjourn sine die.
Bill Skewes
Lobbyist