“There's been a lot of movement, a lot of discussions,” the Boulder Democrat said during a media availability Tuesday morning. “I've been meeting with just about every single one of my members of my caucus in one way or another to talk about where the support is and what people want to do."
For the past three months, the state's geographic naming board, which would review proposals for changing names on natural places, has been hashing out how they would make those decisions.
The House Agriculture, Livestock and Water Committee on Monday unanimously voted to give preliminary approval to measures seeking to pump state stimulus dollars into water projects and agricultural events.
When Penrose Republican Rep. Ron Hanks ran for Congress in California in 2010, his answers to a survey on abortion, guns, gays and unions might be a surprise to his constituents and maybe even to some of his fellow members in the House caucus.
In a news conference organized by the National Federation of Independent Business, leaders of chambers in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction as well as business owners in Denver and Englewood came together to push back on what NFIB Colorado state director Tony Gagliardi described as “a legislative attack on the Colorado small business community by the Democratic majority.”
The new laws are tied to House Bill 1106, which requires safe storage of guns in households with minors; and Senate Bill 78, which requires firearms owners to report when their weapons are lost or stolen within five days.
Here are legislative committee hearings and other events of note for the week ahead at the Colorado state Capitol.
Jena Griswold just might be the most polarizing figure in Colorado politics today.
What's been happening at the statehouse this week? Check our handy guide to all the Colorado Politics coverage of the 2021 session.
The lighter side of the capitol, usually.
Rep. Jeni James Arndt, D-Fort Collins, resigned her House District 53 seat on Friday after a morning tribute from lawmakers, past and present.
Where are Colorado legislators at in passing the state budget? How does Gov. Jared Polis' upcoming election season come into play? And what does any of this have to do with WuTang Clan and the Notorious B.I.G.?
Ernest Luning: "Ten years ago this month, Colorado's political world might not have been any kinder, but the pace and daily pressure seem gentler, if only through the gauze of the years."
House Bill 21-1263 from Reps. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, and Matt Soper, R-Delta, would provide a 10% rebate of hard costs and 25% rebate for COVID-19-related safety expenses for meetings, conferences, weddings and events that generate at least 25 overnight stays in Colorado hotels.
Enactment of the legislation comes 15 years after an intense lobbying effort killed a similar attempt at increasing the length of time survivors had to sue for their injuries.
Joey Bunch: "What if taxpayers up and down the Front Range won’t help pay for commuter rail, the way they haven't been willing to pony up for highways?"
The wait may finally be near an end for hundreds of farmers and ranchers whose livelihoods have hung in the balance more than a decade because of the state's conservation easement program.
The cost of community college will remain the same in Colorado, after the state system's governing board voted Wednesday to keep tuition flat the upcoming school year.
The Mending Roots Forest Project hopes to plant 200 trees to remember young people killed by guns in Denver. The living memorial in northeast Park Hill would be called the Mending Roots Forest.
Senate Bill 244 would provide health benefits to legislative aides, most of whom earn about $15 per hour, not enough to afford health insurance on their own. But in order to make them eligible for health benefits, Democrats had to do one other thing.
The $800 million set aside in the 2021-22 budget for the Colorado Recovery Plan is starting to take shape.
Senate Bill 21-123 seeks to build on a program signed into law in 2019 that would allow Coloradans to import prescription drugs from Canada. The state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing estimates that would give consumers access to medications that would be on average 61% cheaper than in the United States. But that program has yet to be fully implemented in the state with a holdup based largely at the federal level.
It's the first time since 2017 that the Senate has been more or less united in its support of the state budget bill.
The House Monday gave preliminary approval to Senate Bill 124, which would change the felony murder statute from a sentence of life in prison without parole to a maximum of 48 years.
Here are legislative committee hearings and other events of note for the week ahead at the Colorado state Capitol.
Senate President Leroy Garcia hailed the introduction of bipartisan legislation to create, manage and maintain a passenger rail line from the New Mexico to Wyoming border with stops up the Front Range.
Legislation that seeks to apply aspects of the congressional and state legislative nonpartisan redistricting plan to districts drawn for some county commissions has moved one step closer to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk after advancing out of a Senate panel last week.
The lighter side of the state Capitol, usually.
After several tries, the bill to set up the Colorado Option Health Benefit Plan got its first hearing Friday in the House Health & Insurance Committee in a 10-hour hearing that drew more than 100 witnesses.
A House panel on Thursday gave preliminary approval on broad bipartisan lines to a bill seeking to add regulations to marijuana delivery services over the vehement objections of minority business owners, entrepreneurs and advocates in the marijuana space.
House Bill 1102 started out as an effort to force the dozen pet stores that still sell kittens and puppies to stop getting animals from mills, although pet store owners testified in a Feb. 25 hearing that they use reputable breeders.
The fight over House Bill 1232, the so-called public option bill, has been waged in newspapers and TV ads over the past several months, and Friday, the fight heads inside the state Capitol as the bill goes before the House Health and Insurance Committee for its first hearing.
Galindo was elected to the House District 50 seat in November, 2018 and served until May 12, 2019, when she resigned in the wake of several accusations, including the alcohol complaint and that she had sexually assaulted an adult campaign worker. Galindo had been in a consensual relationship with that worker.
Colorado Politics has launched a weekly conversation on the top news coming from the #COpolitics universe, and this week's installment features legislative reporters Pat Poblete and Marianne Goodland along with senior writer Joey Bunch.
In the last week, negotiations have produced one strike-below amendment — basically, a rewrite of the original bill — that sources say is being scrapped in favor of a second one, and whether that will be ready for primetime Friday or whether the sponsors go back to the original bill is anyone’s guess. Here are the differences between those two versions.
A year after the Joint Budget Committee was tearfully forced to take a massive $3.4 billion ax to the general fund, lawmakers went on a spending spree Thursday while hammering out details on Senate Bill 205. By day's end, the Senate had added $33.5 million to the budget, with $21.8 million coming from general fund dollars.
A House panel on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a bill seeking to create a state government agency to help acclimatize immigrants, refugees and their children into Colorado.
After five months of work, the Joint Budget Committee on Wednesday showed off the fruits of their labors: the $34.1 billion 2021-22 state budget, as contained in Senate Bill 205 and 23 "orbitals;" changes in statute to help balance the budget.
Colorado legislators have had much to face this session, and statehouse reporter Marianne Goodland has been there every step of the way, showing the lighter side of the state Capitol ... usually. Find a selection of her columns from this session.
“I am honored to serve Governor Polis and the State of Colorado at such a key moment in our state’s economic climate," Meyers said in a statement Wednesday. "I share Governor Polis’ optimistic view of the bright economic opportunities ahead for Colorado and, along with the OEDIT team, I am committed to building back a strong and dynamic economy that serves all of Colorado.”
Arndt told Colorado Politics the most common question she was asked when she announced her mayoral candidacy was why she would do that when she had just won re-election to the House.
Senate Bill 21-188 from Sen. Jessie Danielson seeks to build on legislation the Wheat Ridge Democrat championed in 2019 that allows voters with disabilities to access a ballot online. Under Danielson's Senate Bill 19-202, a ballot can then be marked, printed and returned, which allows voters with disabilities to cast a ballot privately and independently.
The sponsors of school discipline accountability bill at the Colorado Capitol said Tuesday that the need is real, but the timing isn't right, and they'll scuttle the legislation for this year.
The bill wasn’t backed by the working group charged with coming up with solutions to the problems the program has generated over the past 20 years. That’s caused some hard feelings and accusations of bad faith.
After a unanimous vote to approve amendments added by the House, the state Senate voted along party lines on final passage of a bill requiring firearm owners to report to law enforcement within five days of learning their gun has been lost or stolen.
In anticipation of Congress creating a Space National Guard in the upcoming federal defense spending legislation, lawmakers on Monday took steps toward enshrining the space reserve corps in state law.
A bill that cleared the House State, Civics, Military & Veterans Committee on Monday would require the governor and his successors to take a more balanced look at appointment to boards and commissions.
Senate Bill 21-078 would require owners of lost and stolen firearms to report the weapon’s model, serial number, caliber and manufacturer to law enforcement. Failing to report would merit a $25 fine for the first incident, and would be a misdemeanor crime on subsequent occasions, with a fine of up to $500.
An omnibus bill to ban plastic bags, polystyrene or Styrofoam containers and to allow local governments to impose stricter requirements around plastics recycling is moving through the House but is garnering way more opposition than a trio of bills that attempted the same things last year.
Despite a lot of razzing, or maybe because of it, a bill by Rep. Dave Williams, R-Colorado Springs, on allowing a lieutenant governor nominee to run for another office won a 44-19 vote of approval from the House Monday
