The third day of the Colorado Legislature’s special session continued to run at a stud pace on Saturday.
After moving to shut down long Republican opposition, House leaders have shepherded through a Democrat’s priority tax change package and sent to state senators by Saturday afternoon. The tax bill, which targets the wealthiest taxpayers and various business-friendly incentives, would raise $250 million as part of Democrats’ triple plan to fill the $783 million budget hole opened by a tax bill signed by President Donald Trump last month.
At the same time, a small group of lawmakers and lobbyists worked to find a way to fix Colorado’s first and extremely worsening artificial intelligence regulations. The bill, backed by progressive lawmakers and the Senate’s second-ranked Democrat, was waiting for a vote in the Senate’s Approvals Committee on Saturday. However, democratic support for the committee was volatile, and supporters of the bill were working to finish the amendments to alleviate concerns from their enemies.
The slow progression of the House votes left the senators mostly drifting away on most days. With the exception of the AI ​​bill, the senators put their thumbs up and waited for the house to send them tax reform bills.
By the afternoon, House leadership had pulled the procedural levers to end the debate and rushed along the laws of their suffering to end the heightened tensions within the chamber. Senate leaders then made their own moves to fix their backlog. They attacked one Democrat from the Approval Committee that opposed the AI ​​bill and traded it for two others.
Sen. Robert Rodriguez, a Democratic majority leader and sponsor of the AI ​​bill, said his proposal was only part of the reason he relocated the committee.
“AI was one thing,” he said. Several other bills, including all revenue competitors, have been routed to Senate spending. “It had to be a bigger size because it was a very narrow committee.”
Saturday is the third day of the special session and is expected to grow until next week. The dual purpose of the session – adapting to federal tax bills and amendments to state AI regulations – has led to parallel policy debates.
Democrats are very much aligned with raising revenues by limiting or eliminating business-friendly tax rules. But Republicans in Congress are opposed. So it’s a slow start on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the AI ​​debate encourages duel bills from different coalitions of Democrats, which debate is primarily unfolding behind the scenes. One is supported by more advanced lawmakers, and is currently seeking delays in existing regulations and seeking to prevent discrimination by AI systems that affect employment or lending decisions.
Others are supported by progressive lawmakers and alliance groups, calling for more disclosure from AI companies and stricter rules to prevent discrimination.
The path forward remained elusive. After a large meeting and negotiation, both bills remained in scope by Saturday night.
Lack of revenue
The first half of Saturday revolved around discussions on the tax bill. In the early afternoon, only one Democrat revenue writer moved to the Senate. The Democrats said the first package is essential to avoid cutting core state services.
“80% of the tax credits from Trump’s bill came to businesses, adding up about $1 billion in losses in Colorado’s revenue,” said Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat. “So it’s fair that we are closing the tax loopholes and profits that we really go to businesses because we have to maintain the critical services that our members rely on.”
The discussion was long. Republicans tried to turn the responsibility for the budget hole from Trump to Democrats, but all opposed tax changes and spoke at length to them on Saturday.
“What we’re trying to do on the minority side is to reduce the harm to taxpayers caused by these policies that the majority has introduced,” said Rose Puglise, a top Republican in the House. (Republicans are in the minority; Democrats are in the majority.)
The slow pace ultimately sparked some democratic needles. Denver Democrat Sean Camacho said it was a daily expense to hold special sessions, accusing Republicans of wasting money as much as possible. It urged Republicans to protest their legitimate opposition.
Democrat leaders then ended the debate completely, forced votes on all bills quickly, and ultimately sent them all to the Senate.
Tensions were built. Democrats are unhappy with Republicans’ message about a lack of income, and Republicans are calling for spending cuts Democrats are trying to limit. The GOP lawmakers also sought to blame democratic spending and pointed to unrelated budget forecasts starting in June as evidence that Trump and Congressional Republicans do not condemn the financial situation.
State economists and nonpartisan staff say the shortage is a direct result of the tax bill and rare mirroring of Colorado’s federal tax policy. The state is likely to face a budget shortage next year, but that was the result of existing budget constraints. That individual shortage was a year away, unlike the holes caused by the tax bill.
AI Discussion
Meanwhile, the slaughter of the Senate thumb was over as the wheels of the house finally began to spin. By mid-afternoon, the revenue competitor package had marched to the Senate, where leadership had restructured the Approval Committee. The committee then proceeded with some of the tax package.
However, the path to advancement for the AI ​​bill remained unknown. Rodriguez, the bill’s sponsor, said negotiations continued late Saturday afternoon with a coalition of business, technology and government groups skeptical of his proposal. He refused to detail these discussions, but said that some progress had been made.
“They’ve been offering suggestions, but everyone was like, ‘It’s not a starter,'” he said of opponents of the bill. “Last night they sent us suggestions like that.
Both have a red line that they don’t want to cross. Rodriguez’s bill requires AI developers and companies that use them to make decisions about tasks such as jobs and banking applications in order to disclose the information that AI uses. They also take responsibility for developers and companies that use technology to screen people.
By Saturday evening, the proposal that competes with Rodriguez’s bill was scheduled for the first House vote, but was pulled back from the planned debate. The negotiations and the frustration that came with it were scheduled to continue on Sunday.
Stay up to date with Colorado politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter The Spot.
Original issue: August 23, 2025, 6:45pm MDT