Colorado’s special legislative session resumed Friday as lawmakers work to address the nearly $800 million budget shortage caused by the impact of the recent federal tax bill.
This story will be updated throughout the day.
Updated 4:57pm: After discussing potential condemnations on Thursday, the family leaders were still sorting out the following today after the immediate resignation of Republican Rep. Ryan Armagost. It is unclear whether Democrats will seek accountability in any way for the private riddle of Republican lawmakers in the appearance of Democrats in private group chats, including sharing photos he took on the floor of the house.
Updated 4:28pm: Congressmen are set to destroy more moderate regulatory proposals after the Senate broke the day without the Senate moving forward with indoor laws regulating artificial intelligence. (Updated at 5:38pm: That gutting occurred.)
House Bill 1008 requires AI developers and businesses to notify users using technology, making it clear that state consumer protection laws and anti-discrimination laws apply to AI. However, the proposal supported by Gov. Jared Police’s office faced opposition from other Democrats, unions and consumer protection groups.
Here’s why the Colorado Legislature is currently meeting at a special session and what is at stake:
And now, the bill’s Democratic sponsors plan to cut the bill off that stud. Instead, we only propose delays in Colorado’s existing AI regulations. This came into effect in February and has been criticized from almost all directions. Rep. William Lindstedt, sponsor of HB-1008, said he intends to propose a delay in October.
It is another alternative by a progressive group of Democrats to strictly regulate businesses by a group of progressive Democrats, require additional disclosure to consumers, and allow them to sue both technology companies and businesses that use the product over claims of discrimination.
Lindstet said he hopes the deal will come with another bill, but he said he is not sure if that will happen. His co-sponsor, Rep. Michael Carter, said hospitals, businesses and school districts are not prepared to implement rules that lawmakers have pledged to amend for more than a year, so fundamental regulations need to be changed or delayed.
Senate Bill 4, a supporter of other bills, was trying to reduce the estimated costs of the proposal. Given the state’s financial situation, any costs are likely to be unacceptable, with the SB-4 being estimated at millions of dollars. This has prompted dissatisfaction from SB-4 supporters. Most of the financial notes come from implementation forecasts from the Information Technology Bureau, which is under the police office’s umbrella. The governor supports Lindstet’s bill.
In any case, Lindstedt’s planned gutting of his bill means lawmakers will either choose to delay the state’s existing AI rules or adopt a version of the SB-4 regulations.
Of course, that was the time this afternoon.
Elsewhere, House Democrats spent most of the day weathering Republican candles on budget proposals that will raise Democrats. It could last until tonight, the house will later be dispatched on several committee jobs (like Lindstet’s bill).
Finally, there is an ongoing discussion on how state efforts to pay to lower medical insurance premiums. Lawmakers currently plan to receive $100 million from unclaimed property tax funds. However, the Senate has some surprises about it, so police staff are currently working to find other fundraising options.
Updated 3:37pm: Colorado Senators postponed the afternoon in a way that regulates artificial intelligence, which has not yet been resolved in one of the session’s biggest fights.
Lawmakers negotiated closed rooms all day, but there was no clear breakthrough. Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, a Denver Democrat and a supporter of one of the two competing AI bills, said Senate Bill 4, which proposed amendments to his bill, was not finished at about 3pm, and he didn’t need the remaining room to wait all day.
The bill tagged by fiscal analysts with a tagging implementing a price tag of $7 million a year was scheduled for a hearing by the Senate Approval Committee, whose fate was unknown. Rodriguez said the Chamber of Commerce will continue working on the issue on Saturday.
Rodriguez’s bill is considered to have stricter regulations and disclosure requirements for AI use and is supported by consumer advocacy groups and unions. The competing legislation from Rep. William Lindstet, a Democrat from Bloomfield, is scheduled to be heard in a House committee later today.
Updated 11:15am: The Senate officially approved a bill this morning that would divert general funds to the state health insurance fund from the reintroduction of wolves.
Senate Bill 5 passed 32-3, with Democrats Lisa Cutter, Tom Sullivan and Katie Wallace voting against it. The reintroduction of wolves, narrowly approved by voters in 2020, split urban and rural Colorado. Several Western Slope Democrats sponsored the bill along with Sen. Mark Catlin, a Montrose Republican, but Thursday’s amendment stripped them of their goal of impose a mandatory moratorium on which more Wolfs will be released in the coming winter.
Catlin said the sponsors wanted to suspend the reintroduction of wolves in the state, but saw who would have been willing to put the money behind the efforts without lawmakers.
“The goal was to pause,” Katlin said. “But it was also to stop the general funds from buying wolves and taking those dollars and putting them in insurance companies. We achieved that.”
The bill will receive $264,000 from the state’s general fund and transfer it to an affordable health insurance cash fund. However, Thursday’s amendment allowed holes created by the bill to be plugged in with cash from other sources.
Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat, said he voted against the bill because of how the amendments were unfolded, not because of policy disagreements. He placed it on Gov. Jared Police for trying to continue reintroducing the wolf without a fight with Congress.
“Apparently, in the last moment, the governor’s office might pass (the original bill) and they’ll have to either suspend or the governor refuse,” Sullivan said. He added that if Police’s office could easily fill the void from the wolf dollar, the governor’s budget could look even more intense to fill the state’s $783 million funding gap.
The Senate also granted formal approval to several other bills, albeit on a partisan line.
These bills would force state Medicaid dollars to planned custody after national Republicans ban federal dollars from going to the organization. If voters adopt the measure in November, they will change the universal school lunch voting measure to allow them to earn additional money in their food aid programs. It also requires the governor’s office to notify lawmakers of the Joint Budget Committee if certain expenditures need to be reduced halfway through the fiscal year due to unexpected budget crunches.
These bills require approval from the home before they go to police for final approval.
Update at 11am: Colorado House is up and running this morning, with Democrats set to make their first audio voting in a suite of revenue-raising changes to the tax law, with a proposal aimed at raising more money from businesses.
The first was House Bill 1001. Federal tax laws allow deductions based on business income. However, Colorado has temporarily restricted its deduction here in recent years, and HB-1001 creates that limit. This makes efforts to ensure that those who make more than $500,000 a year receive the deduction.
Projects for State Finance Analysts The change will raise $46 million for the state for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends in June this year, and will raise about $100 million over the next two years.
Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat who sponsors the bill, said the intention is to balance the new benefits given to businesses under the federal tax bill. The federal change was passed by Congressional Republicans and signed last month by President Donald Trump.
“What we’re saying is that if a company gets around 80% of the profits from a gutting service (tax bill) like Medicaid or food stamps, then they get meals from families from Colorado families.
As debate began Thursday morning, Republicans lined up to oppose the bill, losing their state’s $1.2 billion total revenue to democratic budgeting practices as they tried to shift responsibility for budget shortages from the tax bill.
Describing the Republican tax bill is “blatantly wrong,” said Rep. Anthony Hartox, a Republican of Parker. “… Structural deficit fraud dates back seven years,” he added. It referenced Governor Jared Police when he was first elected and Democrats took full control of the state government.
Stay up to date with Colorado politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter The Spot.
Originally published: August 22, 2025 11:02am MDT
