Live updates: Colorado lawmakers kill new car insurance fee, send voting rights bill to Gov. Polis

The Colorado legislature has eight days till the tip of the 2025 session and is working Tuesday to push payments by means of committee and take ground votes. A number of ongoing debates stay unresolved, together with on taxes, labor unions and different issues.

This story can be up to date all through the day.

5:04 p.m. replace: The Colorado legislature formally handed a invoice aimed toward defending voting rights Tuesday afternoon, sending it to Gov. Jared Polis for his signature.

The Senate voted to just accept amendments from the Home. Sponsor Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, stated the tweaks in that chamber had been made in session with county clerks to verify Senate Invoice 1 was “manageable, implementable and doable.”

Rep. Jennifer Bacon, who’s Black, tied it to the federal Voting Rights Act and its significance in “reworking democracy and making certain equal entry to the poll for Black Individuals.” The invoice was pitched partly as an try to guard voting rights as President Donald Trump makes an attempt to remake elections to his liking throughout the nation.

“With voter suppression and voter dilution techniques getting used all through the nation, it’s crucial that we act now to guard the constitutional proper to vote,” Bacon, a Denver Democrat, stated in an announcement after her chamber handed the invoice Monday. “This invoice makes it clear to Coloradans that, whereas the federal authorities continues to chip away on the Voting Rights Act, Colorado Democrats are dedicated to defending voting rights.”

The invoice handed alongside occasion traces in each chambers.

Kevin Bommer, the chief director of the Colorado Municipal League, stated he appreciated the sponsors working together with his group on its considerations concerning the measure intruding on home-rule cities’ conduct of native elections. However he stated the league nonetheless had “important points” with it. The disagreement might result in a metropolis difficult the invoice in court docket, he warned.

“(The invoice) purports to unravel a statewide drawback with out making use of to statewide elections,” Bommer stated, referring to its give attention to native elections. “That’s all properly and good if we wish to speak about statewide election points. However then we must always in all probability speak about all the statewide elections.”

4:58 p.m. replace: The Senate Finance Committee, after voting on the audits invoice Tuesday afternoon, killed Home Invoice 1303, which might have added a $3 annual price on Coloradans’ automotive insurance coverage premiums to pay for efforts to stop car crashes. The invoice’s sponsors, Democratic Sens. Religion Winter and Dylan Roberts, requested that the invoice be shelved — an indication that it lacked the wanted votes.

The request could have been made voluntarily, however it wasn’t enthusiastic.

“Twenty-five cents a month — $3 a 12 months — for one thing we all know would save Coloradans’ lives,” Roberts lamented earlier than the vote. “I’m very saddened that the Senate Finance Committee didn’t have sufficient assist to maneuver that proposal ahead. There’s additionally not a whole lot of occasions the place payments like this have the complete assist of (state companies), of the governor — and no opposition from any main business.”

4:31 p.m. replace: After weeks of drafting and gnashing of tooth, a Chamber of Commerce-backed invoice that will order audits of some state laws is lastly transferring with function.

Senate Invoice 306 handed the chamber’s Finance Committee on Tuesday afternoon, after an preliminary vote was delayed amid skepticism from environmental and labor teams (and after an earlier thought was largely scrapped completely).

With that opposition in thoughts, invoice sponsor Sen. Robert Rodriguez unveiled amendments to develop the proposal’s aperture earlier than the vote Tuesday. The invoice initially would have directed the state auditor to conduct efficiency audits on the state’s air air pollution and labor requirements divisions. Rodriguez’s amendments shifted the latter goal to the state’s unemployment insurance coverage program.

One other modification directed the auditor to contemplate whether or not the divisions’ funding and staffing had been adequate, how any funding and staffing adjustments would affect the packages, and if their advantages had been accessible.

The amended invoice then sailed by means of the committee vote. It now heads to the Senate ground and is on a glide path to the Home.

2:03 p.m. replace: Single-stair reform is coming to Colorado.

The Senate handed Home Invoice 1273 on Tuesday morning. It now wants some fast procedural work within the Home earlier than transferring to Gov. Jared Polis, who gave the proposal a shout-out in his January State of the State tackle and is predicted to signal the invoice.

Single-stair reform is a cousin to the pro-housing land-use reforms championed by Polis and most legislative Democrats lately. HB-1273 would require native governments in cities of 100,000 residents or extra to permit new condominium buildings as much as 5 tales tall which have just one exit. That primarily means just one stairwell — therefore the title “single stair.” At the moment, single-exit residences are typically capped at three tales.

The coverage has been adopted elsewhere within the nation, most notably in Seattle, and Colorado lawmakers made an preliminary — and temporary — effort to deliver the reforms right here final 12 months. Proponents argue that single-stair buildings makes it simpler to construct extra housing in tight city heaps. Additionally they contend that the change alters the very nature of neighborhood areas in these buildings.

“Coloradans despatched us right here to go coverage that may make our communities extra inexpensive,” Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Denver Democrat co-sponsoring the invoice, stated in an announcement earlier this month, “and this invoice would assist open up extra housing alternatives that work for each finances.”

Opposition from hearth chiefs sank the proposal final 12 months. This 12 months, extra necessities across the dimension and accessibility of the affected buildings bumped the chiefs to impartial. Rank-and-file firefighters — who, skeptics identified, are those who should enter burning buildings — nonetheless opposed the invoice, although extra security amendments moved them to a impartial place Monday.

The invoice, which requires native governments to conform by Dec. 1, 2027, handed 23-9 within the Senate. Home sponsors now should settle for the adjustments — which they plan to do — earlier than HB-1273 strikes to Polis. Along with Woodrow, the invoice is sponsored by Democratic Rep. Andy Boesenecker and Sens. Matt Ball and Nick Hinrichsen.

11:58 a.m. replace: Colorado lawmakers are poised to go a invoice banning using algorithms that state and federal officers say are used to artificially hike rents within the Denver metro space. However the proposal has acquired a lukewarm reception from Polis, who will quickly resolve whether or not to signal it into regulation.

Barring a perfunctory procedural vote within the Home, Home Invoice 1004 is on a glide path to Polis’ desk after clearing the Senate on Monday. The invoice’s Senate sponsors had briefly delayed the vote to proceed discussions with Polis’ workplace, Senate management stated Tuesday morning, however then pushed the invoice by means of because the session winds down. Learn extra right here.

Gov. Jared Polis’ assist unsure as ban on rent-setting algorithms nears end line

11:19 a.m. replace: Colorado lawmakers have voluntarily tabled proposals that will’ve banned sure bank card charges and would’ve required fuel pumps to function local weather change warning labels.

Every invoice handed the state Home a number of weeks in the past, solely to hit roadblocks within the Senate. Every of the payments’ sponsors agreed to kill their proposals in preliminary committee votes in latest days, amid unsure assist and a crunching end-of-session calendar.

Home Invoice 1282, which might have typically prohibited bank card corporations from charging swipe charges on taxes or suggestions, was backed by eating places and a few enterprise teams as a approach to save these corporations cash.

But it surely was intensely opposed by bank card corporations, airways and the unions that work with them, amongst others. They promised authorized challenges and warned of a litany of penalties ought to the invoice go.

The invoice’s sponsors, Republican Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Democratic Sen. Lindsey Daugherty, had delayed a primary committee vote in a bid to shore up assist. However that backing did not materialize.

“It is a fairly sophisticated invoice, and there was loads right here,” Kirkmeyer, of Brighton, informed the Senate’s Judiciary Committee on Monday. “And typically it takes greater than a 12 months, multiple session, to get by means of all of it.”