As Trump takes aim at election rules, Colorado Democrats view state voting-rights bill as a bulwark Colorado Democrats, hoping to enshrine federal voter protections in state law, are pursuing a bill that would bar voter discrimination based on race, sexual orientation and gender identity in state la w — just as President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at overhauling elections nationwide. Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat and sponsor of the measure, described it as an attempt to bolster state election protections — and voters’ rights — amid an uncertain federal climate. Senate Bill 1 passed its first full Senate vote on Friday afternoon. If it becomes law, it would prohibit local governments from holding elections in a way that would result in “material disparity” in voter participation based on certain demographics, whether it was intentional or not. The measure still needs to pass a formal vote in the Senate and go through the House before it could land on Gov. Jared Polis’ desk. Read more Colorado lawmakers pass 3 gun-control measures including bill limiting sale of semiautomatic weapons Colorado lawmakers on Friday sent three gun-control measures regulating the sale of ammunition and firearms to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk for passage into law. RELATED: How is the Colorado congressional delegation voting? The bills now waiting to be signed include Senate Bill 3, which would limit the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms to only people who’ve passed a background check and training course; House Bill 1133, which requires retailers to keep ammunition locked; and House Bill 1238, which requires additional security at gun shows. The three bills received final procedural votes in the House and Senate on Friday. Polis is expected to sign all three. He has 30 days to do so — or to veto them — before the bills pass automatically into law. Gun-control advocates celebrated the bills’ passage — and what they described as Colorado’s role as a “national leader” on gun violence prevention — in a statement Friday afternoon. Read more Colorado budget proposal averts severe Medicaid, education cuts; transportation among areas trimmed Colorado budget writers have finalized the state government’s proposed spending plan — and they’ve done so without long-feared draconian cuts to Medicaid and education. The powerful Joint Budget Committee, which wrapped its work Wednesday night, started the process last fall with a $1.2 billion spending hole it needed to fill. State spending, driven primarily by mandatory Medicaid costs for the lowest-income Coloradans, had been outpacing caps set by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR. The size of the shortfall, out of a $16 billion-plus general fund budget, left the bipartisan membership of the committee and others worried they’d have to sever services for some of the most vulnerable Coloradans, or set back education goals. Instead, they preserved — or even gave small increases — to some of the services they consider most vital. The JBC’s proposal — which now goes to the rest of the legislature — sets aside $150 million to boost education spending and gives Medicaid providers a small increase to their reimbursement rates. Read more Colorado lawmakers kill bill aimed at banning lobbyists from donating to campaigns Colorado lawmakers killed a proposal Thursday that would have prohibited lobbyists from donating to legislators, statewide elected officials or candidates for those offices. Senate Bill 148 fell at the measure’s first hurdle on 2-3 bipartisan vote by a committee. The bill would’ve expanded a 31-year-old Colorado law that bars lobbyists from donating to campaigns during the legislature’s 120-day annual session. Had the bill passed, the proposed year-round prohibition would have bumped Colorado into the ranks of a handful of states that more broadly limit lobbyist donations to the policymakers they’re trying to influence. But it failed to get out of the Senate’s State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. Sen. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat, sponsored the bill and is the committee’s chair. He said the bill was intended both to “catch up the law” to modern realities — lawmaking and meetings with lobbyists extend beyond the bounds of the legislative session — and to improve the public perception of government. Weissman was the subject of a dark money-drenched primary challenge last summer, and a consumer-protection bill he sponsored was among the most-lobbied bills of last year’s session. Read more Colorado House passes bill banning use of algorithms blamed for driving up apartment rents For the second time in a year, the Colorado House passed a bill Wednesday that would prohibit the use of algorithms that, critics and investigators allege, have been used to hike up apartment rents in Denver and across the country. House Bill 1004 would ban the use of algorithmic devices that are used to set or recommend rental prices or occupancy levels in rental housing. It effectively targets RealPage, a Richardson, Texas-based software company being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice and the state for allegedly facilitating price-fixing via its algorithm. The software takes rent and occupancy data from property owners and recommends prices and rental targets back. The bill’s sponsors — Denver Democratic Reps. Steven Woodrow and Javier Mabrey — said the measure was intended to ensure housing providers compete with each other to lower prices, rather than collude to keep rents higher. “We need competitors to compete, especially on critical terms like price,” Woodrow said during the bill’s initial floor debate Tuesday. “Unfortunately, with the advent of the internet and massive data collection and sharing, certain actors have developed sophisticated price-setting algorithms.” Read more Should it be illegal to shoot wild bison that wander into Colorado? Lawmakers will decide. Every so often, wild bison from one of Utah’s herds cross the invisible state border and wander into northwest Colorado — unknowingly putting their lives in danger. When the bison cross over, they lose the protections Utah gives the species as a big-game animal. In Colorado, there are no repercussions for killing wild bison. Such killings are rare in Colorado, but the state should protect the species because of its importance to Coloradans and Native American communities across the country, Sen. Jessie Danielson said. The Jefferson County Democrat is sponsoring a bill in the legislature that would make it illegal to kill bison here. “This is a really important animal to the state of Colorado, our history, our cultural background,” Danielson said. “The Native community brought this forward because of the importance of the animal to their religion and culture.” Read more Colorado legislature passes gun control bill requiring training before purchase for certain firearms Two days after the fourth anniversary of the Boulder King Soopers mass shooting, the Colorado House passed legislation to limit the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms to Coloradans who have passed a background check and taken a training course. Senate Bill 3 — which would apply the new restrictions to the gun used in the Boulder attack — passed the House 36-28 on Monday. The bill’s Senate sponsors next will move to accept changes made in the House and then send the bill to Gov. Jared Polis. The governor is expected to sign the measure. At Polis’ behest, lawmakers agreed to weaken the bill’s initial intent of fully banning the sale or purchase of the targeted weapons, unless they were altered to have a fixed magazine — meaning that they could not be reloaded as rapidly. Still, the measure represents the strongest gun-control legislation passed by Colorado lawmakers since they began undertaking firearm regulation in earnest more than a decade ago. Read more Colorado legislators consider another round of HOA bills to protect homeowners from foreclosure The Colorado General Assembly is poised to approve additional protections for homeowners who become indebted to their homeowners associations and risk losing their houses because of unpaid fines, late fees and legal bills. Two bills are up for consideration this legislative session. One is intended to protect homeowner equity and avoid courthouse foreclosure auctions, and is one vote away from legislative approval. A second bill, which would create an alternative dispute resolution process, is in the early stages of legislative consideration. The homeowner equity bill, HB25-1043, would give homeowners facing foreclosure a chance to sell their houses before judges order them sold at courthouse auctions by requesting a nine-month stay, giving the homeowners time to list the houses and find buyers. Homeowners could then use the sales proceeds to pay their HOA debt, pay off their mortgages and potentially keep the remaining equity. Colorado HOAs have the authority to place “super liens” on houses that even trump bank mortgages. That often leads to people losing their homes as well as the equity they had built while still owing their bank for the loan. Read more Related Articles As Trump takes aim at election rules, Colorado Democrats view state voting-rights bill as a bulwark Colorado lawmakers pass 3 gun-control measures including bill limiting sale of semiautomatic weapons Colorado budget proposal averts severe Medicaid, education cuts; transportation among areas trimmed Colorado lawmakers kill bill aimed at banning lobbyists from donating to campaigns Colorado House passes bill banning use of algorithms blamed for driving up apartment rents Major gun control vote, plus hearings for abortion bills this week in the Colorado legislature The rhythm of the Colorado legislature’s 2025 session hit a snag Friday when members of the Joint Budget Committee delayed the budget’s introduction by a week, but several major bills are still set to work through the building in the coming days. On Monday, House Republicans were fighting Senate Bill 3, the proposal to restrict access to certain firearms, during one of its last steps before it might end up at Gov. Jared Polis’ desk. The House was set to vote on the bill — which would require a background check and a training course to buy certain semiautomatic weapons — in the afternoon. At the same time, the Senate also debated a pair of firearm bills: House Bills 1133 and 1238. Those proposals would restrict ammunition sales and increase the requirements to host gun shows, respectively. Read more Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot. ...read more read less