Colorado lawmakers will try to tackle some of the state's most pressing issues during the 2026 legislative session, which starts Wednesday, from affordable housing and the high cost of health care to public safety and artificial intelligence.
Any bills debated at the Capitol this year will come against the backdrop of a strained state budget.
The legislature is facing a roughly $850 million shortfall, meaning there’s essentially no money to spend on new programs and services.
Here are some of the big-ticket legislative items to keep tabs on during the 120-day lawmaking term.
Affordability in housing
Democrats remain in control at the Capitol. They have big majorities in both the state House and Senate, and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis gets to decide which bills to veto.
That means Democrats get to set the legislature’s priorities, and this year, Democratic leadership said their goal is to make Colorado more affordable.
“We just really want to build upon what we’ve done already when it comes to increasing wages, when it comes to lowering costs — just creating pathways for families to be able to succeed and not have to worry so much about how they’re going to pay their medical bills or groceries,” said House Majority Leader Monica Duran, a Wheat Ridge Democrat.
Duran said Democrats plan to take a multipronged approach to bringing down the cost of living, with bills to address health care premiums, homeowners' insurance, and property taxes. They also want to expand last year’s efforts to increase price transparency.
Democrats plan to introduce several bills aimed at boosting Colorado’s affordable housing stock, setting up a familiar fight with local governments over land use.
One of the most significant housing measures, called the HOME Act, would give qualifying affordable housing developers, public schools and universities the ability to bypass local zoning laws and build homes on their land.
“We feel like, with those three entities in the bill, that we're really going to capture a lot of folks who are already doing really good work in this space to bring about more supply and, further than that, affordable housing to our communities,” said state Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, a Fort Collins Democrat who is leading the legislation.
The proposal — modeled in part on a bill that failed last year — has the support of Polis, who has made increasing housing inventory a top priority as he enters his last year in office.
Another affordable housing bill Democrats plan to introduce this year would make it easier for homeowners to sell off a portion of their property. The proposal builds on legislation passed in 2024 that made it easier for Coloradans to build accessory dwelling units, also known as casitas, on their properties, and would apply to higher-density areas of the state, like the Denver metro area and in Grand Junction.
Local governments are already opposing both bills.
The Colorado Municipal League, which represents the interests of towns and cities at the state Capitol, argues the measures would undermine the rights of local communities to make decisions for themselves and could violate the constitutional self-governance powers of home rule cities.
Democrats also want to make property insurance more affordable by creating programs to help people protect their homes against hail and wildfire, the two largest insurance cost drivers. The legislature tried to make that happen last year by imposing fees on policies to fund the mitigation initiatives, but the proposal was rejected over concerns about imposing new costs on consumers.
House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat who is leading the effort, said she’s looking for a new funding mechanism.
“I am pursuing something that will hopefully drive funding for those homeowners that are willing to harden their roofs,” she said. “We also want to pursue ways we can protect communities from catastrophic wildfire with either some type of reinsurance plan or deeper investments in mitigation.”
Other affordability plans
Keeping health insurance premiums down is another central piece of Democrats’ affordability work this year and comes in response to congressional Republicans’ decision not to extend subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans.
The legislature passed a one-year fix last summer, during the special legislative session. Lawmakers are now trying to figure out how to sustain those savings going forward. It’s proving difficult given the state’s budget constraints.
“I don't know what the specifics of the bill are going to look like at this point,” said state Rep. Kyle Brown, a Louisville Democrat. “We've been talking about different funding sources.”
Brown said he’s optimistic that a wide range of perspectives have come to the table to develop a solution, from hospitals to insurance companies to consumer groups.
House Democrats also plan to expand their work to increase transparency around consumer prices in an effort to prevent price gouging. Last year, they passed measures to crack down on price increases during natural disasters and outlaw undisclosed fees for goods and services, also called junk fees, especially when it comes to rental housing.
Now, they plan to introduce a bill that would require delivery services, like DoorDash and Instacart, to disclose when they charge more for items than they would cost a customer to purchase directly.
Bill sponsor Rep. Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins, said the goal is to make it easier for consumers to find affordable options when shopping for groceries.
“People are not able to really make an informed choice when they don't know that they're paying a markup,” Zokaie said.
The bill also would put a cap on how much a business can charge “captive consumers” for an item. Captive consumers are those who have to buy an item from one specific seller. For example, when someone buys beer at a baseball game, the price is higher than it would be outside the stadium. Democrats’ bill would limit how much can be charged for a beer in a stadium relative to what it would cost in a more traditional setting, like a restaurant.
Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, D-Denver, said lawmakers are also looking at ways to replace certain tax credits rolled back by the Trump administration.
Given the political makeup of the legislature, Democrats do not need the support of Republicans to pass bills, and no GOP measures can pass without Democratic support.
Still, the vast majority of legislation that becomes law in Colorado has bipartisan support. And affordability is an area where the two parties will work together.
Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, said his caucus will look for areas where it can find common ground with Democrats.“Making life more affordable,” Simpson said, summarizing the GOP’s big goal at the Capitol this year.
Artificial intelligence
The legislature is expected to take its third stab at revising a 2024 law that aims to prevent discrimination by artificial intelligence systems used by businesses and governments to make decisions in areas like hiring, education, health care and banking.
Lawmakers delayed implementation of the law to June from February after they failed to broker a deal among consumer protection groups, unions and the business community — namely Big Tech — during the special session over the summer. They also tried and failed to reach an agreement on the policy during last year’s regular lawmaking term.
As it is written now, the law will require companies to assess and disclose, to regulators and consumers, when AI is being used for consequential decisions, like employment, loans and housing. It will also require companies to explain how their technology works to consumers who dispute how AI made a determination.
Those in the tech industry who develop AI tools have complained that the law will stifle innovation. Separately, companies that use AI products say the statute is too burdensome and will expose them to a great deal of liability.
Rodriguez, the lawmaker most involved in the bill, suggested he won’t let changes to the AI law pass this year if they don’t offer enough protections to consumers. He thinks Colorado’s bill will become an example for other state legislatures, so he’s trying to be extra vigilant.
"I don't want to be the model bill that is not protective of consumers," he said last week at The Colorado Sun’s legislative preview event. "That is a line that I've been really strong [on]. Because once one bill is in, everybody starts running that. Are we actually doing the right thing to protect Coloradans and consumers across the country?"
Rodriguez called AI the "industrial revolution in the technological age." He said any tweaks to the law must include requirements that consumers be made aware when AI is used to make decisions about their health care, banking and hiring, and that consumers be given a chance to correct information and appeal.
"Those are my core beliefs," he said. "Everything inside of that I'm willing to negotiate."
Rodriguez said the governor’s latest task force of interest groups looking at the regulation was "in a good place" as of a few weeks ago. And Rodriguez is optimistic the law will take effect in June with changes.
Polis said his concern is that Colorado will “go it alone” on AI regulation, which would discourage tech companies from operating in the state.
“We're not a big state,” he said. “So if we go more to what California has done or Texas has done, that would be one model. Ultimately, I do believe this will fall in Congress' lap — and I hope that they take it on. The American people want to see protections, and we also want to make sure we're a great country for innovation. But I think it's very perilous for Colorado to do something that is different than either other states or the federal government, because, ultimately, consumers will be hurt in Colorado.”
Adding another layer to the debate is the executive order signed by President Trump on Dec. 11 aimed at banning states from regulating AI by threatening lawsuits and funding cuts to states that don’t comply.
AI will likely be one of the most-lobbied issues at the Capitol this year.
A review of lobbying disclosures from the Secretary of State’s Office found that nearly half of the 182 companies and organizations that hired lobbyists to sway lawmakers on AI during the special session were from the health care and tech sectors, followed closely by investment, general business and telecommunications groups.
Other tech bills
Several other technology bills are also in the works.
One measure will aim to require that social media sites and video games have privacy settings that can be set by parents and not easily turned off by kids.
Zokaie, who is leading the bill, hopes the proposal will help prevent the platforms from promoting addictive or compulsory use or from becoming places where adult users can exploit children.
“We're not going to stop that from happening completely, no,” she said, “but the company is going to have a responsibility to show they took reasonable steps to prevent it from happening.”
Social media companies generally oppose additional regulation and are expected to fight the bill.
Two measures around data centers are also set to be introduced at the Capitol this year.
One of the upcoming bills will be focused on the potential environmental impacts of data centers. It would require developers and the companies running the centers to be transparent about water and power usage.
Bill sponsor Sen. Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins, said she wants the bill to also require that data centers use as much renewable energy as possible and prevent their energy usage from impacting the cost of utilities for the communities around them.
A second data center bill that may be introduced would offer some incentives to businesses that build the massive facilities in Colorado.
“It's one of those things where business wants it and labor wants it, but then the environmentalists have concerns with it,” Rodriguez said.
Labor and business
For the second year in a row, the Colorado labor movement will try to tweak the state’s labor laws to make it easier for unions to force all workers at a company to pay fees for collective bargaining representation — regardless of whether they are members of a union.
A forthcoming bill, once again dubbed the Worker Protection Act by supporters, would repeal a requirement that a union get the approval of at least 75% of workers at a company before they can negotiate with a business over union security.
Union security is the term for when workers are forced to pay fees for collective bargaining representation, even if they have not joined the union. Unions are required to bargain on behalf of all workers at a company, which is why they feel it’s only fair that union security be imposed to cover the cost of things like lawyers and negotiating experts.
Polis vetoed the same measure in 2025, and he said he’ll veto the 2026 version, too, if there aren’t major changes. He’s not willing to eliminate the union security vote altogether.
“There’s nothing different, so I’m not quite sure why they’re doing it again,” Polis said.
The governor said he is open to reducing the 75% threshold — a proposal labor leaders rejected — and he would be willing to negotiate a similar compromise with business groups if asked.
Preventing the Worker Protection Act from passing is the top priority of business interests at the Capitol this year — just as it was in 2025
Energy and the environment
Democrats also plan to make energy and the environment priorities at the Capitol this year, though the details of their plans remain in flux.
“You're going to hear a lot about energy this session,” Polis said, “including making it easier to permit energy projects and get them done. One of the reasons we can't have nice things is we don't let them be built.”
Some of those changes may be tied to a rewrite of the laws governing Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission, which oversees how much some consumers pay for things like electricity and natural gas.
Another energy bill planned for this session is tied to Democrats' affordability push.
The proposal would require Colorado’s biggest energy providers, including Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy, to provide electricity to low-income customers at a minimal cost. Under the bill, utility companies would have to provide these customers with enough electricity for basic needs and only charge them the cost of producing the energy without making a profit.
Sponsors also want the bill to prevent the utility companies from increasing rates for other customers to make up for any losses in profit from the lower rates for low-income customers.
House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, a Colorado Springs Republican, said his caucus is concerned about the pace of the state’s climate and energy goals and how they could result in increased costs for consumers.
“We're really concerned about this 2050 goal for a 100% carbon emissions reduction being moved up to 2040, which, when you talk to utility companies, they all say that, frankly, it's undoable,” Caldwell said, referencing a rumor about Democrats’ environmental policy plans this year. “The result of it will be potentially doubling our utility bills within the next couple of years.”
The Trump administration and immigration
Another focus for Democrats will be responding to the Trump administration, particularly when it comes to federal immigration enforcement.
State laws already prevent state and local officials in Colorado from sharing Coloradans’ personal information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unless it’s being used for a criminal investigation.
But some lawmakers would like to tighten those limits.
Last month, state Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat, said she wants to strengthen existing state laws to ensure the liability extends "beyond just the individuals that might share public information, but it also extends to agencies that allow it to happen."
"We still have more work to do to protect our communities and protect individuals that are targeted by this lawless agency," Garcia said, referring to ICE, on a call in December with reporters and state legislators from California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The existing laws are at the center of a lawsuit filed against Polis last year by a former state employee, Scott Moss. Moss says he was instructed by the governor’s office to turn over Coloradans’ personal information to ICE in response to an immigration enforcement subpoena from the agency.
A state judge has blocked Polis from ordering certain state workers to hand over the requested personal information to ICE while the case is litigated.
Lawmakers could also adopt ICE-related policies enacted in other states, like requiring agents to wear masks and clear identification.
Public safety
Democrats also plan to introduce bills to improve public safety and regulate law enforcement.
One bill would require law enforcement to get a warrant before using the Flock Safety database in their investigations. Flock is a video surveillance network that includes license plate readers. Police say it helps them with investigations, but data privacy experts are concerned about misuse — including by federal immigration enforcement. The system has been used incorrectly in at least one high-profile case in Colorado.
Another measure would require utilities to notify the public about planned power outages via phone calls or text messages, email and broadcasts on local radio and news stations.
Supporters argue that early warnings are necessary for Coloradans to safely prepare for power outages, especially those who rely on electronic medical devices, and that alerts can give them time to make necessary preparations, like turning on a generator.
The bill is in part a response to the death of a Delta woman who received no advance warning of a planned power shutoff and died when her medical equipment failed during the outage.
A third bill, sponsored by Majority Leader Duran, would establish a statewide assessment protocol to help law enforcement identify domestic violence danger faster.
One public safety issue that doesn’t appear to be on Democrats’ radar this year, after a series of major bills over the past decade, is guns.
