Colorado Democrats want to focus on housing, the budget and Donald Trump

Colorado Democratic leaders vowed Friday to continue tackling the state’s affordability crisis when they bring the Legislature back into session next week — but the cost of living is only the one of the many problems they will face in the months to come.

The Democratic majority is also preparing to meet the challenges of a second Trump administration. Among the other problems facing them: a budget shortfall of at least $670 million, a raging housing crisis and new fights over labor rights, gun control and the environment.

A wave of new freshmen lawmakers will arrive at the Capitol when this year’s session begins Wednesday, while a series of veterans plan to move on to other elected positions two years before the next statewide election. ‘State.

Although House Republicans won back a handful of seats in November’s elections, Democrats still control significant majorities in both chambers – 43 to 22 in the House and 23 to 12 in the Senate.

They will seek to balance a blue Colorado against a Republican – and active – federal government. That could lead to abrupt policy changes within the state, as new President Donald Trump promises significant action on immigration and the environment, among other issues.

Republican leaders have yet to publicly release their priorities for 2025. In a statement announcing Senate committee assignments, Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen of Monument said his caucus “looks forward to working to save money.” money to Coloradans and make life more affordable for every Colorado family during the 75th General Assembly.” House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese of Colorado Springs said in a separate statement after the election that GOP members were “ready to work to reduce costs and help Coloradans move forward and will stand up and will fight when (Democrats) try to increase costs for families and businesses. »

At a news conference Friday, new House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Democrat from Dillon, and new Senate President James Coleman of Denver laid out some of their caucuses’ priorities and expected obstacles over the course of of the 120-day session.

Housing and affordability

Both Coleman and McCluskie stressed the need for lawmakers to address affordability, particularly when it comes to housing. Colorado voters consistently rank the cost of living and the cost of housing among their top concerns, and the state just experienced another year of record evictions in Denver and a broader increase across the state.

Coleman said Democratic lawmakers would focus on expanding modular housing, reducing construction costs and addressing increasingly costly property insurance. Lawmakers also discussed the return of policy proposals related to construction defects, a contentious — and bipartisan — fight stemming from condominium development.

Democratic lawmakers will also seek to regulate landlords’ use of algorithms to determine rents, Coleman said, while looking for ways to “cut red tape” to make it easier to build housing near places of worship.

This policy – ​​dubbed YIGBY, or “Yes In God’s Backyard” – generally aims to reduce zoning restrictions and allow housing to be built on or near the properties of churches and other places of worship. The proposal’s launch in Colorado follows recent efforts by the Legislature to ease other zoning restrictions in an effort to develop more housing.

Tight state budget

As lawmakers juggle new priority bills, they will also face an estimated $670 million budget shortfall this legislative session. McCluskie called it “the biggest rock we need to get this whole session moving.”

She lamented that despite the state’s strong economic situation, the Legislature still has to make budget cuts due to restrictions on budget growth imposed by the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR. Democrats widely criticize it as an artificial barrier preventing the state from meeting the needs of its residents, but McCluskie said there are no plans to try to raise its revenue cap this year.

This shortfall is largely due to rising Medicaid costs and slowing population growth and inflation, both key factors in determining the state’s budget cap. Figuring out how to control those costs without cutting the safety net or destroying other services will be a priority, she said.

In particular, she said, lawmakers want to preserve funding for K-12 education after finally closing the decades-old funding gap, known as the budget stabilization factor.

“I’m really proud of the investments we’ve made over the last few years in primary and higher education, as well as early childhood education,” McCluskie said. “But with the budget the way it is, we have to work to protect those investments now.”

The Trump factor

Democratic lawmakers are preparing for Trump’s second term soon after his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November. House members have formed four working groups — focused on civil rights, the environment, immigration and education — to begin coordinating potential responses to what might come from the federal government.

In December, they met with Attorney General Phil Weiser – now running for governor in the 2026 election – to discuss legal avenues.

“I think what we’ve tried to do over the last few months is get a good understanding of the current law in our state,” McCluskie said Friday, specifically referring to protections for LGBTQ+ people, immigrants and reproductive health . “…We want to make sure we understand what Colorado already has in place. Then when we meet with the (Trump) administration in mid-January, we will be prepared to determine where we might have gaps.”

Still, although Coleman said the Legislature would work on civil and voting rights legislation in response to the federal government’s concerns, he and McCluskie said they would remain focused first on the needs of Colorado voters and on their own legislative programs.

McCluskie said it was “premature” to launch specific Trump-related proposals now, “when we’re not clear on what will actually come out of the administration.”

New union struggle

Both Coleman and McCluskie declined to take a formal position on an upcoming legislative showdown expected to pit Democratic lawmakers and unions against business and Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat.

In November, Democratic lawmakers in both chambers unveiled legislation they bill as a litmus test for the party: a proposed change to an 80-year-old provision of labor law. It would remove the requirement for a second, more difficult election that unions must pass before workers can begin fully negotiating a contract with their employers.

Supporters say the measure, which they have dubbed the Worker Protection Act, will remove an unnecessary part of Colorado’s law that doesn’t exist in any other state. Critics, including the business community, say the bill needlessly overturns a decades-old agreement between unions and businesses.

A spokeswoman for Polis said at the time that the governor was “deeply skeptical” of the bill unless the process ended with a “heavily negotiated” agreement between the two parties.

Coleman and McCluskie said Friday they are still working to help negotiate and review the bill with groups on both sides. McCluskie noted that an anti-union “right to work” initiative was previously filed with legislative staff — a first step toward an eventual path to the ballot — although it has since been withdrawn. Advocacy groups have used ballot measures in recent years to force lawmakers to the negotiating table.

McCluskie said she supports unions that have stepped up “to say, ‘We can be the voice of our workers in the workplace, we can help ensure that our workers earn a living wage and good benefits.’ . And I think we need to do it in partnership with our business community.

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