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Colorado legislature week in review for March 13, 2026. Updates on a proposed ballot measure to debruce education funding and bills to add to family tax credits and decriminalize sex work. @The Denver Post
Colorado bill eliminating some credit card fees passes committee as lawmakers try idea again
A Colorado legislative committee gave initial approval Thursday to legislation that would block credit card companies from charging common “swipe fees” on sales taxes, a year after lawmakers rejected a more expansive version of the proposal.
Companies like Visa and Mastercard charge fees to restaurants and stores every time customers use cards to pay their bills. That fee is assessed as a percentage of the total bill, and it includes sales tax in that total. Businesses collect those taxes and then pass them on to the government.
Senate Bill 134 would generally exempt sales taxes from the swipe fee calculation, a move that supporters say would help save businesses money. It passed the Senate’s Business, Labor and Technology Committee on a 3-2 party-line vote, with Democrats in favor.
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Gov. Jared Polis punts Tina Peters clemency decision until after appeals court weighs in, his office tells lawmakers
Gov. Jared Polis’ office has told lawmakers that he will delay his decision on whether to commute Tina Peters’ prison sentence until after the Colorado Court of Appeals issues a ruling in her case.
Polis’ staff members privately told some lawmakers late last week that the governor would wait, and House lawmakers were told of the delay during a caucus meeting Monday morning.
The update — which came shortly before Democratic lawmakers sent Polis a letter urging him not to intervene — is the first time the governor or his office has offered any sort of timeline for when he may reduce the former Mesa County clerk’s nine-year term of incarceration. It came days after many Democratic officials, in the state Capitol and elsewhere, blasted Polis for a social media post that appeared to confirm that he intended to reduce Peters’ sentence, which he has called “harsh.”
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Colorado lawmakers plan to abandon bill decriminalizing prostitution
Colorado lawmakers are set to abandon their longshot bid to decriminalize sex work across the state at the bill’s first committee hearing this week.
Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat and the measure’s sponsor, announced Monday morning on the Senate floor that he would voluntarily kill Senate Bill 97 at the start of its hearing on Wednesday. In an interview, Hinrichsen said the bill didn’t have enough support on the Senate Judiciary Committee to proceed.
“That leaves us with a choice,” he said: Either voluntarily kill the bill, or “we can go through the entire committee process” while facing significant drawbacks.
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Colorado House passes union-organizing bill as another veto threat looms
The Colorado House passed pro-union legislation Monday that would make it easier for organized workers to negotiate with their employers — a rerun of a vetoed bill thatap again likely to meet with doom.
House Bill 1005‘s passage was essentially a forgone conclusion. Every Democrat in the legislature had supported the 2025 version of the bill, and every House Democrat supported this year’s version. A priority for the organized workers who form a key part of the Democratic base, the bill would repeal a unique provision of Colorado law that requires unions to pass two elections before they can fully negotiate with employers.
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Democrats’ priority bills on taxes, unions are up for key votes this week in the Colorado legislature
Welcome back to the Capitol, where Colorado lawmakers will pass the midpoint of the 2026 session later this week.
That threshold — the 60-day mark — will hit Saturday, when lawmakers will (likely … hopefully) be home for the weekend. Before that happens, legislators in the House will vote on several bills that have been tabbed as priority measures by the Democratic lawmakers who have near-supermajority control of the statehouse.
Today, the House is set to vote on House Bill 1005 and send it to the Senate. The bill would repeal a unique provision of Colorado’s labor law, which requires that newly formed unions pass a second vote before they can begin negotiating the collection of union dues.
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Colorado lawmakers aim to ‘assert state authority’ amid federal gaps on vaccines, worker safety and other issues
For months, Monument mom Ashley Sutton has waited for the federal government to help her daughter access the education she legally deserves. Dr. Edwin Asturias, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, has tried to help patients navigate shifting federal guidance on vaccines.
And worker safety advocates have winced at attempts to roll back federal safety regulations that they say will leave workers facing unnecessarily dangerous conditions.
All are examples of the new uncertainty surrounding federal policy since President Donald Trump returned to office last year. Colorado’s Democratic legislative majority already had sought to insulate the state from Republican priorities that are at odds with their own — resulting in laws that have enshrined protections for immigrants, abortion, voting and more in state law.
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After police funding initiative passed, Colorado lawmakers want voters to know the cost of some ballot questions
In the 2024 election, Colorado voters passed a conservative-backed ballot measure that directed cash-strapped lawmakers to find $350 million for police training.
Should a similar proposal come before voters again, state lawmakers want the public to know the budget impact the ballot measure would have.
The Colorado House passed a bill Friday that would require more information to be included in the ballot language of some voter initiatives. If they direct the state to spend money without providing a source, they’d have to either identify which existing programs would be cut to pay for it — or list the large pots of state money that may be affected, like Medicaid or school funding.
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