Second Day of Special Session in Colorado: An Update

Posted by Katie March on August 22, 2025

Bills are moving quickly through the process and the status of many negotiations are changing minute-by-minute.

If you didn’t read our blog post from Day 1, you can check it out here, as some of the bills discussed below are discussed in more detail in that post.

Thirty-three total bills and resolutions have still been introduced as of writing, and of those, about 20 have been “postponed indefinitely” or killed by their first legislative committee.

Of the remaining bills is just one of the Vendor Fee bills. It is the bill sponsored by the Democratic members that would eliminate the current provision that allows retailers to keep 4% of their sales tax collections, up to $1,000 per retailer per filing period, to cover their expenses of collecting state sales tax on behalf of the state, increasing state sales tax revenue by $27.6 million in FY 2025-26 and $56.8 million in FY 2026-27. This bill is being heavily opposed by retailers.

Additionally, two of the four artificial intelligence bills have been put to sleep, leaving just the bills sponsored by Majority Leader Rodriguez and Representatives Lindstedt and Carter* bills to duke it out. The committee hearings for both bills were fraught with passionate testifiers making their case for both.

The Rodriguez bill came out of committee on a 4 to 3 party-line vote with only Democrats voting in favor, including Majority Leader Rodriguez who had subbed himself onto the committee. Many labor unions testified in support of the bill, with the tech industry and business leaders testifying largely in an amend or monitor position. Four amendments were added to the bill, including one that will be beneficial for credit unions and other financial institutions, if the bill ultimately passes. You can read that amendment here.

The Lindstedt/Carter bill came out of committee on an 8 to 5 vote with bipartisan support, with all of the Republican on the House Business committee voting to support the bill, but losing 5 of the Democrats on the committee. The committee testimony almost exactly mirrored the Rodriguez bill, with many of the same individuals from labor unions who testified in favor earlier now testifying in opposition and the technology industry and business leaders now testifying in support. Additionally, many school districts and hospital providers were brought in to testify in support of the bill.

There are many questions about which bill will be able to achieve the votes to pass, especially with the additional hurdle of the outweighed influence of Majority Leader Rodriguez influencing the process. The legislature will also need to consider the fiscal impact of the two bills. Due to their enforcement mechanism, the Rodriguez bill is expected to be much more costly for the state. The Rodriguez bill has a multimillion-dollar fiscal note, while the Lindstedt bill reduces state expenditures by about $35,000 in the current fiscal year, and $67,000 in future years. Given the state’s significant budget shortfall, it is widely anticipated that Majority Leader Rodriguez will need to reconcile the fiscal impact if his bill is going to have a chance of passing.

Going into the special session, most entities were identifying the Rodriguez bill as the “winner,” with the hope that the Lindstedt/Carter bill would continue to remain in play long enough to force further negotiations. Final votes in both chambers are still being determined, with many members choosing to remain uncommitted on the bills to see which amendments/changes were adopted to them before the second reading.

As far as timing, because all of the bills did not go through second reading in the first day, the special session will not be over in three days, but will have to be at least four days (due to the legislative rules about how bills must be heard). So, place your bets – do you think we will be finished on Sunday (4 days)? Monday (5 days)? Tuesday (6 days)? Or more (please, no…) ?

*As a funny aside – yesterday in committee, Representative Carter and I joked about how people kept referring to their AI bill as the “Lindstedt bill” and he feigned hurt feelings – so I felt it very important to correct my error to call the bill the “Lindstedt AND Carter” bill here… at least once. 😊

Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Colorado Advocacy.