Four key takeaways from Colorado's “breakthrough” legislative session

DENVER — Coloradans can expect two years of free college for qualifying students, long-term property tax reform after years of Band-Aid measures, and denser development following a legislative session that Democratic leaders called a “breakthrough” for many of their long-held policy goals.

A year removed from the bitter divisions and policy losses that marked the 2023 General Assembly, Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic leadership struck a notably more chipper tone as they heralded legislative victories on housing, gun reform, tax policy, and transit and education funding. Along the way, they also batted down several — but notably not all — looming ballot measures through legislation and handshake armistices.

It made for a “high note” to exit on, departing Senate President Steve Fenberg said. For Polis, it built toward the vision of Colorado he campaigned on in 2018 and 2022.

“We’ve gotten the pieces in place to really make sure that this powerful vision for Colorado’s future is becoming a reality,” Polis said at a news conference Thursday, the day after the 2024 legislative session ended.

Polis’ vision has not been entirely embraced by the historic number of Democratic lawmakers working in the House and Senate, both a floor above the governor’s office in the Capitol. But they found a kind of harmony as the progressive wing passed policies to reduce poverty and protect renters while Polis won concessions on his preferred supply-side housing solutions and tax cuts.

Republicans, who are outnumbered by Democrats nearly 2 to 1 in the Capitol, sought to seize their own victories over what they call Democratic excess. Senate Republicans distributed a list of bills that their members had joined with Democrats to kill, and their House counterparts praised the $450 million income tax cut sought by Polis and the $1.3 billion property tax cut compromise struck in the final days of the session.

“We have participated in crafting Republican-led efforts to reduce taxes on the income tax side and on the property tax side,” Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, of Monument, told reporters Thursday morning. “We’re grateful that common-sense colleagues on the other side of the aisle joined in on many of those efforts.”

Here are four top-line takeaways from this session:

A comeback year for housing policy

This year, several novel policies — advanced elsewhere in the U.S. but foreign to Colorado — were resurrected after bitter deaths last year and crossed the finish line.

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