The Denver Gazette’s Marianne Goodland reports that with just 10 days left in Colorado’s 2026 legislative session, lawmakers still had 228 bills unresolved, with several major measures not yet introduced. The Office of Legislative Legal Services showed 619 bills introduced so far: 430 from the House and 189 from the Senate. That is not a legislative session. That is a paper avalanche with lobbyists.
The article notes that 156 bills had already been sent to the governor, with no vetoes issued so far, while late-session fireworks include artificial intelligence legislation and House Bill 1430, a measure designed to offset Initiative 175 if voters approve it. So, in the final sprint, legislators are not just passing bills. They are passing bills to pre-undermine ballot measures that voters might pass. Efficient? Maybe. Healthy? About as healthy as gas station sushi.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado lawmakers had 228 bills still unresolved with only 10 days left in the session. Nothing says “careful deliberation” like speed-reading statutes while sprinting toward sine die.
- The Legislature had introduced 619 bills so far, including 430 in the House and 189 in the Senate. That is a lot of government trying very hard to find new ways into your wallet, your business, your property, your car, your school, your stove, your lightbulbs, and probably your chicken coop.
- The House also carried the Long Bill and 64 “orbital” budget measures. “Orbital” is a nice word. It makes the budget sound scientific instead of like a money planet with regulatory moons.
- Senate Bill 189, dealing with changes to Colorado’s 2024 artificial intelligence law, was introduced with barely any runway left. Apparently, nothing says “thoughtful technology policy” like dropping it into the chute at the last minute and yelling, “Figure it out.”
- House Bill 1430 would kick in if Initiative 175 passes, reducing gas excise taxes and late vehicle-registration fees to offset road funding voters may choose to dedicate. Translation: if the people tell lawmakers to fund roads, lawmakers already have a plan to say, “Cute, but no.”
My Bottom Line
The numbers are staggering. Six hundred bills. Maybe seven hundred by the time they are done feeding the machine. Each one attempting, in some fashion, to regulate, redirect, mandate, manage, subsidize, restrict, tax, fee, nudge, punish, license, or otherwise whittle away at the ability of normal people to be left alone.
And more than 200 unresolved bills in the last 10 days? What possible good can come from that? Do legislators actually have time to read these things? Do they understand the amendments? The cross-references? The fiscal notes? The unintended consequences? Or are we just flinging law into the public square and hoping the courts, counties, businesses, and poor citizens clean up the mess later?
This is a joke. Not a funny joke. More like the kind of joke where you open the mail and discover your government has invented three new fees and a compliance portal that only works on Wednesdays.
Something should be done about it. Maybe a bill. Yes, I appreciate the irony. But maybe the bill says this: one in, one out. For every bill you pass, you repeal one. For every new regulation, one old regulation dies. For every fresh idea from a legislator with a microphone and a dream, something else gets removed from the carcass of Colorado law.
Because right now, the incentive is all wrong. Lawmakers are rewarded for passing things, not for fixing things. They get press releases for creating programs, not for ending failures. They get applause for “doing something,” even when the something creates paperwork, cost, confusion, and another reason for citizens to distrust the whole circus.
Colorado does not need a Legislature that measures success by bill count. We need one that understands restraint. Read the bills. Slow down. Repeal bad law. Stop cramming hundreds of unresolved measures through the grinder in the final days like liberty is just packing material. The people deserve better than government by deadline panic.
Source: The Denver Gazette
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