Two controversial health-care bills that had been priorities of Gov. Jared Polis’ administration but also had garnered tremendous pushback because of their potential to raise health-insurance premiums officially died on the legislative clock Monday.
Also dying on the calendar were bills to create a new tax credit for data centers, to require corporations disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and to mandate environmental rulemakings consider rules’ impact on jobs. And on the same day that the sponsor of a bill to roll back some regulations on developers of artificial-intelligence systems disappointed Gov. Jared Polis by killing his bill, a separate AI bill that the governor opposed met its end.
With the Legislature having to adjourn its 2025 session by midnight Wednesday, it is that time of session again when bills that either were not leadership priorities or that ran into too much opposition are perishing for failure to advance. Specifically, any bill that had not passed second reading in its chamber of introduction by the time legislators gaveled out around 11:20 p.m. Monday no longer has the time to get enough votes in both chambers.
Healthcare bills sowed controversy over costs
Maybe the most notable bill to reach that end was House Bill 1174, a first-ever attempt to limit what larger hospitals could charge to some private insurance plans that was rolled out at a news conference in early February featuring Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera. Hospitals immediately argued that the reimbursement caps for small-group plans and for the state’s insurance plan would lead to increases in costs for those covered by large-group and self-insured plans, as well as potential cuts in services.
The bill had lingered on the House calendar since March 11 as it became obvious that it would not garner enough support in the more moderate Senate. But its true death blow likely came with the introduction last month of the still-advancing Senate Bill 290, which would get more money faster to the struggling safety-net clinics that HB 1174 sought to help, without the cuts to hospital revenue that the first bill proposed.
HB 1297 also would have impacted insurance premiums, as it sought to allow the Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise to raise an existing fee on all plans sold in the state by as much as 1% — a hike estimated to cost Coloradans a cumulative $67.8 million next year. The money would go to the reinsurance program that subsidizes individual-market premiums in the highest-cost counties, the OmniSalud program that provides insurance for undocumented immigrants and the replacement of individual-market subsidies that are expected to be cut at the end of this year by the federal government.
Fiscal questions dogged numerous bills
While Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway warned that funding shortfalls for any of these programs would lead people to drop insurance and force hospitals to treat more uninsured and unpaying patients, opponents questioned why privately insured Coloradans should have to shoulder the inevitable pass-through costs from insurers. Colorado Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Meghan Dollar noted that average individual premiums in Colorado have risen from $409 to $533 a month already in the past three and that the strain of more fees on either employers or individuals could lead to decisions to drop insurance too.
After a lengthy hearing on April 24 in its second committee, the House Finance Committee, HB 1297 simply did not get a vote. With Conway predicting that the HIAE will face a $73 million shortfall by the fiscal year that begins in July 2026, however, the issue is likely to come back up next year.
Most observers assume the Legislature also will engage again in conversation next year about whether to offer tax incentives to capital-intensive data centers that largely are avoiding developing in Colorado because other states are offering more. Senate Bill 280, which sought to offer 100% sales-tax rebates on data-center equipment for 30 years, passed its first committee on a bipartisan 6-3 vote on April 16. But its expected $38 million cost in three years — as well as a lukewarm reception from some tech leaders who said the incentives were less than other states offer — kept it from getting another hearing.
Fewer additions coming to energy-regulation lexicon
Fiscal notes also seemed to doom two energy-regulation bills that drew support from opposing camps as they passed their first committees more than two months ago but failed to get scheduled for a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee.
HB 1042, jointly backed by business and labor groups, would have required state officials to review their air-quality-control rulemaking process and report on what extent current rulemaking considers impacts on workforce. The idea to give greater weight to job loss or creation in environmental hearings drew bipartisan support originally, but its $116,000 fiscal note, combined with opposition from environmental groups, seemed to doom it.
HB 1241 sought to require companies operating stationary sources that emit air pollutants to list their emissions records through a link on their public website — a novel approach to trying to rein in emissions. But the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment estimated such public reporting would generate additional complaints against companies and require it to bring on another six workers to investigate them, saddling the bill with a $498,000 fiscal note.
Another AI bill falls on Monday
Finally, another pioneering regulatory idea — HB 1212, which would have given protections to whistleblowers alleging harm from their companies’ developing AI systems — died on the House calendar more than two months after it passed the House Judiciary Committee. A top official from Polis’ Office of Information Technology said it could force growing AI firms to take their high-paying jobs to other states that didn’t have laws exposing them to so much liability, and that seemed to erode support for the bill in the full House.
In that sense, Polis got a win in AI regulation Monday even as SB 318, which was meant to ease regulations on AI developers and deployers, died when its sponsor said he couldn’t find consensus between business and consumer advocates on how to move forward.
The governor, along with luminaries like U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser, wrote a letter later Monday imploring legislators to pass a bill moving back the February 2026 implementation of regulations. But time also has run out on that idea.