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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis will offer an evenhanded approach to the coming Trump administration, he planned to say during his annual State of the State address Thursday, while criticizing parts of Trump’s deportation plans and outlining plans to pursue additional housing and transportation reform.
“My principle is always: I will work with anyone and everyone when it’s good for Colorado,” Polis will say, according to his prepared remarks, “and I will oppose anyone and everyone — and do everything in my power to protect Colorado — when it hurts our people and state.”
Polis’ speech — which began about 11:15 a.m. in the Capitol — sought to focus his and the legislature’s attention on Colorado first. He planned to refer to the state as “the free state of Colorado” seven times in his remarks.
As he began speaking, Polis asked for a moment of silence for former President Jimmy Carter, whose funeral was Thursday in Washington, D.C. All members of the legislature rose to their feet to honor him.
His prepared remarks returned to familiar policy priorities: additional land-use and housing reform to incentivize more development, as a balm to the state’s housing shortage; boosts to public transit as a path to the state’s environmental goals; and a call for an examination of the state’s exiting “laws and regulations.”
He previewed new housing reforms, including one to allow more development on land owned by religious organizations and another to allow for taller buildings with single stairwells to be built. (A similar bill died in the legislature last year.) He also called for a fix to the state’s construction defect laws — critics have argued that state laws have frustrated condominium construction — and continued his advocacy for factory-built homes.
He also relaunched calls to reform the Regional Transportation District, which has weathered criticism for its governance and sagging ridership in metro Denver.
In a nod to efforts by Trump allies to cut federal spending, Polis said he wanted to make “government more efficient” — and floated eliminating the use of the penny as an example — and called on lawmakers to examine state law and regulations “to unleash small businesses and drive economic growth.”
He suggested that he didn’t want to pick fights with the Trump administration but that the state “will not support efforts to deport American citizens, target those on pending legal status, or break up families” — a reference to Trump’s desire to mass-deport undocumented immigrants.
“Those who are following our laws and contributing to our economy deserve the opportunity to live the American dream and make Colorado an even more amazing place,” Polis says in the prepared remarks.
The annual address was Polis’ penultimate annual speech to the legislature. He delivered it as a bleak state budget picture is set to dominate debates during the 2025 legislative session, which opened Wednesday.
The governor has typically used the annual speech to highlight successes and present his legislative agenda for the coming term. This year, it comes at something of a crossroads, both for Polis’ tenure and for the state’s future.
With two years left in his second term, Polis has succeeded in passing his suite of land-use reforms through the Capitol, his priority since his 2022 reelection.
This year, the legislature faces a stark budget shortfall of roughly $700 million that, lawmakers have warned, will force uncomfortable cuts to core state services. Polis has submitted two budget proposals to lawmakers in recent months that seek to close the gap, proposals met with varying degrees of lukewarm response from the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee.
At the same time, Polis’ final two years will coincide with the second Trump administration. After prominently backing Vice President Kamala Harris for president during the campaign, Polis has adopted a more openhanded posture toward the incoming administration.
He’s spoken positively about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist that Trump has nominated to be the top health administrator in the country. He’s also tried to banter with Vivek Ramaswamy and billionaire Elon Musk, who are leading an amorphous group charged with studying potential cuts to the federal budget.
The state was largely insulated from the red wave that swept much of the United States in November. State House Democrats lost three seats but still maintain a near-supermajority in the chamber, while their Senate colleagues maintained a similarly firm grip on their majority.
Polis’ posture stands in some contrast to members of the state’s overwhelmingly Democratic legislature, who immediately formed working groups to prepare for Trump’s move to the White House, along with the regulatory and immigration shifts that he has promised. One moderate Democratic state senator, Kyle Mullica, an emergency room nurse, reacted to Polis’ praise for RFK in November by calling it “complete bullshit.”
On Wednesday, the legislature’s two top Democrats, House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Senate President James Coleman, both referenced federal uncertainty and concern in their opening-day speeches. McCluskie’s defense of immigrants prompted a lengthy standing ovation from her members.
McCluskie and Coleman both also referenced the need to address the cost of living in Colorado. That’s something Polis has sought to prioritize during his tenure and will likely hit on again Thursday morning — especially in light of the 2024 election results, which were generally viewed as a referendum on the country’s ground-level economy.
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