By Dylan Roberts: With the 2025 legislative session now adjourned, I wanted to share a full recap of the session. The piece highlights the work we did to balance the state budget, expand affordable housing, secure Colorado’s water future, and deliver results for rural communities.

I also included some reflections on high-profile bills and how I approached them as the Senator for a politically diverse district.

 

2025 Legislative Session Recap

 

The 2025 legislative session has adjourned. With a major emphasis on balancing our state budget and reacting to dynamics both in Colorado and across the country, it was challenging, unique, and productive.

 

As your Senator, I am proud of the bills I passed on your behalf. My priority bills passed with bipartisan support and will increase the supply of affordable housing, help Coloradans save money, protect our state’s water resources and public lands, keep our roads open, and make our communities safer.

 

Here are some of the highlights of my legislation and major themes of the session overall.

 

Budget

 

By far, the biggest topic of this year’s legislative session was the difficult and constitutionally-mandated task of balancing our annual state budget.

 

This year’s process was particularly difficult as we were tasked with closing a nearly $1.2 billion gap in order to balance the budget. That difference was not caused by overspending or a weak economy – in fact, Colorado’s economy remains one of the strongest in the nation – it was caused by a combination of rising medical costs and a revenue cap formula that was locked into our constitution in 1992.

 

In the end, we were able to pass a balanced budget and school finance act that strengthens our support for K-12 education, especially for rural school districts, and supports rural health care providers.

 

Making Housing More Available & Attainable

 

Expanding housing opportunities for our communities’ essential workers – teachers, first responders, health care providers, and more – continues to be one of my top priorities. This session, I spearheaded several bills that will increase construction of more affordable homes.

 

SB25-006, recently signed into law in Summit County, will kickstart construction for first-time buyers through low-interest bonds for home construction. HB25-1272 is a major reform of Colorado’s construction defect laws, which have hindered condo construction since the great recession. After years of special interests delaying this reform, this year, we finally got it done. I’m confident these new laws will encourage the construction of more attainable multi-family housing over the next decade.

 

Water

 

In Western Colorado, we know our most precious resource is our water. This legislative session, I was proud to lead several important efforts to boost funding and change water policy to support agricultural producers and our outdoor recreation economy, mitigate wildfire, and secure our water future.

 

Even in a tight budget year, water remained a bipartisan funding priority. Our annual water projects bill hit near-historic funding highs at $67 million powered by strong returns on sports betting and severance taxes. We also passed measures to study the usage of severance taxes to adequately fund future water project needs, consolidated our water supply measurement systems, ensured metro areas are conserving more water, and created more efficiency in the division of water resources. Finally, I was proud to lead a bipartisan effort alongside Speaker McCluskie and Rep. Soper to expand the state’s water funding by making a reform to our sports betting tax deduction allowance that will increase conservation funds by at least 25% year over year.

 

Rural Colorado

 

Rural legislators are far outnumbered by urban and suburban legislators, but I always fight for policies that will help our rural communities.

 

For example, SB25-037 will make key reforms to the Office of Just Transition so that the concerns of Hayden, Craig, and other coal transitioning communities are better addressed. HB25-1222 will help sustain our rural and independent pharmacies with fairer reimbursement rates and HB25-1288 & SB25-290 will help keep our rural hospitals and health clinics open. I passed SB25-038, which guarantees privacy for ranchers who are already struggling with the impacts of wolf reintroduction and depredation of their livestock, and I fought hard to insert a footnote into our state budget that will hold CPW’s feet to the fire and ensure their promises to the ranching community are kept.

 

Finally, once again, I am proud to report that every single bill I introduced and passed earned bipartisan support.

 

High-Profile Bills

 

There are 99 other legislators in the General Assembly who also bring bills forward. You may have read about some of the high-profile debates around firearms, immigration, transgender rights, abortion care, and more. Often, these bills are introduced with language that is removed or changed as they go through the legislative process, but that initial bill text drives the press coverage and public discourse. As a Senator for a very politically diverse district, I continued to work with colleagues to amend their bills that started off as too extreme for SD8, listen to constituents, and do my best to vote based on the will of my district. I realize that both sides of the political spectrum will never agree with my votes 100% of the time, but please know that I always seek to find the position that puts SD8 first. Thank you, as always, for being in touch to share your thoughts and ideas!

 

I remain humbled and energized by the opportunity to represent the many rural and mountain communities of Senate District 8 and look forward to connecting with constituents across the district in the weeks and months ahead. I am in the middle of my post-session town hall tour where I am holding a town hall meeting for you, my constituents, in each of the 10 counties of SD8. I hope to see you at a town hall meeting soon. You can also be in touch directly at senatordylanroberts@gmail.com or my cell: (970) 846-3054.

 

Dylan Roberts is the State Senator for Clear Creek, Eagle, Garfield, Gilpin, Grand, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt and Summit Counties.