Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday took an 82-minute victory lap in his eighth — and final — State of the State address.

He touted his work in the areas of early childhood development, education, health care, housing and public safety, pointing to major initiatives he has launched.

He sought to paint a picture of a strong state under attack by the Trump administration. Indeed, he blamed much of Colorado’s woes on federal actions, notably funding cuts and a policy agenda from the White House that he described as “not the Colorado way.”

To Polis, policies coming out of Washington, D.C. — uncertainty over tariffs, an immigration crackdown, letting a key health care subsidy expire — are standing in the way of Colorado’s progress.

To critics, Polis has presided over a cooling economy that many in the business community attributed to a regulatory thicket that is driving up costs, stalling investment and pushing companies to look elsewhere in the country. Business leaders and others previously lamented that Colorado, once among the nation’s fastest-growing economies, now faces mounting challenges that threaten its momentum, the result of actions, they said, by Democrats who control the legislature and legislation the governor has signed.

In addition to a victory lap, Polis reflected on the difficulties in the past seven years, which saw the most devastating wildfires in state history, a global pandemic, and, in the past year, the loss of more than $1 billion in federal funding.

Polis: D.C. Republicans have ‘co-opted capitalism with cronyism’

The Colorado governor devoted a section of his speech to criticizing the Trump administration and Republicans in the nation’s capital.

He said Trump’s decisions, including funding cuts to child care, have compounded affordability problems and made life “more expensive and more difficult” for Colorado residents.

He said Washington, D.C. Republicans have now become the “party of socialism, overreach, and intrusion into people’s daily lives in ways wholly out of the scope of government.” He said they have been picking “corporate winners and losers, co-opting capitalism with cronyism.”

“It often feels like big government is in our wallets, our doctors’ offices, in our homes, bullying businesses of all sizes,” he said.

Republicans in Colorado have made the same lamentation — too much government interference in businesses and family life, an explosive growth in spending, a growing state bureaucracy — but directed at Polis and his party across the aisle that is in charge of Colorado.

Polis points to accomplishments

The governor spent much of his 82-minute speech patting himself on the back for the slew of initiatives that he has launched or instituted in the last seven years.

Among other things, he noted taxpayer-paid kindergarten and preschool, “low-cost clean energy” that will save Coloradans money on energy bills, new policies to facilitate more housing options, “fully funding” K-12 education and saving people money on health care through programs like reinsurance.

He claimed other achievements, such as reducing the state’s income tax three times — two of those were ballot measures sponsored, in fact, by the Independence Institute — and property taxes five times, accomplished via legislation and through ballot measures submitted by the Colorado General Assembly.

Last year, ballot measures seeking deeper property tax cuts than what the legislature already adopted compelled Polis and lawmakers to negotiate with Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern, which had argued that the policymakers’ response to soaring tax valuations had been insufficient. The parties reached a deal, which led to the passage of legislation that cut both residential and business property taxes.

The governor called for more reductions in the state income tax, a request he has made almost every year, though he has never supported any legislation — offered by Republicans — to do exactly that. After his speech, Polis said he supports income tax reductions that would be “paid for.” He did not elaborate on how that would happen.

It remains to be seen how Polis would position himself on a potential ballot measure to replace Colorado’s flat income tax rate with a graduated bracket, under which the upper tiers would face tax hikes of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

On transportation, Polis said the state had re-paved 2,500 miles of roads in the past five years alone.

That failed to impress Sen. Byron Pelton, R-Sterling, who noted most of the money in the state’s transportation plans is dedicated to transit, not roads.

The governor has ignored rural Colorado roads, Pelton said.

“It’s getting worse” in his district, where it is tougher to get products to market, the legislator said, adding the poor condition of rural roads is now the No. 1 concern in his region, along with healthcare and the rural hospital system. 

‘Pinch me’ moments, Taylor Swift and Tina Peters

Polis also talked about what he called “pinch me” moments: Colorado winning the Sundance Film Festival, keeping the Broncos in Denver through a new football stadium, the creation of Fishers Peak state park, and bringing in the the major league baseball All Star game, which boosted the economy during the pandemic.

Republicans said they had their “pinch me” moments, too.

Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson of Alamosa told Colorado Politics his was on Polis’ less-than-complimentary comments about D.C. Republicans and the August special session that he said resulted in corporate income tax hikes.

Simpson also noted Polis’ energy policies, which, the minority leader said, translate to eliminating people’s ability to choose how to heat their homes.

Polis rolled out more cultural references than usual.

This time, they included the Beatles, Lord of the Rings, recent Saturday Night Live alumnus Bowen Yang, Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park, a nod to the words of a Kpop character with a Colorado voice, the Netlix series Stranger Things and a shout-out to “Colorado Rancher” Kevin Costner, who owns a luxury property near Aspen that includes a ranch he leases out to others. 

Taylor Swift got three shout-outs, including a somewhat tongue-in-cheek request from Polis to officiate her wedding to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. 

House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, R-Colorado Springs, noted that Polis mentioned Taylor Swift more than he talked about farmers and ranchers.

“I understand the setting, he wants to be jovial,” the Republican leader said. But when people across the street hear him reference Taylor Swift or Lord of the Rings more than the people of Colorado, that’s a problem, he said.

“I appreciate him acknowledging areas where we can work together, like competency,” Caldwell said, referring to the issue of suspects of crime getting released to the streets when declared incompetent to stand trial.

In his post-speech news conference, Polis addressed a persistent rumor about negotiations with the Trump administration to release Tina Peters in exchange for allowing Colorado to get more wolves. 

Polis denied having such conversations with the Trump administration about Peters, although he said he believes her nine-year sentence is “unusual and harsh for a first-time offender and not a violent offender.”

There were moments of levity. The first occurred after the governor made a playful nod to lawmakers’ decision to change the word “excellency” to “honorable” in the resolution inviting the governor to address the legislature.

Polis addressed both the House Speaker and Senate President as their “excellency,” drawing laughs.

The use of “excellency” in the resolution on the State of the State address isn’t anything new. In fact, it goes back decades, although in the current political environment, the word has taken on a new meaning.

All eyes on housing

Polis talked about the barriers to accomplishing his signature issues, most notably in the area of housing — undermined, he said, by outdated laws and “piles of paperwork that slow or stop new housing, new transit, and new clean energy from even being built.”

It led to a dig against one of his critics on the housing issue.

“It reminds me of the words of Taylor Swift and, maybe Kevin Bommer, too: ‘I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn.’” 

“Not us,” the governor said. “We say, ‘let us build!’”

That drew a mix of laughs and groans from the audience.

Bommer is the CEO of the Colorado Municipal League, which has challenged the governor on housing and zoning laws that the group and some lawmakers claim violate the constitutional rights of home-rule cities and towns. Six Front Range cities are suing the governor over 2024 housing laws on the home rule issue.

This year, Polis’ housing agenda includes the HOME Act, a follow-up to last year’s failed “In God’s Backyard” bill, which would have allowed churches and schools to build housing on unused land. 

The 2026 bill, the governor said, will “open the door to more housing by partnering with higher education, nonprofits, transit agencies, school districts, and housing authorities to build on underutilized land.”

Budget, budget, budget

The state is facing budget shortfalls in both the current year’s budget—more than $300 million that still needs to be covered—and in 2026-27, starting at $850 million, which, according to Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, will likely grow to more than $1 billion.

Polis noted his proposal to privatize Pinnacol Assurance, Colorado’s workers’ compensation insurer of last resort, as a way to raise new revenue. That proposal, however, has failed to gain traction with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. It is now the subject of a ballot proposal, in which the state would not get any money to cover the shortfall.

Rep. Kyle Brown, D-Louisville, the newest member of the Joint Budget Committee, noted that Polis’ budget proposal includes a lot of one-time money. Looming in the background, Brown acknowledged, is the state’s structural deficit, which state economists have been warning the legislature about for at least five years. 

“We need to address that long-term, otherwise we’re going to be back in this situation year after year,” Brown said.

Kirkmeyer said she can’t take the governor’s budget proposal seriously. She said she had hoped to hear how Polis would make the state more affordable and safer. 

“To me, this governor is just punting,” she said, using a football metaphor: “He’s in his fourth quarter. We’re down to the two-minute time clock, and he’s in defense, and he’s gonna punt the ball every opportunity he gets. And that’s what he’s doing with the budget and doing with policy in the state of Colorado.”