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Polis faces a $1 billion deficit as the biggest challenge of his tenure

STATE OF THE STATE 2026 | Colorado Governor Jared Polis in an interview with Jesús Sánchez Meleán, editor of El Comercio de Colorado. (File Photo/Felipe Arredondo – El Comercio de Colorado)

PRESENTS HIS FINAL MESSAGE AS GOVERNOR OF COLORADO

Polis’ final State of the State will not so much be a catalog of new ideas. We believe it will serve as a legacy assessment and a roadmap to navigate a final year dominated by red ink, difficult decisions, and the closing of a political chapter in Colorado.

Jesus Sanchez Meleán

El Comercio de Colorado

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Governor Jared Polis is preparing to deliver his seventh and final State of the State address with his sights set on 2026, his last year in office. The year will be marked by the greatest challenge of his administration: closing a massive budget shortfall with no room for new promises. After two terms with ambitious agendas, the speech arrives at a moment of adjustments, hard priorities, and politically sensitive decisions.

In his first term, Polis focused heavily on universal early childhood education, making free full-day kindergarten, and expanding preschool flagship goals, while also working to reduce health care costs and accelerate the transition to renewable energy. In his second term, the focus shifted to housing affordability, increasing education funding, and defending economic growth amid inflation and fiscal pressures.

A new landscape

Colorado faces an estimated budget gap of between $850 million and $955 million for fiscal year 2025–26. That deficit, which began to be addressed during the August 2025 special session but will dominate 2026, was caused by the new federal law H.R.1, which cuts state revenues and shifts costs to programs such as Medicaid and SNAP. The result is a scenario of unavoidable cuts and the practical impossibility of launching new programs.

Polis signaled this shift by calling special sessions—one in 2023 focused on property tax relief and another in 2025 to directly confront the fiscal impact of H.R.1. In his final year, the governor will have to balance budget cuts with protecting signature programs such as school meals and health care, while maintaining the state’s competitiveness.

TABOR checks and veto power

He has governed under the strict rules of TABOR, defending the return of surplus revenues to taxpayers, including the well-known 2022 Colorado Cash Back program. Through that initiative, the state of Colorado distributed checks of $750 per individual taxpayer and $1,500 per couple, with a total state outlay of more than $3.5 billion in refunds.

Polis has frequently used his veto power, breaking records even against bills advanced by his own party, with 11 vetoes in 2025 alone, 10 in 2023, six in 2024, plus three in 2021 and four in 2022. One emblematic veto came in May 2025 with SB25-005, legislation that sought to amend the Labor Peace Act by eliminating the requirement of a second vote in which 75% of workers must approve a union security agreement.

The proposal would have allowed mandatory union dues to be imposed on nonmembers after a simple majority vote to unionize. Polis justified his decision by arguing that the core issue was not union formation—already regulated by federal law—but the mandatory payroll deductions, defending a high threshold of support amid inflation and pressure on family costs.

Polis’ pardons

Another key chapter has been the consistent use of his clemency powers. From mass pardons for marijuana possession, which benefited 1,351 people in 2021, to commutations of lengthy sentences, hundreds of cases have been reviewed during his tenure. The most prominent episode was the commutation of the sentence of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, a Cuban-born truck driver initially sentenced to 110 years in prison.

Aguilera-Mederos’ original sentence stemmed from a fatal accident on Interstate 70. The penalty was reduced after a wave of public pressure and arguments that it was disproportionate. In that context, the question resurfaces as to whether Polis will consider a pardon for Tina Peters. Peters’ case is currently before the appeals court, but Polis has said he believes the sentence was harsh. The association of county clerks has recommended that he not grant a pardon.