2025 Colorado Legislative Round-Up: Highlights from the Legislative Session

Colorado’s 2025 legislative session had many successes for RMFU’s priorities. From legislation protecting private property rights to legislation that will ask voters to support the Healthy School Meals for All program in the November 2025 Colorado election, we were able to work with both legislators and stakeholders on a widely bipartisan basis across a range of issues. We took a position of either support, oppose, monitor, or amend on 60 pieces of legislation this session.

The Colorado State Budget

As you may have heard, Colorado found itself in a budget shortfall of over one billion dollars. This meant that, out of the over forty billion dollar budget, over one billion dollars of cuts had to be made. That also meant that, out of the 650 bills introduced over the course of the session, most with any kind of ‘fiscal note’, or requirement for funding increases, did not pass. While the situation will be similar, if not worse, next year as the budget shortfall has not been solved long term. For this year at least, agriculture, as well as the largest portions of the budget in healthcare and education, were not significantly impacted.

Colorado Bill Highlights

SB25-128—Agricultural Worker Service Providers Access Private Property

This bill was in response to a Supreme Court case, Cedar Point Nursery vs. Hassid, that affects the legality of the key service provider provision of SB21-087—Agricultural Workers’ Rights. Because the Supreme Court found that requiring property owners to allow access for key service providers under a similar California provision “appropriates a right to invade the [employers’] property and therefore constitutes a per se physical taking…”, the provision was found to be unconstitutional. This is in line with our policy on protecting private property rights. There are many potential safety risks on an agricultural property, and we support property owners having the right to say who can access their property. The bill did not change the aspects of SB21-087 that ensure that there are plenty of opportunities for agricultural workers to access key services and meet with key service providers. The bill passed with bipartisan support.

HB25-1274—Healthy School Meals for All Program

The Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA) program, created after Colorado voters approved Proposition FF in 2022, has been so popular that the original amount of funding allocated has not been sufficient to support all the schools that have opted in. Given the situation with this year’s budget, it was not feasible to pass a bill that would have appropriated more funds from the Colorado state budget. Therefore, advocates for HSMA crafted a bill, HB25-1274, that will put two ballot measures to the Colorado voters on the November 2025 ballot. The first measure would allow the state to retain all revenue raised under Prop FF rather than returning a portion to taxpayers per TABOR requirements, and the second measure would decrease the tax deductions eligible for Coloradans making more than $300,000 per year.

In tandem with the passage of HB25-1274, the legislature also passed SB25-214. This bill came out of the Joint Budget Committee, and it cut around $34 million from the program but left enough to enable full funding through December 2025. Then, if the ballot measures pass at the November 2025 Colorado election, Colorado would be able to fully fund the program through the end of 2026 and beyond. If the ballot measures fail in November, then they would scale HSMA back to only cover schools with at least 25% of students who participate in a program that directly certifies them for free school meals like Medicaid or SNAP. This has implications for our members who participate in or would like to participate in the local food purchasing aspect of the HSMA program, as well as for all Colorado public school students.

Other Bills Passed

• HB25-1021—Tax Incentives for Employee-Owned Businesses will make it more affordable for an owner to sell their business to their employees by eliminating the state capital gains tax that the owner would otherwise pay. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1053—Landowner Immunity for Emergency Access to Property provides immunity from civil liability when a property owner allows individuals to cross their property to escape from an emergency, such as a wildfire or a flood. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1115—Water Supply Measurement & Forecasting Program aims to improve the way the state collects data on snowpack levels and conducts water supply forecasting. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1131—Veterinary Workforce Requirements removes the enrollment cap for veterinary students at Colorado State University. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1203—Misbranding Cultivated Meat Products as Meat ensures that cultivated meat products, sometimes referred to as lab-grown meat, are properly labeled to reflect how they were made. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1281—Title Register & Drive Kei Vehicles makes it explicitly legal to register Kei mini-trucks and other similar vehicles in Colorado. The bill removes regulatory barriers that have prevented Coloradans from being able to legally register these otherwise legal vehicles. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1283—Wild Horse Project Management and Immunocontraception implements the findings of Colorado’s Wild Horse Working Group to improve efforts to reduce the impacts of wild horses on rangelands. This bill would empower the Colorado Department of Agriculture to lead efforts to manage wild horse populations, including efforts to do less invasive birth control on herds via darting. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1285—Veterinary Workforce Requirements establishes requirements related to the practice of veterinary medicine by those who fill the newly-established role of a veterinary professional associate (VPA), which was established in November 2024 with the passage of Proposition 129. The bill specifies how an individual registers as a VPA in Colorado and clarifies the circumstances under which a VPA can practice veterinary medicine. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1299—Animal Protection Fund Voluntary Contribution gives Coloradans the option to choose to donate to the Animal Protection Fund, which part of the fund is used by the Colorado Department of Agriculture during emergencies, like wildfires, for evacuations and housing of animals. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1311—Deductions for Net Sports Betting Proceeds will phase out a tax exemption for sports betting companies and direct the funds to crucial water projects around Colorado. We supported this bill.
• HB25-1332—State Trust Lands Conservation & Recreation Work Group was introduced late in the session and passed quickly. Given the potential for this legislation to affect agricultural land, we worked with the entire ag lobby to present a united front and to address our concerns. We took an amend position, and we are glad that the coalition supporting the bill accepted every change we asked for, including explicitly designating agriculture as a beneficial use for State Land Board lands. We also asked that the appointments be made by the legislature and the Department of Natural Resources, and that there be ag voices represented on the work group. We succeeded in securing three seats on the workgroup. After the amendments, we moved to a monitor position.
• SB25-038—Wildlife Damage Protection of Personal Information changes current law by requiring that the personal information of a person filing a claim for depredation compensation with the Department of Parks and Wildlife is kept confidential and not disclosed through the “Colorado Open Records Act”. We supported this bill.
• SB25-040—Future of Severance Taxes & Water Funding Task Force addresses serious concerns about declining severance tax revenues that rural communities and water projects in Colorado rely on by setting up a task force to determine how to address the decline in revenue. We supported the bill.

Bills That Did Not Pass

• HB25-1074—Change Confinement Standards Egg-Laying Hens would have repealed regulations on the egg industry that folks in the industry had already paid to implement. We opposed this bill alongside egg industry advocates.
• HB25-1190—Expanding Colorado Cottage Foods Act would have made it possible for direct sales to consumers of homemade foods that require refrigeration. We supported this bill and hope to work on similar legislation next year that addresses the concerns of public health officials and other stakeholders.
• HB25-1258—Scientific Wildlife Management would have changed the methodology that the Department of Parks and Wildlife uses for wildlife management. We opposed this bill because it would have potentially limited DPW in its efforts, and it was widely seen as a pro-wolf bill.
• HB25-1286—Protecting Workers from Extreme Temperatures would have implemented extensive workplace regulations aimed at preventing temperature-related injuries and illnesses, requiring employers to implement safety measures, monitoring plans, and emergency response procedures. Given how unclear and potentially unfeasible many of the regulations were, we opposed this bill.
• HB25-1323—Division of Parks & Wildlife Outdoor Recreation was introduced late in the session, and we took an ‘amend’ position. We were concerned about how this bill would affect water rights holders; many other agricultural groups and water stakeholders were also concerned about the bill. The bill ended up dying in committee so that there would be more time to work on the bill, both during the upcoming interim and during next year’s legislative session. We have a commitment from the proponents and the sponsors to have RMFU and the rest of the ag lobby at the meetings to discuss the policy.

Please check the RMFU Bill Tracker for a list of all bills we took positions on this year: https://rmfu.org/legislation/colorado-legislation/.

Conclusion

While 2025 was a challenging year for legislation in Colorado, and 2026 will likely be another challenging year given ongoing budget issues, we are glad to have advocated for so many bills that will make life better for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. While we prepare for 2026 throughout the interim, we are looking forward to policy events and convention season to answer questions you have. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out! We hope the summer and fall treat everyone well.