Overview:
Marianne Goodland, a longtime politics reporter and president of the Denver Press Club, discusses the current political climate.
When it comes to Colorado politics, few people know the ins and outs better than Marianne Goodland. As the longtime chief legislative reporter at Colorado Politics and president of the Denver Press Club, she’s been tracking bills, budgets and backroom drama at the Capitol since 1998.
From tracking the effects of TABOR on the state’s finances to sounding the alarm on backroom amendments to major legislation, she’s earned a reputation as one of Colorado’s most trusted, unflinching political journalists. Her writing doesn’t stop when the session ends; she also covers water issues, campaign finance, and Colorado’s often-overlooked rural communities.
In this edition of 5 Questions, Goodland explains why she believes state government does work, just not always the way it should. She breaks down how Colorado’s budget is hamstrung by constitutional constraints, why even well-meaning lawmakers sometimes kick fiscal cans down the road and how bipartisanship plays out in the building where she’s spent most of her professional life.
Beyond politics, Goodland opens up about her off-session road trips to explore water infrastructure and rural development, her musical life as a harpist, and why she’s drawn to the slow beauty of her family’s Indiana lake cabin. She even reveals a few ways you can plug into the legislative process yourself, from live streams to remote testimony.
If you’ve ever dismissed state politics as boring or irrelevant, this conversation will change your mind. Marianne Goodland makes the case—clearly and compellingly—that what happens at the Capitol affects your life far more than most headlines let on.
You have been covering the Colorado legislature since 1998. What have you learned about how the government works or doesn’t work during that time?
Generally, I think government (at least at the state level) does work. Does it work as well as it should? Probably not, given the limitations imposed by TABOR. It’s been more than 30 years since voters approved TABOR, but I don’t think Democrats have ever come to terms with those limitations.
TABOR does cause friction, both within the parties and between them. A good example is this year’s resolution to allow the General Assembly to file a lawsuit against the state to challenge TABOR’s constitutionality. As of the last week of the session, that resolution has yet to come up for a vote in the House, its first chamber; the sponsor doesn’t have the votes. Given that Democrats have been challenging TABOR in the courts for more than a decade and that the sponsor wouldn’t need more than 33 votes (this is a joint resolution, not a constitutional one), the fact that they don’t have the votes within their own caucus is very interesting.
Friction between the parties over TABOR is to be expected; Republicans in the Capitol love it and will defend it to the death. TABOR imposes limitations on how much revenue the state (and by extension the legislature) can collect and spend. The argument over its constitutionality is tied into this: we elect lawmakers to represent us on budget matters, but TABOR, to some degree, stymies this.
Over the last five years, since COVID, the state has gotten billions of dollars (as all states have) in COVID money. While it was intended to be used for one-time purposes, that hasn’t always been the case, and some funds have been put toward state expenses that are ongoing.
This year, the state hit what’s referred to as a structural deficit; basically, the state can’t keep the revenue it collects because of the cap on revenue imposed by TABOR, and they hit the cap this year. That means restrictions on spending, too, so that was part of the reason for having to cut $1.2 billion in general funds (that’s the discretionary part of the budget that lawmakers use for new programs and continuing programs), and this is not the end of it. Next year will be worse.
As to how it affects how the legislature interacts, it’s interesting to watch. The vast majority of bills this year didn’t have a cost in for 2025-26, but a lot of lawmakers just pushed off those costs into the following year, and that will be a problem because there’s no extra money next year either.
The other issue is how Colorado will respond to the federal government and the expectation that Medicaid will be severely cut. We’re already hearing talk about a special session, probably later in the summer or early fall, in which a 10% cut in federal funds for Medicaid is a $1 billion hole in the budget. Given how hard it was to find the $1.2 billion in cuts for the 2025-26 budget, finding another billion is going to be exceedingly difficult – and painful.
We are a very divided country. What does it take to have a successful session that is responsive to voters, and do any sessions stand out for you that were particularly effective in getting things done? Do you see more bipartisanship in Colorado than on the national level, and how does it reveal itself or not in our legislature?
That’s a good question and difficult to answer, I think, because voters want different things. Some want lower taxes, others want more government services, and those are often diametrically opposed asks.
Bipartisanship in the legislature is not a lot different than it was maybe 20 years ago. Most legislation, out of the 600 to 700 bills that we see every year, is bipartisan. What isn’t usually bipartisan is major policy issues, and on some things, there will never be agreement – guns, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, and to some extent, taxes (depending on the conversation). I was hopeful in 2024 when we saw a fair amount of bipartisanship on major policy issues, such as property taxes. Legislative leaders have tried to find ways to promote better relations between the caucuses, although it is more of an issue in the House than the Senate.
The 2024 election did have an impact on that as well; some of the most divisive individuals on both sides didn’t make it to the General Assembly, and we’ve seen less toxic behavior in 2025.
What is a day at the legislature like for you?
My day: I start off with looking at what’s coming up on the calendar, although at this time of year, the calendar becomes pretty meaningless, as they can bring up any bill at any time at this point in the session. I always have a plan of action for the day, and it almost always falls apart because of things popping up that I wasn’t expecting, but will definitely have to write about.
May 1 was a great example. I walked into the Capitol and someone tipped me off to some shenanigans around the school finance act, which is what funds public K-12 every year. It’s one of the last big bills of the session, and the bill got changed pretty significantly Thursday morning, to the consternation of the sponsors and the Joint Budget Committee members. I quickly wrote up a story on what happened, and that got pretty good attention from our readers.
What do you say to people who think that watching the legislature work is boring and that the process is tedious and takes forever to accomplish anything?
I think people would be surprised just how long it takes for legislation to make it to the finish line. Take the construction defects bill (HB 1276) this year; there were more than 100 meetings of the different stakeholders prior to and during the session on this bill – policy DOES take a long time to get finished. That’s not a bad thing; these are very complex issues with lots of people and businesses impacted, so the more time a bill has (sometimes, not always!), the better.
As to the work being boring? It depends on what you’re looking for…a lot of it can be pretty dull, but there are enough issues that pop up every year to fascinate almost anyone. Interested in schools? Where your state taxes go? Do you like the conditions of the roads in Colorado and what are lawmakers doing about that? (darn little, to be honest)
There’s lots of ways for people to be involved: they can watch the House or Senate floor work on the Colorado Channel, which also has a Youtube channel; they can listen through the audio on the legislature’s website (it’s under “watch and listen” on the homepage); or they can sign up to testify on bills, either in person or remotely (https://leg.colorado.gov/node/2328306/).
You also have the right to email your lawmaker, or any lawmaker, with your concerns. Those email addresses are also available on the General Assembly website (https://leg.colorado.gov/).
What do you like to do when the legislature is out of session?
My political writing doesn’t stop with May 7. I’m still writing about campaign finance issues; we have an election coming up next year, and that’s already ramping up. I also write a lot about water off-session, so I’ll be on the road for a couple of trips to visit some interesting places.
I’m planning a road trip to northeastern Colorado to get an in-person look at a canal that the state of Nebraska wants to build in Colorado (which is a fascinating story around the exploitation of eminent domain) and a trip to the Western Slope to see what’s going on with conservation efforts tied to the Colorado River. I’m also hoping to get a look at the construction of the pipeline from Pueblo to Lamar that will bring clean drinking water to the lower Arkansas Valley, a project that was approved by President John Kennedy (!) but never got off the ground until a few years ago.
I love visiting my family in Indiana and look forward to some time off at our family lake cabin, where motorboats aren’t allowed and you can sit and watch the birds and canoe.
In my spare time? I play the Celtic harp, and you can find me this summer at the Elizabeth Celtic Festival, July 19-20. Playing the harp was entirely accidental; I stumbled onto it in 1978, fell in love with it, and it’s been part of my life ever since. I play the harp for the legislature on the last day of the session every year. It’s soothing on a day when everyone is ready for a break.