Polis threatens to veto bill addressing sentencing disparities between Colorado’s state and municipal courts

Gov. Jared Polis has threatened to veto a bill that would mandate Colorado’s municipal courts conform to state sentencing guidelines, the bill sponsors said.

HB25-1147 would limit city courts from administering sentences that go beyond state limits for the same crimes. Legislative reforms in 2021 significantly reduced maximum penalties for a host of low-level, nonviolent crimes in Colorado’s state courts. But municipal courts, which operate individually and are not part of the state judicial system, were not included in the statute.

As a result, defendants in Colorado’s municipal courts can face much longer sentences than those in state court for the same petty offenses, The Denver Post previously found.

The bill, sponsored by Reps. Javier Mabrey and Elizabeth Velasco and Sens. Judy Amabile and Mike Weissman, all Democrats, passed both chambers.

The sponsors say the governor never weighed in on the bill or asked for changes as it traveled through the House or the Senate. But they learned in recent days that Polis might veto their legislation.

“It’s been disheartening to learn the governor might be succumbing to pressure from some Colorado municipalities and might be at risk of vetoing the bill,” Weissman told The Post. “That would be the wrong outcome from Colorado.”

Ally Sullivan, a Polis spokesperson, would not confirm the veto threat, but said the governor is “skeptical of actions that may limit local governments’ ability to improve public safety in our communities and neighborhoods.”

“The governor will carefully review any bill that reaches his desk,” she said in a statement.

Mabrey said he wasn’t sure about next steps and that lawmakers are trying to decide whether to change the bill — and determine what could be changed — to ensure its passage into law.

“We have two (expletive) systems of law that are totally dependent on what box a police officer checks,” Mabrey said. “What people who are against this bill are saying is they’re OK with some criminal defendants getting less due process and are not OK with the sentencing guidelines passed by the (state).”

Amabile said she disagreed that the bill would harm public safety.

“There is this other public safety thing, where the cities feel like, ‘Well, if we just put people in jail who are committing crimes that are crimes homeless people make … then we will clean up our streets,’ ” she said. “But what that does is it destabilizes the person. It’s like we’re creating poorhouses, and it imposes a burden on the counties because they’re the ones who have to pay to keep somebody in jail.”

City representatives, during committee hearings on the bill, opposed the bill in strong language, saying the changes would encroach on their ability to deal with crimes specific to their jurisdictions. The Colorado Constitution also explicitly allows for home rule, they said, meaning cities have the freedom to legislate on matters of local concern.

Police officers often have wide latitude in deciding whether to send offenders to municipal or state court. That decision, The Post found, carries enormous consequences.

Colorado law allows cities to punish people who commit city ordinance violations with up to 364 days in jail. Those facing similar, low-level charges, such as trespassing or petty theft, would only see a maximum of 10 days in jail if convicted in state court.

The Colorado Supreme Court is considering the legality of these sentence disparities, and a ruling could have wide-ranging impacts on municipal codes throughout the state. Oral arguments are set for May 13.

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