Gov. Jared Polis, in first veto of year, rejects bill changing public records law — setting up potential override vote

Gov. Jared Polis rejected a bill that would have altered the state’s public records laws on Thursday, setting up a rare attempt by legislators to try to override the veto.

In a letter announcing his decision — the first of the 2025 legislative session — the governor wrote that Senate Bill 77 made some “administrative changes” to the Colorado Open Records Act that he considered fine, including requiring additional public information about the filing and costs of records requests.

But he wrote that it had two fatal flaws: The bill would’ve given government entities more time to respond to requests than currently allowed if they determined the request was for financial gain — requiring officials to make that determination themselves. It also would’ve created two classes within the public records law, requiring faster responses for journalists — sticking to the three days now considered reasonable — while allowing for delays of a couple additional days for everyone else.

“I acknowledge CORA can be improved, and the bill includes some narrowly tailored common-sense reforms,” Polis wrote in his veto letter. “While I would support these types of narrowly scoped adjustments to CORA, I cannot do so in the context of the broader, more significant problems SB25-077 would have on transparency and the State’s open records structure.”

The bill’s bipartisan group of sponsors — who attempted a similar bill last year — have said the measure was broadly intended to give small governmental entities more time to respond to CORA requests, which, they argued, had mounted in recent years. Supporters said they gave special consideration to media requesters because journalists are typically more skilled at filing specific requests that can be more easily fulfilled.

Still, allowing for additional delays had sparked opposition from transparency advocates like the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, which asked Polis to veto the bill. Some Republicans had also opposed the measure for the deference it gave to members of the media.

“I’m disappointed because, to me, these are needed updates to CORA,” said Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican who co-sponsored the bill with fellow Republican Sen. Janice Rich and Democrats Sen. Cathy Kipp and Rep. Michael Carter.

Soper said Polis met with Rich, Kipp and Carter on Wednesday and essentially asked them to convince him not to veto the bill.

The bill’s sponsors now plan to try to override Polis’ veto, which would require the support of at least 44 House members and 24 senators — two-thirds of each chamber. Overrides are rare: The last attempt was in 2021, Soper said, and the last successful override was in 2007. That, in turn, was also the first override since the end of the Reagan administration.

Vetoes typically happen after the legislative session ends, making it impossible in most cases for lawmakers to try to override a governor’s rejection.

But this veto comes with nearly three weeks left in the session, and SB-77 passed both the House and Senate with veto-proof, bipartisan majorities. That means the sponsors theoretically would have sufficient support to overcome the two-thirds threshold.

Still, Soper said the vote would be close, and he expected Polis and his staff to lobby against an override. Democratic and Republican lawmakers would have to buck Polis just as bills pile up on his desk for passage into law.

Most lawmakers also are keenly aware of the tricky optics of state officials appearing to make government operations more opaque.

In rejecting SB-77, Polis made good on a warning he delivered to lawmakers when he signed another bill earlier this month. That law — which allows colleges to directly pay athletes for the use of their names and likenesses — also broadly blocked those agreements from being accessed by the public through records requests.

While Polis signed the bill into law, he wrote in an accompanying statement that he would “carefully review” future legislation that limited access to public records.

His rejection of Soper’s bill was celebrated by Jeff Roberts, the executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. The group had opposed the bill last year, too, and Roberts said he was pleased with Polis’ defense of CORA’s existing timelines.

As for a potential override, Roberts said he hoped “legislators who voted for this bill now think twice about what this bill does” — and that they pay attention to the governor’s concerns.

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