Gov. Jared Polis was scheduled to talk to reporters at 12:30 p.m. on Friday at the Governor’s Mansion to discuss his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, which he is required to submit to the Joint Budget Committee on Nov. 1.

Before addressing the media, Polis had planned to meet with the Joint Budget Committee, as well as with House and Senate leadership early Friday morning.

None of the meetings with lawmakers was publicly announced, as is required by the state’s open meetings law.

With four of the six members of the legislature’s budget panel waiting in the Capitol for the 9 a.m. meeting, the governor abruptly cancelled it at 8:55 a.m.

The reason? According to a text between JBC Chair Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village, and Rep. Rick Taggart, R-Grand Junction, it’s because a member invited the media.

Colorado Politics had showed up at the Capitol for the meeting — but not by invitation.

The meeting wasn’t exactly a secret; both Bridges and Taggart discussed it during their hearing on Thursday.

After the meeting was canceled, Polis did meet in person with Taggart and remotely with Bridges to give an abbreviated briefing on the 2026-27 budget.

The cancellation didn’t go over well with the JBC’s Republican members.

The JBC had met on Thursday to approve the governor’s request for $10 million for funding food pantries and food banks in the wake of the suspension of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, expected to begin on Saturday.

The request, however, raised questions from several JBC members, who thought the $10 million was inadequate and did not agree with the source of those funds — the state’s general fund reserve.

JBC members Sens. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, and Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, as well as Reps. Emily Sirota, D-Denver, and Rick Taggart, R-Grand Junction, were all in the Capitol for the 9 a.m. meeting on Friday.

Taggart drove 250 miles each way to make it to the Friday meeting with the governor. He told Colorado Politics he could have participated in Thursday’s JBC meeting remotely, but believed it was essential to be in the meeting with the governor in person on Friday. So, he said, made the trip, at taxpayers’ expense, which will include both mileage and hotel expenses.

“I’m glad I was there” at Thursday’s meeting, based on the discussion about SNAP benefits, he said.

Kirkmeyer told Colorado Politics she intended to bring up the SNAP funding issues with the governor on Friday.

“We’re doing our job as JBC members; the governor has a responsibility to file his budget presentation by Nov. 1,” Kirkmeyer said.

She pointed out that she moved things around so she could be at the Capitol at 9 a.m.

“It’s our job. The budget is important. It’s one more thing in the line of disappointing things this administration has done,” including what happened Thursday, she said.

Kirkmeyer noted during Thursday’s meeting that the governor could tap the state’s disaster emergency reserve, which had $475 million available in fiscal year 2022. That would not require JBC approval and the governor could move far more than the $10 million he sought from the general fund reserve Thursday.

JBC staff told the committee’s members that food banks and pantries can leverage dollars for food at a 3:1 ratio, meaning they could stretch $40 million into $120 million worth of value. That’s about how much the SNAP program spends every month in Colorado.

“We have an opportunity to do what’s right” for the 600,000 Coloradans who are losing SNAP benefits Saturday, the Republican said. “Instead of doing what’s right and calling it an emergency” and tapping the emergency fund, maybe he didn’t want to talk about that, she said.

“Why aren’t we providing for the less fortunate” who may not get food, perhaps even during Thanksgiving? she asked.

“I guess we’ll call our friends at the Psychic Network,” she quipped.

The governor is scheduled to hold more meetings with lawmakers on Friday to discuss the 2026-27 budget, which had not been publicly announced. They’re expected to include the leaders of the House and Senate, beginning at 10 a.m.

Jeff Roberts of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition noted that the definition of public business was changed in Senate Bill 24-157.

Public business includes a statutory committee, an interim committee and a committee of reference, such as the JBC.

“That (meeting) seems to fit the definition of public business as defined in statute” — and thereby subject to the open meetings law, Roberts told Colorado Politics.

Notice is required when a majority or quorum is expected to be in attendance, as required by the 2024 law.

“I would like to hear Sen. Bridges’ explanation as to why the public wasn’t notified about this meeting, which is certainly about a substantive issue,” Roberts said. “It’s the most important thing the legislature deals with every year.”