Colorado lawmakers are cranking out bills at a record pace. The irony? They’re being increasingly productive in the wrong way — and setting up real problems for the state.

According to a new report from the nonpartisan Common Sense Institute, legislative output has surged 56% since 2012, largely within the past five years.

While most states passed 4% fewer bills during their 2025 sessions, Colorado lawmakers passed 487 bills — 23% more than the state average from 2012 to 2018. 

All told, Colorado’s growth since 2012 is the fourth highest in the nation.

Even worse, they’re growing in complexity faster than the count. The 2025 session was 54% more complex than the historical average.

The increased volume, the Common Sense Institute notes, “likely creates complexities in compliance and navigation in understanding numerous changes for individuals and businesses.”

No wonder Colorado is now the sixth-most regulated state, driving businesses away due to the ever-growing burdens and skyrocketing cost of doing business.

The legislative surge has driven a commensurate boost in ballot measures — quadrupling between 2012 and 2024, primarily with measures referred by the legislature itself.

When Colorado became a state 150 years ago, its constitution intended for the General Assembly to be a part-time “citizen legislature” whose clock stops after a limited-time session. Today, that time limit is 120 days.

The 100 lawmakers under the Golden Dome were never meant to legislate like this. Unfortunately, the mindset has changed, with legislators racing to pass as many bills as they can before the clock runs out.

This mad dash promotes loopy legislation that goes out on a limb, ideologically or otherwise. Do legislators ask themselves anymore, “Is this really a good idea?”

A good time to ask would be if a bill they introduce is needed in the first place — or would do something current law already does. Like House Bill 26-1121, which would require businesses to post online “what pollutants and discharges are emitted into the air” from their operations. 

Never mind that the “pollutants” in question, though seemingly sinister by their chemical names, are in fact harmless in the form and concentration in which they are released. 

More to the point, they are reported by law to the state right now and duly catalogued as public records, open for all to examine.

Lawmakers seem increasingly disconnected from the economic realities of the marketplace, too. One forthcoming bill would prohibit wholesalers from charging small businesses more than large retailers for goods. 

That might sound helpful for mom-and-pop shops competing with Amazons and Walmarts, but the only way big box stores offer substantial cost savings is because of their larger volumes and greater logistical capacity.

If the state interferes like this, wholesalers might decide not to sell to independent grocers anymore because it’s simply impractical to guarantee larger discounts to small retailers.

As any economics student at Colorado’s universities can tell you, price controls have never worked. They only make things worse. This time won’t be different.

Surging legislative activity doesn’t mean legislators are working for the good of the people. It means bad, often convoluted laws are getting to the governor’s desk.

It’s time to hit the brakes on the runaway legislature.