Senate Finance

Tuesday, February 3, 2026·1h 11m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Colorado Senate Finance Committee unanimously advanced two regulatory appointments and two bills — including a modernization of the Fire and Police Pension Association's Death and Disability Plan and a measure to decouple Colorado nonprofit tax status from federal 501(c)(3) designation — with Minority Leader Simpson registering skepticism about the legal necessity of the charitable organization bill and blocking it from the consent calendar.

Key Actions

·Confirmation – Michael Faber, Colorado Limited Gaming Control CommissionPassed

+ 3 more actions

Controversies

Whether SB 26-009 is legally necessary given existing Colorado statute

Minority Leader Simpson argued that existing statute contains 'a very distinct 12 line definition of what a charitable organization is' making 'no reference to 501c3,' questioning why the committee was 'having this discussion of decoupling when I can't see very clearly that we're coupled' and asking whether the bill was 'truly... a messaging bill.' Jack Murphy countered that the state definition is 'quite literally a copy and paste set of language' from the IRS, creating risk that loss of federal status could be interpreted to strip state status. Tom Downey acknowledged the bill is partly messaging but argued it is 'still necessary because even though some of us may think that legislation is quite clear, that a statute is quite clear... there is room for wiggle.'

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Right now, in the statute, every application that comes in is required to go to three independent medical examiners for an assessment. Well, we just had somebody who is stage four cancer, terminally ill, and under the law, we've got to send them to three independent medical exams. And we don't feel like that's necessary.”
Adam Franklin, General Counsel, FPPA — Franklin was explaining why SB 26-039 proposes to make the independent medical examination process more flexible rather than requiring three exams for every application under the FPPA Death and Disability Plan.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

Move Michael Faber's appointment to the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission to the full Senate with a favorable recommendationNo Vote

Yes (7)Bright, Gonzalez, Mullica, Simpson, Snyder, Marchman, Madam Chair Kipp

Move Tamika Sampson's reappointment to the Colorado Racing Commission to the full Senate with a favorable recommendationNo Vote

Yes (7)Bright, Rozelle, Gonzalez, Kolker, Malika, Simpson, Madam Chair

Absent (1)Snyder — no response recorded in transcript before moving to next senator

Move SB 26-039 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendationNo Vote

Yes (9)Bright, Frizell, Gonzalez, Kolker, Mullica, Simpson, Snyder, Marchman, Madam Chair

Move SB 26-009 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendationPassed

Yes (5)Senator Sprite [UNCLEAR spelling — likely Bright, Gonzalez, Kolker, Simpson, Madam Chair

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TranscriptPreview

Everybody, welcome to Senate Finance. Our first meeting of 2026. Woohoo. Thanks for being here. And Ms. Friedelbush, will you please take the roll? Senators Bright. Here. Roselle. President Gonzalez. Present. Poker. Excused. Mullica. Excused. Simpson. President Snyder. Here. Marchman. Here. Madam Chair. Here. Oh, and I. Wait, I'm going to give you a second to say Kolker again because. Okay, there. So thank you everybody for joining us Today we are going to start off with some confirmations. And first up today we have the Limited Gaming Control Commission. And I believe. Well, I think Christopher Schroeder is going to introduce Michael Faber. And it says both appointees. I don't see both names on here. Oh, okay. For both of them. So actually do you all want to just come up and we'll do one. We'll do each commission one at a time, but we'll get started with that. Okay. Okay, excellent. And yeah, so we're going to do the Limited Gaming Control Commission first and we're going to move on to the Colorado Racing Commission. Okay. But Mr. Schroeder and Mr. Faber I believe favor Faber. Thank you both for being here. And please, Mr. Schroeder, please proceed.…

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