Polis delivers final State of the State, asks $200 million for seniors and outlines housing, transit and health priorities

Governor Jared Polis outlined a broad agenda in his final State of the State address, pressing lawmakers to act on housing, transportation, health care and public safety and asking the Joint Budget Committee to find $200 million in one‑time funding to make the senior homestead exemption portable.

Polis opened by thanking legislative and executive leaders and framed his remarks around a “Colorado for All” theme, recounting achievements such as free preschool and full‑day kindergarten, expanded road and transit funding, and a suite of measures he credited with lowering child poverty. He said the budget request for a portable senior homestead exemption is intended to help seniors downsize and free up homes for other families.

Polis singled out housing as a central challenge and announced the Housing Opportunities Made Easier (HOME) Act to pair higher education, transit agencies, school districts and housing authorities to build on underused land and speed construction. He also highlighted administrative changes meant to speed contracting at the Department of Local Affairs and cited recent gains in repaving, transit ridership and electric‑vehicle adoption as evidence of progress on mobility and emissions.

On health care, Polis described state reforms — hospital pricing transparency, the Colorado Option, reinsurance and a cap on insulin prices — and urged both continued state action and federal engagement to lower prescription and insurance costs. He warned that unchecked Medicaid growth threatens other statewide priorities, saying the state must pursue value and sustainability while protecting access for the roughly 1,200,000 Coloradans who rely on Medicaid.

Polis closed with a call for bipartisan cooperation and a final appeal to kindness as he begins his last year in office: "welcome to my final State of the State address" and, later, "So long, and thanks for all the fish."