Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper delivers his final State of the State address Thursday, and he will use the moment to define his legacy and offer a vision for the future.
The term-limited Democrat is expected to focus on the state’s economic success in the seven years since he took office and outline the steps he believes are necessary to maintain the momentum, such as major investments in roads and the expansion of high-speed internet to rural parts of the state.
“We are going to spend some time looking at — here’s what things looked like seven years ago, here’s some of the stuff we did,” he told reporters ahead of the joint address to the General Assembly. “We do spend some time talking about what we think are the key issues (and) where the state should put a significant amount of the focus.”
The speech — which begins at 11 a.m. — will outline his legislative agenda and emphasize the need for bipartisan cooperation, even in the divisive era of President Donald Trump. It comes a day after Colorado lawmakers started the 2018 legislative term — one defined by divergent agendas and questions about a culture of sexual harassment at the Capitol.
Hickenlooper said the remarks will emphasize “how we have worked together in this state in a way that most other states haven’t done” and talk about how “we all have a responsibility to listen a little harder to what the other person is saying and find common ground.”
The governor enters his final year with plenty of accomplishments, but the toughest challenges remain, such as a way to untangle the knot of constitutional spending rules related to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, an issue he put front-and-center in his first address since being re-elected in 2014.
A year ago, the governor made a bold call for lawmakers to craft a tax hike to improve roads and transit that would win support from voters. The top Democratic and Republican lawmakers collaborated on a plan, but the effort failed by one vote in a GOP-led Senate committee in the 2017 session.
This year, Hickenlooper suggested he’s not one to sit idle as a lame-duck governor. “I always like the metaphor of the duck where it is just gliding smoothly across the water and underneath its webbed feet are paddling furiously,” he said.
As he speaks, political observers will look for clues about his political future and whether he will run for president in 2020 — speculation Hickenlooper has not put to rest.
