Government of Colorado | |
|---|---|
 Logo of the Colorado government  | |
| Part of | United States of America |
| Constitution | Constitution of Colorado |
| Legislative branch | |
| Name | Legislature |
| Type | Bicameral |
| Meeting place | Colorado State Capitol |
| Upper house | |
| Name | Senate |
| Presiding officer | James Coleman, President |
| Lower house | |
| Name | House of Representatives |
| Presiding officer | Julie McCluskie, Speaker |
| Executive branch | |
| Head of state andgovernment | |
| Title | Governor |
| Currently | Jared Polis |
| Appointer | Election |
| Cabinet | |
| Name | Cabinet |
| Leader | Governor |
| Deputy leader | Lieutenant Governor |
| Headquarters | State Capitol |
| Judicial branch | |
| Name | Judiciary of Colorado |
| Courts | Courts of Colorado |
| Supreme Court of Colorado | |
| Chief judge | Monica Márquez |
| Seat | Denver |
Thegovernment of Colorado is organized into three branches: theexecutive branch of theGovernor, thelegislative branch of theGeneral Assembly, and thejudicial branch of theSupreme Court and lower courts. This government was created by theConstitution of the State of Colorado, and allows fordirect participation of the electorate byinitiative,referendum,recall andratification.
The five statewide elected officers are:
The Lieutenant Governor is elected on aticket with the Governor. All statewide elected officers serve four-year terms.
There are also elected members of theColorado State Board of Education, and theRegents of the University of Colorado are elected from districts coterminous withColorado's congressional districts orat large. As a result, the Governor does not have direct management authority over either theDepartment of Education or any of the state's institutions of higher education.
The executive branch is otherwise composed of the principal departments:[1]
Regulations are published in theColorado Register and codified in theCode of Colorado Regulations (CCR).
The legislative body of Colorado is theColorado General Assembly made up of two houses, theHouse of Representatives and theColorado Senate. Members of the House are elected for two year terms from single-member, equal population districts. Approximately half of the members of the state senate are elected each two years to four year terms from single-member, equal population districts. The House of Representatives has 65 members and the Senate has 35 for a total of 100 legislators in Colorado.[citation needed] Thesession laws are published in theSession Laws of Colorado.[2] The laws of a general and permanent nature arecodified in theColorado Revised Statutes (C.R.S.).[2]
In addition to providing forvoting,[3][4] the people of Colorado have reserved to themselves the:
Thejudiciary of Colorado is defined by Article VI of theColorado Constitution as well as thelaw of Colorado. The administration of the state judicial system is the responsibility of theChief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court as its executive head, and is assisted by several other commissions. Colorado courts include the:
All of the courts above, other than municipal courts and Denver's county court, are part of the state court system. InDenver, county and municipal courts are integrated and are not part of the state court system for administrative purposes, and the Denver Probate Court and the Denver Juvenile Court havejurisdiction over probate and juvenile matters, respectively. Outside Denver, these matters are within the jurisdiction of the district courts.
Most crimes in Colorado are prosecuted by adistrict attorney. One district attorney is elected for each of the state's 22 judicial districts in a partisan election. Thestate attorney general also has power to prosecute certain crimes, and in rare circumstances aspecial prosecutor may be appointed to prosecute a crime on a case by case basis. Municipal ordinance violations are prosecuted bycity attorneys.
Colorado is divided into64 counties, two of which (Pitkin andWeld) are home rule. Counties are important units of government in Colorado since the state has no secondary civil subdivisions, such astownships. Two of these counties, theCity and County of Denver and theCity and County of Broomfield, haveconsolidated city and county governments.
The273 Colorado municipalities operate under one of five types of municipal governing authority:[7]
A municipality may extend into multiple counties. There are notownship governments in Colorado, but there are more than 4,000special districts. SeeActive Colorado Local Governments.
Other political subdivisions include the University of Colorado Hospital Authority, which provides patient care throughUCHealth (University of Colorado Health), and the Denver Health And Hospital Authority (Denver Health), which operates a hospital south of downtown Denver among other facilities.
There are twofederally recognized tribes in Colorado: theSouthern Ute Indian Tribe and theUte Mountain Ute Tribe.[8] There are no other knownstate-recognized tribes.
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