Contact:
Katie Farnan
720-404-2502
katie@thebighorncompany.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Denver, CO – May 1, 2026 – The Colorado Senate today failed to protect Colorado small businesses, consumers and service members from credit card chaos. The Senate, following a week of contentious debate, barely passed SB26-134 upon reconsideration, sending the legislation to the Colorado House of Representatives.
The bill, which passed the Senate 18-17 today after multiple amendments and reconsideration, would create real-world disruption for Colorado consumers and businesses as well as increased costs and complexity in the global payments system. Because the bill requires the sales tax portion of card transactions to be treated differently than the overall purchase, something the global payment system does not currently do, consumers could be forced to pay sales tax separately in cash, turning a single seamless purchase into two separate transactions.
A broad coalition of credit unions, small business owners, labor unions, and community organizations is now calling on House members to reject the legislation, warning that it would create confusion and higher costs for small businesses while delivering a financial windfall to corporate mega-stores including Walmart, Target, and The Home Depot.
“The Colorado Senate just passed a flawed credit and debit card chaos bill,” said Richard Hunt, Executive Chairman of the Electronic Payments Coalition. “Instead of helping small businesses and Coloradans, local politicians did the bidding of corporate mega-stores. Due to carveouts and preemptions, the Senate has whittled this bill down to targeting a handful of institutions and a single credit union whose sole purpose is to serve our military and veterans. Fully knowing the facts and the utter confusion and havoc this bill would have on Colorado’s place in the global payment system, the Senate decided to charge ahead.”
“For businesses operating on thin margins, even small disruptions at the point of sale can impact customer experience and revenue consistency,” said Angeles Ortega, CEO of Mi Casa Resource Center.
“Slashing funding for fraud protection when financial fraud is skyrocketing will harm every Coloradan that depends on safe debit and credit cards,” said Meagan Barrett, President and CEO of Northern Colorado Credit Union. “If lawmakers cut that funding, it will only accelerate the rise in costs and loss of security facing consumers every day. As local, not-for-profit financial co-ops, these cuts will add new costs and risks for the 2.8 million Coloradans that chose a credit union as their financial partner.”
In a recent op-ed in Westword, Denver NAACP President Reverend Tony Henderson and Colorado Black Women for Political Action President Bianka Emerson warned that the bill would harm working families by limiting access to affordable credit and weakening rewards programs. “Through our advocacy work in communities across Colorado, we have seen firsthand how important it is to protect the tools that help families build stability,” they wrote. “We cannot afford to pass policies that unintentionally widen economic disparities or make it harder for working families to get ahead.”
For additional information, please visit GuardYourCard.com/Colorado
