The Colorado General Assembly session ended last month with mixed success for efforts to assist the state’s low-income, working families. Lawmakers approved measures to curb skyrocketing property taxes and utility costs, expand paid sick leave, and protect tipped wages, but failed to pass bills to control rents, limit evictions and mandate a fair work-week.
Many pro-worker priorities arguably suffered from a scattershot approach to law-writing, attempting (but largely failing) to capitalize on solid Democratic majorities. To prevent disaster for Colorado families, next year’s session must focus on the lower income brackets: families that are working, but losing access to benefits crucial to keeping them above the poverty line.
The issue: Minimum wages and benefit eligibility structures are dramatically out of sync with our state’s spiraling cost of living. More and more families are falling into poverty as a result, despite one or more household adults holding down a full-time job.
Minimum wages have rightly drawn lawmakers’ attention in recent years, gradually increasing from $8.31 per hour in 2016 to the current $13.65 statewide, and to $17.29 in Denver. While significant, these increases still fall well short for most single-parent families: in Denver County, the self-sufficiency standard for a family with one adult and one preschooler is $33.08 per hour.
Safety net programs – such as food and energy assistance, access to Medicaid, along with housing and childcare...
Patricia White, 70, of Old Greenwich, received a nine-month prison sentence for submitting false claims for unclaimed properties to around 30 state treasuries. HARRISBURG, Pa. — Months after her br...