March 13, 2008 2:52 PM
Working Families: “Show me the Moneeeeey!”
Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill today to restore the State Earned Income Tax Credit to help lower-income Colorado families earn an average $450 refund to pay for basic needs – and help boost a sagging economy.
A revival of the state version of the federal income tax break for working families would spread about $52 million among 264,000 low-to-moderate income Colorado families.
“The goal here, in my mind, is make an economy that works for everyone,” said House sponsor Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins.
“The goal…is to make sure that folks who are playing by the rules, living paycheck to paycheck, that they have an opportunity to move toward self-sufficiency to get beyond poverty,” he added.
The state tax credit was originally passed in 1999 after critics argued that the working poor had been relatively stiffed on the tax credits lavished on wealthier Coloradans by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights passed by voters in 1992.
But when a recession hit Colorado and government coffers in 2001, the tax credits for poor families – and everyone else – were suspended.
Now, as a new recession and rising inflation looms, Kefalas and fellow sponsor Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, say working families need help more than ever to pay for soaring gas and food prices.
The lawmakers stressed the tax break rewards low-income families for working hard – while also boosting the local economy.
“It’s a tried-and-true poverty fighter,” Boyd said.
The challenge will be getting fellow lawmakers to back the tax credits' $52 million annual pricetag in a time of tight state budgets. The sponsors think they can persuade colleagues to tap unspent federal grants for needy families along with money from the unemployment insurance fund.
--Alan Gathright
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