The House approved a bill Friday that would prioritize a tax credit for the working poor if and when refunds under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights ever come back.
But the debate over approving the bill featured the personal testimonials of lawmakers — including some opposed to the bill — and their own experiences with poverty.
Debate on the bill earlier in the week had stirred up passions when Rep. Spencer Swalm, R-Centennial, said that the way to avoid children living in poverty is for people not to have kids out of wedlock and for people who get married to remain married.
Democrats said Swalm’s view of poverty was overly simplistic, and the comment especially angered House Speaker Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, who was born to an unwed mother and who grew up poor in a gritty Washington, D.C., neighborhood.
Republicans said they resented what they saw as Democratic insinuations that they were hard-hearted against the poor if they voted against the bill. The measure would prioritize TABOR refunds so that a family earning $41,000 or less a state would get an earned income-tax credit.
House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said Democrats’ arguments that Republicans didn’t understand the plight of the poor were “reprehensible.”
“I grew up dirt Irish poor,” May said. “I understand what it means to be poor.”
And Rep. Cindy Acree, R-Aurora, said, “I’m a single mom raising three kids. I’m counting every penny.”
Democrats, too, shared their families’ stories of struggle. Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, spoke about his Greek immigrant father, a man with only a high school education, who worked a variety of jobs to care for his family and died in his 60s.
And Rep. Jerry Frangas, D-Denver, said that, growing up, his family was an example of a household that would have benefited from such a tax credit.
“Our family for a time lived in a garage and we really needed help,” Frangas said.
The state is still $2 billion below tripping the TABOR refund mechanism, so it could be a number of years before any taxpayers, rich or poor, see a dime in relief.
The bill passed 37-27 and now heads to the Senate.
In other votes, the House approved and sent to the Senate a measure that would require large utility companies to generate nearly one-third of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. The bill is one of the top priorities this year for Gov. Bill Ritter.
The House also gave initial approval to a proposal to overhaul the Public Employees Retirement Association. The proposal would require employers and employees to pay more into the system, increase the retirement age for new workers from 55 to 60 years and limit annual cost-of-living increases for retirees.
And representatives gave initial approval to a bill that would ensure licensed river outfitters can legally raft on historically floated rivers in Colorado.
