Colorado lawmakers give up on paid family leave bill, will support ballot measure

Sponsors are abandoning efforts to create a paid family and medical leave program in Colorado through legislation, announcing Friday they will instead support a ballot initiative already in the works.

The proposed family leave bill faced rough waters from the beginning, but the coronavirus pandemic proved to be an insurmountable obstacle, the Democratic would-be sponsors said. State Sens. Faith Winter and Dominick Moreno and Reps. Matt Gray and Yadira Caraveo announced the decision Friday morning.

The pandemic hurt the legislators’ ability to solicit input from businesses and other stakeholders, Caraveo said.

In addition, business groups were pushing hard for compromises that would have likely left gig, part-time and low-income workers without benefits, Winter said — an unacceptable concession.

“We’ve seen those workers step up and keep everything running right now,” Winter said. “We weren’t going to accept a policy that didn’t include those workers.”

So they are turning their attention to an effort announced earlier this year to create a statewide family and medical leave insurance program through the ballot box. The measure, led by a group called Colorado Families First, proposes a state-run program that would provide partial wage replacement for up to 12 weeks a year for eligible employees. It also offers employment protections so those employees could take the leave. Premiums for the program would be split between employers and employees.

The issue was at the center of much conflict in the General Assembly this session even though a bill never actually made it to the floor. In late February, the lead sponsors, Winter and Gray, learned that their then-partners on the measure, Sen. Angela Williams and Rep. Monica Duran, would drop their names from the legislation. Williams and Duran voiced concern that compromises made to win over moderates meant the measure wouldn’t sufficiently protect Colorado’s most vulnerable workers.

That loss of support signaled a large problem for the bill, as Democrats hold a narrow 19-16 majority in the Senate.

Caraveo signed on as a new sponsor, but then the legislature abruptly adjourned as the coronavirus began spreading through Colorado. Lawmakers are scheduled to return in mid-May, but the priority then will be to pass a budget that accounts for a revenue shortfall of up to $3 billion due to the pandemic.

Colorado Families First still needs to collect 124,632 signatures to earn a spot on the ballot. And the group apparently plans to do so by phone, keeping the recommended social distancing requirements in mind, Caraveo said.

“Their idea is that they will be sending text messages out by neighborhood and say ‘If you’re interested in signing the petition we’re going to be in your neighborhood on such and such a day,’” she said.

A ballot measure would almost certainly draw substantial opposition from business groups, and a defeat at the polls could set back the issue for some time. Still, Gray said, polling suggests most Coloradans support the idea.

“When you start somewhere between 65 and 83%, it takes more of a campaign to beat that than it does a campaign to win for it,” he said.

Lawmakers’ announcement drew quick reactions Friday.

The Colorado Chamber of Commerce said in a statement that this is not the time to create a large-scale state program.

“The uncertainty of the situation globally and nationally has forced many businesses to close temporarily, layoff and furlough valued employees, and seek out financial assistance to stay afloat,” Loren Furman, senior vice president of state and federal relations, said in the release. “Benefits like paid leave are meaningless if Coloradans don’t have stable employment.”

Karla Gonzales Garcia, policy director for the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, however, said in a statement that it’s exactly the right time for state lawmakers to ensure family needs are met.

“Right now, we are telling people that if they can’t afford to go without a paycheck that they should still show up to work when they are ill,” Garcia said. “We are making people choose between caring for a loved one and having the money to pay their rent or put food on their table.”

Indeed, the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted many of the shortcomings in the current system, Winter said. A quarter of women go back to work just two weeks after giving birth, and she noted that even cancer patients must balance their treatment with the ability to work and pay bills.

“Frankly, the time to deal with this was 3 or 4 years ago so we would have this in place right now,” Gray said.