DENVER — One of the key pieces of legislation that Colorado Democrats promised this year at the state capitol is in danger of leaving the building.
Paid family and medical leave lost two of its Democratic cosponsors, to the surprise of its prime sponsor.
Sen. Faith Winter (D-Westminster) found out on Sunday night that Sen. Angela Williams (D-Denver) and Sen. Monica Duran (D-Wheat Ridge) were backing out as sponsors, leaving Winter and Rep. Matt Gray (D-Thornton).
"We did every single decision in this bill together and all four of us were in agreement in all those decisions and ultimately we ended up here today," said Winter. "We have talked with our leadership and the governor today and everyone is in agreement that we still want to move forward this session."
Democrats are in charge, yet they're getting in the way of their own priority.
The legislation would have required businesses to offer their employees paid time off for family and medical reasons.
Under the legislation that was being drafted, businesses with 20 or more employees would need to offer this by 2022. Employees that have worked longer than six months would be eligible. It would have been paid for either by the business, by the business splitting the cost with the employee similar to health insurance, or by having the employees foot the cost of the fee themselves.
It would have provided 90% wage replacement.
By 2025, employees would be eligible for 10 weeks instead of eight, and then in 2027, it would ratchet up to 12 weeks.
Williams and Duran declined to be interviewed. Williams said she wanted to wait until the dust settled, but texted the following statement:
"This bill in its current form does not deliver a benefit to the vast majority who tend to work in low-wage jobs that often lack stability. We represent those who come from the most marginalized communities and who are most likely to suffer job losses when they take time to care for themselves and their families. We believe strongly in Paid Family Medical Leave in principle but are struggling with many of the details," wrote Williams.
"It is still my intention to get as many people paid family leave as possible, and that includes marginalized people. The bills a work in progress and I'm going to keep working on it," said Winter.
In an emailed statement, Colorado Working Families Party, a group that seeks to elect progressive candidates, blamed Gov. Jared Polis (D).
"The only person who has failed Colorado today is Governor Jared Polis. Throughout negotiations around the paid family & medical leave bill this year, our Governor has demanded that the policy be radically redefined from previous years into a program that is for-profit, untested, not inclusive, and ultimately unworkable," wrote Deputy Director Wendy Howell. "Had the Governor not attempted to place his thumb on the scale of the legislative work on this issue in such a heavy-handed and destructive way, today we would likely be talking about a paid family & medical leave bill instead of wondering if one will even be introduced."
A spokesman for Polis took issue with the criticism.
"Taking pot shots doesn’t help hardworking families or ensure we are any closer to achieving paid family and medical leave. If getting paid family and medical leave done in Colorado were easy it would have been done already," wrote spokesman Conor Cahill. Everyone knows you need 18, 33 and 1 to get a bill signed into law and we’ve been working hard to do that."
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