Bell Policy Center testimony

2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2005 Legislative Status Report

HB 05-1020 - Alternative Base Period for Calculating Unemployment Insurance Benefits in Colorado, by Rich Jones to the Senate Business Affairs, Labor and Technology Committee, March 23, 2005
"Using the standard base period of the first four of the last five completed quarters blocks some low income workers from eligibility. Many of these workers are recent entrants or re-entrants to the work force and some have intermittent work histories. Under this method anywhere from three to almost six months of earnings may not be counted in determining eligibility for unemployment benefits.
"Using an alternative base period that counts earnings in the previous four quarters before the filing quarter would help low-income workers use more of their recent earnings to qualify for benefits."

HB 05-1092 - SUTA Dumping Prevention Act of 2005, by Rich Jones to the Senate Business Affairs, Labor and Technology Committee, March 16, 2005
"SUTA dumping hurts state unemployment trust funds and shifts a tax burden to law abiding citizens. Unemployed workers, particularly low-income workers rely on the unemployment system to keep them and their families from falling out of the cycle of opportunity and into poverty. Actions that weaken the unemployment system hurt these workers.
"Most of the SUTA dumping schemes have been directed at large employers. Small businesses particularly, those with a small number of employees, are harmed by the tax avoidance when SUTA dumping occurs."

HB 05-1194 - The Colorado Economic Recovery Act, by Wade Buchanan to the Senate Finance Committee, March 15, 2005
"We support and urge you to support the bill in its current form. That said, let's be honest about what we are doing. What you have before you is a short-term fix, and we should not call it anything else. The amendments you are about to consider will make it even more short-term. It will leave the long-term solution for another day, another legislature and another governor."

HB 05-1232 - Concerning the Earned Income Tax Credit, by Spiros Protopsaltis to the House Finance Committee, Feb. 17, 2005
"By making the Colorado EITC permanent and increasing its amount, working families will receive meaningful support in making ends meet, and at the same time you will provide a much-needed fiscal stimulus to our economy."

HB 05-1194 - The Colorado Economic Recovery Act, by Penfield Tate III to the House Finance Committee, Feb. 2, 2005
"We believe the best solution is a constitutional amendment to permanently change the spending limits at both the state and local levels, to make it easier for all levels of government to save for a rainy day, and to eliminate the weakening provision.
"HB05-1194 is a long way from that ideal.
"On the positive side, it moves away from consumer price inflation as the basis for spending limits at the state level, and it eliminates the ratchet effect at the state level by pegging limits to a specific year. And by allowing the state to keep more revenues, it creates an opportunity to build a rainy day fund."