Col­orado state gov­ern­ment has begun a task force to exam­ine ways the state can cut it’s the num­bers of poor peo­ple. Mem­bers of the task force are try­ing to look at eco­nomic solu­tions as well as gov­ern­ment assistance.

This Asso­ci­ated Press arti­cle that we found at Forbes.com, writer Steven K. Paul­son describes the task force goals.

Rep. John Kefalas, a Demo­c­rat from Fort Collins who chairs the Eco­nomic Oppor­tu­nity Reduc­tion Task Force Com­mit­tee, said the 10-member com­mit­tee will look at the root causes of poverty and try to deter­mine why some parts of the state have more poverty than oth­ers.

“We’ve given our­selves a year, to Decem­ber of 2010, to put together a plan of action,” Kefalas said.

Jodie Levin-Epstein, spokes­woman for the Cen­ter for Law and Social Pol­icy, a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion focused on laws and poli­cies that affect poverty, told law­mak­ers that Col­orado is one of the worst states in the nation when it comes to deal­ing with the issue.

She said peo­ple who are try­ing to get out of poverty are stymied by poverty mea­sures that are based on life in the past cen­tury, when moms stayed at home and hus­bands were the bread­win­ner. She said law­mak­ers have failed to take into account the cost of health care, trans­porta­tion and tax poli­cies that make it dif­fi­cult for fam­i­lies to escape poverty.

“We need to fig­ure out ways to make work work,” she told the panel.

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