A bill that would create a retirement savings account with payroll deductions for Coloradans who don’t have them got off to a partisan start Thursday.

House Bill 1290 would create the Colorado Secure Savings Plan. It passed the House Business Affairs on a 7-6 party-line vote.

Hard-edged questions from Republicans exposed ideological rifts over the government’s role in the workplace. Similar legislation has been killed the last two sessions by Senate Republicans, and it seems probable that this year will make it three.

Several small business owners testified in favor of the bill, however, and supporters said employers would not have a significant role in the process, no more so than with traditional retirement plans.

Rep. Dan Thurlow, R-Grand Junction, didn’t see the point.

“If we’re re-inventing the wheel that the private industry has already created, and we’re saying we can create a government body that’s going to take this money in and invest it and handle all the fiduciary responsibilities and handle all the accounting chores, why would we think the government body can do it better than the private investment firms are now?” he said.

Rich Jones, the director of policy and research at the left-leaning Bell Policy Center in Denver, said the problem is not availability of private plans, in general, but some lower wage-earners’ ability to access them easily.

“Our sense is that this will cover the people who aren’t covered now, and who haven’t been covered,” Jones told the committee about the proposed savings plan.

He cited a Boston College study that showed the low rates of retirement saving participation has been consistent since the 1970s along with low rates of retirement savings.

“If we just keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’re going to continue to get what we’re getting, which is about 40 percent of the people uncovered in a workplace plan and two-thirds of the people not having an IRA,” Jones said.

The fund would be a public-private partnership, developed and managed by a newly created board to develop a low-risk investment portfolio. There is no expected cost to taxpayers, but depend on gifts, grants and donations for start-up costs.

Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, the bill’s sponsor, warned the committee of a looming retirement savings crisis. While that’s bad for those who haven’t saved enough, it’s also bad for taxpayers who will have to help care for that onslaught.

“Everyone agrees that America faces a retirement crisis—people are not saving enough,” Pettersen said. “I know that I’ve worked many low-wage jobs in my life—cleaning houses, waiting tables, working in retail, where I never had access to a workplace plan. This plan creates an option for Coloradans to save a little at a time throughout their life for a secure retirement.”

Pettersen said 25 states are looking at such options, and so far, only five legislatures have put plans in motion.

Chad Vorthmann, executive vice president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, said farmers operate on tight margins and adding any more fees, costs or penalties would dip deep in some’s ability to pay.

“This bill has a good premise, however, we feel the consequences could have devastating impacts to rural Colorado,” he told the committee. “In many instances our farmers and ranchers are providing retirement programs for their employees, though they’re not as clear-cut as a savings plan.”

He cited ranch hands keeping their personal cattle in their employer’s fields to grow their own a herd to get into the cattle business, or fund retirement or college savings, as he did growing up.

Jenifer Waller, a senior vice president with the Colorado Bankers Association, said such plans, though widely considered, are still in an experimental phase in other states.

“One of the things I find most concerning about this plan is it lack what I consider to be the most important thing, financial education and financial counseling with individuals before they invest,” she said.

She said the legislation also doesn’t say who is responsible if the plan has embezzlement or other issues, other than the plan itself. And depending on gifts, grants and donations is rife for conflicts of interest with those who hope to eventually profit off the plan.

“There’s no clear assistance to employers regarding tax preparations,” she said. “There’s no ongoing counseling with employees who are on the plan, and the plan has no direction as to how an individual would withdraw their funds.”