PERA’s Problems in 2016
Colorado’s Public Employee Retirement Association, PERA, is the public pension plan for Colorado’s state workers and public school teachers, as well as some local government employees. PERA has five major divisions, State Division, School Division, Denver Public Schools Division, Local Government Division, and Judicial Division. Far and away, the two largest divisions are the State and School Division.
PERA’s largest offering is its Defined Benefit plan, which promises lifetime benefits for retirees, based on age at retirement and years worked. It functions in lieu of Social Security for its active members. The plan is funded by a combination of government contributions and member contributions, which vary from division to division. PERA also offers a smaller Defined Contribution plan.
The Empty Promise and Untold Cost of Urban Renewal in Colorado
This paper examines the empty promises and untold costs of Urban Renewal Areas (URAs) and the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) in URAs in Colorado.
Two Decades of Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR)
Over two decades have passed since Colorado voters adopted The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights in 1992. TABOR allows government spending to grow each year at the rate of inflation-plus-population. Government can increase faster whenever voters consent. Likewise, tax rates can be increased whenever voters consent. This Issue Paper analyzes TABOR’s effect on state government spending and taxes by examining three decades: The 1983-92 pre-TABOR decade; the first decade of TABOR, 1993-2002; and the second decade, 2003-12. The final decade included the largest tax increase in Colorado history, enacted as Referendum C in 2005. Decade-2 was also marked by increasing efforts to evade TABOR by defining nearly 60% of the state budget as “exempt” from TABOR.
Who Pays Colorado Taxes?
Linda Gorman writes about the 38 percent increase in Colorado state spending.
2015 Thumbnail Guide to Colorado’s Spending Problem
IB-D-2015 (July 2015) Author: Linda Gorman PDF of full Issue Backgrounder Introduction: Colorado state government has a spending problem. Between FY 1999-00 and FY 2013-14, its inflation-adjusted expenditures rose by 38 percent.1 Its inflation-adjusted revenues rose by just 34 percent. Although Colorado’s working age population grew over the period, its private sector employment stagnated.
Colorado’s PERA shortchanging state workers and taxpayers
Problems with Colorado’s public employee pension system are making it hard for our state government to attract some of the best employees. That’s the persuasive finding of a new study by the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington. An employer’s retirement plan is part of an overall compensation package designed to entice and […]
Fairness in retirement age a necessary public pension reform
Imagine that you and your neighbor are friends and professional peers. You belong to the same professional organizations. You each have worked for your respective employers for a long time as retirement approaches. But one of you works for a private employer, the other for the State of Colorado. The state employee can retire with […]
Special interest giveaways burden Colorado taxpayers, muddy tax code
Last fall, Colorado officials claimed a $1 billion tax increase was needed to save the state’s public schools. Voters did not approve the tax increase. If officials were telling the truth, one would expect that this year they would be directing every extra budget dollar toward K-12 education. This is not happening. Instead, bills currently […]
Amendment 66: More Spending Doesn’t Buy Higher Student Achievement
Parents spend their money to benefit their children. School bureaucrats spend other people’s money to benefit the schools and those who run them. Amendment 66 raises taxes to take money from working Coloradans. It gives the broken public school bureaucracy more to spend and leaves parents with less. Taking money from parents harms children.
Amendment 66: Spend More, Get Less (Part 2)
More spending does not create better schools. Many well-funded districts have lower graduation rates. Colorado Springs spent $1,500 less than Denver. It graduated 76 percent of its students, while Denver only graduated 46 percent. If passing Amendment 66 lets Denver spend $4,000 more, it might end up matching Indianapolis’s 30 percent graduation rate.
Amendment 66: Spend More, Get Less
IB-G-2013 (October 2013) Author: Linda Gorman PDF of full Issue Backgrounder Introduction: Amendment 66 will take the money you spend to benefit your children and give it to public education bureaucrats. Education bureaucrats do not necessarily use higher funding to benefit children. They will spend it on things that they like – generous pensions, higher […]
PERA’s Problems in 2013
The trajectory of the Public Employee Retirement Association of Colorado’s (PERA) financial condition has been anything but linear. From times of seeming excess to times of projections for failure, the public employee pension scheme has changed radically over time. As of 2013, expected improvements to the system’s outlook have not materialized, and PERA is once again in crisis. While far from alone in the gov- ernment employee problem, Colorado may be facing one of the worst current circumstances.
