Colorado’s proposed pension reform is a missed opportunity
In November of 2016, Colorado’s Public Employees Retirement Association Board (PERA) realized it had a problem. Not only did the state’s public pension system have a current unfunded liability of $50 billion, but overly-optimistic expected returns and overly-pessimistic mortality tables would leave the plan at less than 20 percent funded in a couple of decades […]
PERA’s problems demand meaningful reform
Change is coming. The citizens of Colorado can choose to be its architects rather than its victims.
An opportunity for lawmakers to fix Colorado’s broken public pension system
Last fall, members of the Colorado Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) got some bad news: the amortization periods for the public pension system’s two largest funds had ballooned dangerously. Under current assumptions, the state fund would not be fully funded for 55 years, and the even larger school fund would not be fully funded for 75 years.
PERA deserves an earful on its listening tour
Members and non-members alike should be prepared to ask PERA’s board some tough questions about their credibility.
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.
PERA’s low returns call for changes to pension system
Starting now, we can begin to move the investment risk back where it lies for the rest of us: to the employee.
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 […]
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.
The Colorado Government Pension System Introduction and Basic Organization
Colorado’s Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) is the State’s largest pension plan, with more than 483,000 members as of 2011. Government contributions exceeded $1 billion in FY2011.
Preventing Bankruptcy in State and Local Pension Plans in Colorado
State and local governments report the funding status of their pension plans in financial statements following standards set by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Historically, those standards allowed state and local governments to use an actuarial model and to discount liabilities based on the long-term yield on the assets held in the pension fund. The Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA) uses an 8 percent discount rate comparable to that used in most state and local pension plans. GASB also allowed state and local governments to use a smoothing technique to calculate the funding status of the plans. With this smoothing technique, losses incurred on assets in one year could be averaged over several years.
Unfunded Liabilities in PERA’s Health Plan Accumulate
by Penn Pfiffner and Barry Poulson This legislative session Colorado HB1250 was introduced to begin addressing an unfunded billion-dollar liability in the Public Employee Retirement Association’s (PERA) retiree health care benefit program. Its own sponsor then killed the bill after it came under a fire storm of hysteria-tinged and false criticisms, fueled by one-sided media […]
