On June 4th, Governor John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 18-200, to reform the PERA retirement plan to make it fully funded or, at least, put it in that direction. According to the Denver Post, “Colorado’s troubled public pension has been pulled back from the fiscal brink.”
PERA states that:
SB 200 makes changes in several key ways to the retirement plan:
- Increases contributions from employers and employees
- Directs the state to allocate $225 million each year to PERA to reduce the unfunded liability
- Modifies the retirement benefits, including reducing the annual increase for all current and future retirees as well as raising retirement age for new employees
- Establishes an automatic adjustment provision designed to keep PERA on a path to full funding in 30 years
A more comprehensive two page document of changes is on the PERA website here: https://www.copera.org/sites/default/files/documents/impactofchanges-18.pdf
And, an overview article from the Denver Post that describes how dire the situation was:
