Forty Years of PERA

by Joshua Sharf | 11:59 am, March 13, 2013

We’ve been here before with PERA.  Sort of.  Most people following the issue remember that in 2000, PERA was over 100% funded, and that its funding ratio has fallen steadily since then.  What they don’t know is that back in 1974, PERA was woefully under-funded, at about the same 60% funded ratio that it is [...]

The Higher-Ed Bubble, In One Chart (and one article)

by Joshua Sharf | 11:13 pm, February 16, 2013

Rep. Mike Coffman took a lot of heat for suggesting that perhaps it was time to re-evaluate these priorities, with his words being distorted into an attack on the liberal arts in particular, and higher education in general.  Turns out he was onto something. Salary.com recently came up with a list of the 8 College Degrees [...]

Lowering the Hill

by Joshua Sharf | 11:34 am, January 23, 2013

Ultimately, large changes will be needed to keep PERA solvent.  But little changes can have an effect, too.  Today, the state House Finance Committee will be hearing HB13-1040 from Republican Rep. Kevin Priola: Current law averages the 3 highest annual salaries of a member of the public employees’ retirement association (PERA) when calculating that member’s [...]

Democrat Sen. John Morse Follows Familiar Pattern On PERA Reform

by Joshua Sharf | 10:10 am, January 23, 2013

The state Democrats, led by State Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs), are continuing their deeply unserious approach to Colorado’s massive unfunded PERA liability this session.  Incoming Speaker of the  House Mark Ferrandino (D-Denver) had already indicated as much, first by characterizing those who would seek to deal with the problem as wanting to use [...]

This is News? Senate to Pass A Budget

by Randall Smith | 10:30 pm, January 20, 2013

You know there’s a problem when the idea that the Senate will pass a budget is news.

“We Democrats have always intended to do a budget this year,” [Senator Chuck] Schumer claimed, reiterating that the Democrats’ budget will raise taxes while offerin…

The Pivot – The Republicans’ Secret Weapon

by Joshua Sharf | 10:48 pm, December 10, 2012

When sequestration was designed by the Obama administration, the idea was that the required spending cuts would be unpalatable to both sides – cuts to Democrat-favored patronage programs would be balanced by cuts to Republican-favored defense spending.  Few of us who supported the debt ceiling deal realized how seriously the deck was stacked against Republicans, [...]

Certificates of Prevarication – Part II

by Joshua Sharf | 8:28 am, November 27, 2012

Yesterday, I wrote about the Jefferson County School District’s use of Certificates of Participation to get around the State Constitution’s requirement for a public vote before issuing general obligation debt.  I had forgotten that once upon a time, Denver Public Schools did almost exactly the same thing. The scheme – used widely around the state, [...]

PERA Gains a New Client Group

by Joshua Sharf | 10:00 am, October 19, 2012

What makes it so hard to fight the growth of government is its ability to create client groups seemingly at will, with the money of the very people it’s seeking to co-opt.  I see it myself all the time at the JCRC, where what had been private, service groups are reduced to begging for scraps [...]

How Does PERA Rate?

by Joshua Sharf | 7:18 pm, August 15, 2012

Not well.  According to its latest Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, PERA has an unfunded liability of $25 billion, up from $15 billion last year, mostly because of a dismal rate of return in 2011, roughly 1.9%.  Much of the criticism of public pensions has centered on their unrealistic expected rates of return, 8% in PERA’s [...]

Seeing Stars: Sloooooow

by Randall Smith | 6:00 am, August 15, 2012

It was a slow news day and most of the news was about Congressmen and VP candidate Paul Ryan.

On to the links.

Colorado

VP candidate Paul Ryan spent a little time in Colorado today. There were a few people there.

Everywhere else

Just a remi…

keep looking »

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