Will Pay Raises Be Enough to Stem Colorado’s State Worker Shortage? | The Colorado Sun
The General Assembly is currently considering the proposed 2024-2025 state budget, also known as the Long Bill. The $40.6 billion bill includes pay raises for some of the state’s hardest-to-fill positions, such as health care workers. Officials say the increases will help, but more work is needed to fill shortages that continue to persist in some sectors.
Pharma Targets Colorado Drug Affordability Board | POLITICO
Amgen, maker of the rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel, is suing Colorado’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board. The Board, which was created in 2021, declared Enbrel unaffordable in February, setting the stage for Colorado to set a maximum price for the drug. The drugmaker is challenging the Board’s decision and its authority to cap prices.
How a New Rule Could Change the Way Advisers Handle Your Retirement Money | The New York Times
The U.S. Department of Labor is preparing to release a final rule that will expand the number of financial professionals who are required to act as fiduciaries—meaning they must act in the best interest of their clients. The new rule is currently under review at the White House, after which it is expected to be published this spring.
IRS Has 940,000 Unclaimed Tax Refunds About to Expire | The Associated Press
The deadline for filing 2023 tax returns—April 15—is right around the corner. But the IRS says nearly a million people still haven’t filed and claimed their refunds from 2020. The unclaimed refunds amount to over $1 billion, and taxpayers have until May 17 to claim those refunds.
News You Should Know is a digest of news from publications around the nation about finance, investing, and retirement.
FiduciaryA person who manages money on someone else’s behalf and who has a sworn responsibility to manage those funds in the best interest of the client.
lots of complaining every year about COLA not being high enough.
Read the history of “why” that is!
We are darn lucky to have a solvent retirement fund as it is!
Instead of just making a statement that we should look it up, why not educate us and tell us why you think retirees are lucky to be losing so much purchasing power.
My 1% cola this year doesn’t even begin to cover inflation. The annual inflation rate for the United States was 3.2% for the 12 months ending February, compared to the previous rate of 3.1%, according to U.S. Labor Department data published on March 12, 2024. The only reason I stuck it out with the state was because of the retirement. Of which Pera cried to legislators that at this rate they weren’t sustainable. That was in 2010. The cola was lowered from 3.5 to 2.5% raises. They claimed the fix was in. Then the 2.5 was too much and look at where we are now?
State Employees Were Always Underpaid; And PERA Was Supposed To Make Up For That; BUT NOT ANYMORE!
It’s NOT news that the state is unable to recruit or retain workers, especially competent ones. Politicians contract out public services for campaign donations and next they’ll jump on the AI bandwagon so citizens can sit on hold or log-on to chat with an endless loop of meaningless messages. However, the real problem of recruitment and retention is grounded in the penny-wise, but pound foolish, raid on the the state’s pension fund! Retirees have been robbed and told it’s for their own good; and anyone with half a brain can see what’s happened; but since Colorado lawmakers (collectively) are morally and intellectually challenged, they can’t figure that out.
The only hope for current retirees, and the state’s workforce, is for the former to get vocally militant with elected representatives to demand a real and true COLA! Unfortunately, under the state’s collective bargaining agreement, so-called unions only exist to collect union dues, so don’t count on them, they won’t do anything for either workers or the public.
– G M SANTO (handsoffmypera@hotmail.com)