Colorado PERA is embarking on an effort to inform and listen to members, retirees, employers, and taxpayers about reducing PERA’s risk profile while maintaining a sustainable retirement for Colorado’s public employees and strengthening the Colorado economy. Two telephone town hall meetings have been scheduled for members and retirees, followed by 12 community meetings statewide.
This engagement effort follows the regular and rigorous review process of PERA’s actuarial assumptions started last year, when the PERA Board adopted new mortality tables to reflect longer life expectancies, and lowered the expected investment rate of return to better reflect anticipated market conditions. Although PERA remains stable and solvent, able to pay all benefits in perpetuity, these changing economic and demographic conditions have extended the period until PERA reaches full-funded status, increasing the risk facing members, taxpayers, and Colorado.
Additional information:
Telephone Town Hall
To ensure PERA remains resilient and built for future generations of Colorado public employees, the telephone town hall will start the conversation about PERA’s funded status and how demographic and economic changes influence overall risk. Greg Smith, PERA Executive Director, will hold an interactive telephone town hall meeting to talk about:
- The external conditions influencing PERA’s funded status
- The community outreach tour
- Ways to join the conversation
On April 27, retirees (at 2:00 p.m.) and active members (at 7:00 p.m.) will automatically be called and able to participate in the town hall. More information is available here. A recording of both calls will be available following the telephone town halls.
Community Outreach Tour
Beginning in May and into June, PERA will conduct a statewide community outreach tour to engage all stakeholders in conversations about the issues and gather input on options to adapt PERA to a growing Colorado and changing environment. No reservation is required and everyone is invited to attend.
Aurora
June 1 | 6:00 p.m.
Summit Event Center, 411 Sable Boulevard
Boulder
May 31 | 6:00 p.m.
Boulder JCC, 6007 Oreg Avenue
Colorado Springs
May 4 | 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Colorado Springs Marriott, 5580 Tech Center Drive
Denver
May 15 | 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
PPA Event Center, 2105 Decatur Street
Durango
June 7 | 6:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn & Suites, 21636 Highway 160 West
Fort Collins
May 18 | 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Lincoln Center, 417 W Magnolia Street
Grand Junction
June 5 | 6:00 p.m.
Clarion Inn, 755 Horizon Drive
Greeley
May 8 | 6:00 p.m.
Island Grove Event Center, 421 N 15th Avenue
Pueblo
May 11 | 6:00 p.m.
Pueblo Convention Center, 320 Central Main Street
Actuarial assumptionData such as demographics, mortality rates, and investment returns that retirement plans use to calculate future assets and liabilities.
How can “able to pay all benefits in perpetuity” and “risk” coexist in the same sentence? Honestly, do you think more talk is going to change the direction that this is going? The myth of perpetuity must succumb to the reality of finite numbers.
So a few years after the devastating COLA cap (better pray for inflation to never spike up after retirement!) now they are looking at employees to up their PERA contributions because we know there is no chance in hell the state contributions are going up and restricting changes to new hires won’t be nearly enough to make a difference. Fantastic. We are not even keeping up with inflation with the across-the-board raises we are getting (at least there will be one this year after nothing last year) and now we will be taking a further hit from PERA. Just great. The quality of people the state will be able to recruit is only going to deteriorate further. They seem to want consultants and contractors (even long term) much more anyway and there is plenty of money for them somehow…