(’76 Editor) I asked former Treasurer Mark Hillman what sort of genuine PERA stabilization bill he would file if the two of us were still state senators, in light of his concern expressed in the previous post that the current bipartisan Senate Bill 1 doesn’t get at the root of the problem. He recommended the following three steps:
* Raise the retirement age to 67 for anyone who hasn’t been in a PERA-covered job for more than 5 years.
* Give everyone the option to put their money into a DC plan.
* Put into statute that, from this point forward, if PERA’s funds fail to meet the 30-year amortization requirement, that constitutes an “actuarial emergency” and it’s up to the PERA board to produce permanent benefit reductions that restore the 30-year amortization schedule.
By the way, Hillman has just published an excellent overview of how Bill Ritter and Colorado Democrats have shredded both the budget and the constitution since 2006. The paper is called “A Billion Reasons Why Colorado Taxpayers Need Protection.” He wrote it for the Rocky Mountain Foundation, the new group headed by our friend Tom Tancredo.
