pera
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With four weeks to go, hundreds of bills still await final action
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Wednesday marks the beginning of the last four weeks of Colorado’s 2018 General Assembly session. That means “hurry-up” time, with 295 bills (out of 615) on the House and Senate docket still looking for final action – and at least one more to come. The majority of those bills on final approach originated in the…
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FEEDBACK | An alphabet soup of opinion — on PERA, the BLM and the NRA
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A PERA bankruptcy will leave Colorado taxpayers holding the bag Just a few years in the past PERA was flush with cash and more than solvent. So why is it that, due to some incredible fiscal stupidity, the rest of us must now be saddled with an insolvent and potentially catastrophic financial disaster? This is…
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INSIGHTS: Payroll and PERA give Colorado’s state workers jitters over how and how much
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State employees have enough to worry about right now. It is inevitable they’ll be taking a hit in their paychecks or pensions as Colorado lawmakers try to fill a hole that’s at least $32 billion deep over the next three decades. And it’s not at all clear whether state workers will get a pay raise…
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Colorado Senate gives preliminary pass to PERA fix
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DENVER – The Colorado Senate gave an initial OK to a bill that seeks to shore up the state’s ailing public pension plan Monday morning. Senate Bill 200 still has to pass a formal vote in the upper chamber, where Republicans have a one-seat majority, before the Democratic majority in the House has its chance to…
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‘Let’s provide meaningful reforms to PERA — but not on the backs of retirees’
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Many in Colorado, including firefighters, police officers, other public servants – and especially the more than 35,000 members of the Colorado Education Association – want to see the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association fixed and poised for a solid future. We all depend upon a strong PERA for retirement. However, the current bill (SB-200) moving…
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Bill to fix PERA amended to exclude taxpayers from ‘shared responsibility’
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A bill to fill a $32 billion to $50 billion hole in the Public Employees’ Retirement Association won’t have the public employers’ help, if it keeps an amendment passed in Senate Bill 200‘s first committee vote Thursday. In a five-member committee with three Republicans, Sen. Jack Tate. R-Centennial, needed to make the change to secure…
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FEEDBACK: Civil rights, PERA’s woes — and an aquanaut for CU regent
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Civil Rights Division, Commission ensure a valued, respected work force As a citizen and small-business owner, I testified in favor of reauthorizing the Colorado Civil Rights Division and Commission in front of the House Judiciary Committee. I was relieved when it passed reauthorization on a decisive 10-1 vote. The growth of Colorado’s strong economy depends…
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HUDSON: Let’s not break our PERA promise to Colorado state employees
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The second PERA reform/bailout bill (SB 18-200) in less than a decade reaches the Colorado Legislature this week amidst a clash of competing narratives regarding who is responsible for the pension plan’s precarious fiscal posture. On one side is a tale that greedy employees have maliciously and surreptitiously burdened taxpayers with a bankrupting obligation that…
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PERA fix plows ahead to shore up Colorado public pension plan
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A Colorado Senate committee listened to four and a half hours of testimony on how to fix the state’s shaky pension plan Tuesday, but it didn’t take a vote. Instead, the Finance Committee will reconvene Thursday to throw amendments at Senate Bill 200. At stake is a plan to fill in a projected pension shortfall…
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This Week at the Capitol: March 12-16
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Here are the legislative committee hearings of note for the week ahead at the Colorado Capitol. Committee schedules are subject to change. The daily schedule is available on the legislature’s website. Click here and scroll down to committee hearings to listen online. Some of the hottest bills of the session (civil rights, PERA reform) are up this week.…