Fixing the PERA state pension plan
Serious mistakes were made in the late 1990s in both the Public Employees Retirement Association asset portfolio composition and in the generosity of PERA benefits passed by the legislature. Those mistakes have resulted in the problems we observe today with the Colorado pension system.
The legislation just passed by the Colorado General Assembly and signed by Gov. Bill Owens is a start toward a solution of the “PERA problem.” It marginally increases contributions to the fund and marginally decreases benefits. Do not believe it is the final solution. Pension plans are contractual obligations between employers and employees. Modifications of benefits for existing pension plan members, either retired or still employed, are very constrained by contract law.
Unfortunately, the legislation just passed only solves the problem if PERA is able to consistently produce investment performance substantially better than most similar pension funds in America. A pension fund functions properly if the actuarial assets and actuarial liabilities are balanced over time. In describing the functioning of PERA over time, the press and politicians have said that this legislation “balances” PERA over a 45- year period. That is true if PERA consistently produces income at an 8.5 percent rate over that time frame. PERA’s investment consultants advised PERA that an assumed rate of 8.5 percent is too aggressive. They recommended that the pension fund assume no greater than a 7.75 percent rate of return.
This legislation works only if the PERA board’s more aggressive earnings assumption is realized. Given its past track record, I would be disinclined to think that the PERA board has a better ability to predict investment performance than its own investment consultants. Watch for the continuation of the “PERA problem” in about 7 years.
Dick R. Murphy, Boulder
The writer is a former deputy Colorado treasurer.
Republican and Democratic state assemblies
Re: “Beauprez seizes GOP,” May 21 news story.
Marc Holtzman had good reason to be worried about whether there was an accurate vote count at the GOP State Assembly in Colorado Springs Saturday. He knows what his Republican friends and colleagues are capable of doing: purging voters’ lists, miscounting and losing votes, and stealing elections. Consider the actions of Katherine Harris in Florida and Kenneth Blackwell in Ohio. Why would GOP operatives treat their own any differently if they perceive someone getting in their way?
In retrospect, someone neutral should have been there to count the votes and ensure a fair election. Ken Gordon (candidate for secretary of state) had offered; they would have done well to have accepted. In any event, since we know how the GOP likes to run elections, we should consider whether their way of running elections is acceptable.
It is only fair everyone eligible to vote be able to register and all registered voters be able to vote. This should be stating the obvious, but too many questions have been raised about the fairness of elections, the disappearance of voter names, and the fungibility of votes.
Jeri D. Shepherd, Greeley
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Re: “Abortion a lone speed bump as Democrats nominate Ritter,” May 21 news story.
The truth about ensuring that abortions are safe and legal in Colorado may be an uncomfortable concept, but nonetheless necessary. Thank you to the director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic, Dr. Warren Hern, who endures a daily and risky fight for women’s access to safe abortions. At the Democratic general assembly on Saturday, Hern publicly opposed Democratic candidate Bill Ritter for governor because Ritter opposes abortion.
I am meeting fewer Democrats who will join me and Dr. Hern in refusing to elect a governor who is inactive in advancing women’s reproductive rights. I hope Colorado Democrats and Republicans will choose to lobby their elected officials and support organizations like NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado in order to ensure reproductive health care rights for women in Colorado.
Courtney Hibbard, Denver
Preventing exposure to deadly asbestos
Re: “Asbestos forces evacuation; Carcinogen found in apartments’ plaster at 2-10 times safe levels,” May 14 news story.
The Post’s article exemplifies the need for asbestos education and prevention. Fires, floods, demolition and repairs can be deadly for residents, workers and bystanders.
Readers should know that the U.S. has not banned asbestos. Asbestos is a known carcinogen, and there is no known safe level of exposure. In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized regulations to ban asbestos; but in 1991, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the EPA’s regulation to ban asbestos. The U.S. and Canada are the last two industrial nations that haven’t banned asbestos.
While Americans wait for a ban on asbestos, the U.S. Surgeon General should issue a warning that asbestos exposure may be hazardous to your health.
Asbestos fibers are invisible to the naked eye, but when inhaled or swallowed they can cause respiratory diseases or cancers, including mesothelioma. Preventing asbestos exposure is the only way to eliminate disabilities, diseases, deaths.
Linda Reinstein, Executive Director, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, Manhattan Beach, Calif.
East High limo accident
Re: “Limo driver arrested; probation barred youth contact,” May 19 news story.
Whenever I have taken a limo (not often), the driver stands outside and helps everyone into the car. A limo is the most difficult automobile to get into, and the driver is always there to help you. I cannot understand why this driver was ready to take off without helping his passengers. Is that something you pay extra for these days? It is beyond belief that the extra courtesy was not followed with the East High students getting into the limo.
I would be more interested in that information than whether the driver should be driving minors around.
Mary Ellen Lewis, Denver
Reality in Iraq
Re: “Letters from Iraq,” May 19 guest commentary.
Rodger McFarlane evidently learned nothing in the armed forces. He states that he is tired of his friends caterwauling about Iraq. Well, I’m tired of people excusing what we as a country have done to Iraq and its people. We have invaded their land on trumped-up hogwash. We have been directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents, all in the name of our God and our democracy.
For every nice story that comes out of Iraq, there are hundreds of horror stories. When is someone going to have the guts to stand up to what our government is doing?
I know it would not be right to “cut and run,” but right now there isn’t even the slightest plan to withdraw, ever.
The human element is not just what very little good has come from this atrocity, but our “direct and personal” hand in all that is wrong.
Cheryl Kimberley, Buena Vista
Churchill investigation
Re: “Panel’s report on CU professor Ward Churchill,” May 19 Open Forum.
I object strenuously to Harv Teitelbaum’s letter. He asks, “How many professors could pass a similarly microscopic examination of their academic life’s work?” In my experience (I’m a University of Colorado alum), about 99 percent of professors would pass such an examination. Teitelbaum also asks, “How many of us are not guilty of something?” Yes, most of us are guilty of something, but not of the egregious nature of Ward Churchill’s lying, cheating and stealing.
Dave Miller, Sedalia
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