Craig Cleve, left, marches with members of the Chicago Teachers Union as they picket outside City Hall to protest $200 million in planned public schools cuts on July 2, one day after the district paid a $634 million pension bill officials said it couldn’t afford. (Christian K. Lee, Associated Press)
Re: “The great pension debate,” July 19 Perspective article.
What I found most interesting about this article was the absence of a debate. The article featured two entrepreneurs (code for pro-business) writing about the deficits in the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA) pension fund. Interestingly enough, there was a letter to the editor titled “PERA was a promise in exchange for lesser salaries” the same day, which spoke the truth.
We need to reverse the negative trend on workers’ (private and public) retirement programs, and start investing in a system that provides security for all who earn it. There used to be a time when the vast majority of companies (private sector) provided a pension to their workers. Boeing recently decided to eliminate pensions for all new employees. The CEO recently retired, and will receive $3.9 million in annual pension payments for 15 years. Hmm.
“Business interests” now want to eliminate public-sector pensions. When will it end and America wake up to the war on our economic livelihood?
Mike Erickson, Highlands Ranch
This letter was published in the July 27 edition.First, I am not a PERA member, but am a seasoned investor. With this background, I found the criticisms of Henry Duboff and John J. Huggins flawed and disingenuous. My main criticism is their claim that PERA’s 7.5 percent assumed rate of return on assets is unrealistic
Like most large pension groups, PERA invests in diverse assets. Much of PERA’s portfolio is in common stocks, many of which have returned in far excess of the 7.5 percent target (e.g. Google, Apple). This is true of the stocks of many household names (e.g. Disney, Walgreen’s). True, some of PERA’s other holdings may return less (e.g., bonds), but achieving at least 7.5 percent over the long term is really not that difficult. I have actually achieved this myself with my own investments — and I lack PERA’s bargaining power over brokerage and other investment charges due to its size. Indeed, PERA has achieved 9 percent over the long term.
For the experts they claim to be, Messrs. Dubroff and Huggins should do their research before spouting off their predisposed solutions.
Howard Buchalter, Englewood
This letter was published in the July 27 edition.
