Re: “” Feb. 10 Lynea Hansen guest commentary.
Lynea Hansen’s guest commentary about PERA’s financial condition provides a quick history of the sacrifices employees, employers and retirees have had to make in an attempt to repair PERA’s finances. She emphasizes that most of the burden has been borne by employees and retirees, as they have contributed $14.9 billion since 2010 while employers have contributed $125 million. These figures are impressive and nice to know but are essentially meaningless without also knowing what is owed — the unfunded liability.
Suppose a homeowner has been behind on his bills but cut back on spending and also got a raise. He’s in good shape, right? Now suppose this same homeowner is woefully upside-down on his mortgage and has a balloon payment coming up. He is technically bankrupt. Sure, he might have money in the bank but he has no way of paying the mortgage holder. That is what PERA is looking at down the road.
The last figure I saw was an unfunded liability of $26 billion. To say PERA is in good shape without considering how much is owed is misleading at best and not exactly rigorous financial analysis.
Jim Hagerty, Centennial
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