January 18, 2015 07:27 PM UTC
The Traditional Colorado State "Screwing" of Colorado Teachers and Public Sector Workers.
1 Comments- by: PolDancer
Former Colorado Union (AFSCME) Officials Weigh In, and Comment on the Legacy of Colorado State Senator Pat Steadman.
I provide below, for the record, a few examples of the historical state deception of Colorado teachers and other Colorado public sector employees. It's important that Colorado teachers, and Colorado state and local government workers, be fully informed relating to their employment situations. For the most part, Colorado's public sector unions have not fully informed their members.
Examples of the historical deception of Colorado public sector workers:
The reduction of Colorado state employee compensation by means of a promised "performance pay" scheme that was subsequently not funded by the Colorado Legislature.
The past repurposing of resources allocated for state employee compensation, to pay the salaries of hundreds of new Executive Branch political appointees.
The retention of gubernatorial political appointees in high-salaried administrative positions across both Democratic and Republican administrations (including, many former Colorado state legislators whose ultimate Colorado PERA retirement benefits will be based on their new six-figure salaries rather than on their $30,000 legislative salaries.)
The annual Legislative transfer of billions of dollars of Colorado state and local government resources to corporations (in the form of "tax expenditures") while actuarially required contributions to the Colorado PERA pension system are ignored. (Google: "Colorado Tax Expenditure Report.")
The 2010 Colorado (union supported) elimination of state employee and teacher contractual rights to pension inflation protection in retirement (a benefit that these employees had already paid for with their contributions and labor.)
The immoral 2009 use of teacher and public employee PERA pension contributions to pay for political and legal campaigns to break the PERA pension contracts of these same teachers and public employees.
The Colorado Legislature's past transfer of $700 million to pay off legacy pension debts of Colorado local governments (debts that are not Colorado state contractual obligations) while the Legislature failed to pay actuarially required contributions for their own Colorado state contractual obligations in the PERA pension system.
The Colorado PERA Board's past unanimous endorsement of Governor Bill Owens' "service credit fire sale," designed to reduce the labor costs of Colorado PERA-affiliated employers by ridding government of "expensive" older employees. (This scheme increased the debt of the Colorado PERA pension system by billions of dollars.)
These few examples characterize the employment environment of Colorado teachers, and Colorado state and local government workers. Only fully-informed workers are able to make rational decisions regarding their ongoing participation in this Colorado public sector employment environment.
The Colorado SB10-001 Deception:
The most recent deception of Colorado teachers and Colorado state and local government workers occurred in 2010. In that year, a group of proponents of breaking Colorado PERA pension contracts successfully divided active Colorado PERA members from retired members in order to take their contracted inflation protection in retirement. (This taking was supported by Colorado's public sector unions.) The support of Colorado's public sector unions contributed to the elimination of the contractual rights of their own union members to inflation protection in retirement. In 2010, Colorado's public sector unions supported the bill (SB10-001) that allows Colorado governments to inflate away legal governmental pension debts. Colorado's unions are unique in the history of the Labor Movement in that they have facilitated the destruction of their own members' contractual rights.
The primary interest of Colorado politicians is reelection. Pleasing voters is simply more important than speaking the truth about TABOR to Colorado voters, or honoring state contracts. Colorado politicians have no desire to tell voters that they must actually pay for governmental services. Breaking Colorado PERA contractual obligations, and directing the resources that support these contractual obligations to pay for public services allows politicians to avoid speaking the truth to voters. Ignoring state financial and contractual obligations to pensions frees up money to fund programs that help legislators get reelected. Political connections in the courts have smoothed the path to the desired Colorado PERA pension contract breach.
See the article: "The Colorado Supreme Court: Politicians in Black Robes" at ColoradoPols.com.
http://coloradopols.com/diary/64487/the-colorado-supreme-court-politicians-in-black-robes-as-it-turns-out
Colorado legislators have not paid the full annual Colorado PERA pension bill, as calculated by Colorado PERA's actuaries, since 2002. They are not paying this "ARC" pension bill even today. Colorado PERA's Executive Director Greg Smith is alone in the nation in claiming that a public pension system does not have to pay the pension bill calculated by its own actuaries.
Initially, in 2009, Colorado public sector unions and other proponents of SB10-001 sought a one-time reduction of this contractual inflation protection (ABI, "COLA") for PERA retirement benefits, based on a claim of financial need, i.e., "actuarial necessity." Colorado's unions did not realize that their support for SB10-001 would ultimately wipe out the entire contractual right of teachers and state workers to inflation protection in retirement. Teachers be sure to thank your CEA officials!
Although they had already admitted to the existence of the contractual PERA COLA obligation in 2009, the proponents of SB10-001 later realized that establishing "actuarial necessity" would be difficult, so they switched their legal strategy to a simple denial of the existence of the PERA COLA contract. Although their testimony as to the contractual inflation protection obligation was on the record (written and recorded at a Colorado Joint Budget Committee hearing) this admission meant nothing to the Colorado Supreme Court. The Court threw out the worker's contract right without examining evidence in the case.
I find it ironic that in 2010, Greg Smith, Executive Director of the Colorado PERA pension system argued that the PERA COLA (inflation protection) contract must be broken when the funded ratio of the PERA pension stood at 69 percent, yet now that the funded ratio of the Colorado PERA pension system is in the low 60s, Greg Smith has recently stated that the pension system does not need additional contributions. It looks like he just makes this up as he goes along.
Imagine what life is like as one of the 4,500 employees of the Colorado Judicial Branch. These employees are enrolled in the Colorado PERA pension system. They watched in 2012 as the Colorado Court of Appeals found Colorado public pension case law (Bills and McPhail) "dispositive" as to the contractual right of Colorado PERA members to their statutory "inflation protection" in retirement (which the PERA members have paid for with labor and contributions.) Then, in 2014, they were forced to watch the politicians installed at the top of their organization (Supreme Court Justices) ignore all evidence in the case Justus v. State, ignore federal case law (US Trust), and embrace a Denver District Court decision that conveniently failed to even mention Colorado's on-point public pension case law (Bills and McPhail.) The reality is that these 4,500 employees work for an organization that is ultimately arbitrary, political, and not guided by the Rule of Law. The Judicial Branch employees get a paycheck, but in their heart of hearts, realize that their organization is unprincipled, ignores the US Constitution when convenient, and so serves no higher purpose.
Recently, an article relating to the support of Colorado State Senator Pat Steadman for the taking of the PERA COLA benefit in 2010 was posted on the blog ColoradoPols.com and on Facebook. This article elicited some commentary from a few former Colorado public sector union officials that documents the historical deception of Colorado teachers and other public sector workers.
Comments of Former AFSCME Colorado Official Guy Santo:
"Guy Santo . . . Facebook's still new to me; but some things aren't so novel…like the duplicitous incompetence of a professional politician; e.g, Mr. (Colorado State Senator Pat) Steadman and his role in the Great Colorado Pension Heist of 2010, a.k.a. Senate Bill 1 (SB-001).
As background: I met Mr. Steadman before he was a lobbyist or legislator (his only jobs besides lawyer), when he was staff attorney with our national umbrella labor organization, American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), in which capacity he single- handedly botched a lawsuit against reclassifying all state jobs in the early 90's. The lawsuit concerned an obviously flawed 'Class Description' project based on management buzz words. New class descriptions squeezed existing job descriptions into fewer general ones and replaced the old merit-based pay structure with performance pay (which was never funded); and the whole thing was just another way to cut workers' pay. I speak from my experience as a state employee and an officer of the state employees' local that relied on our national AFSCME office for legal support (since that's why we paid dues); and although my perception of events may seem biased; what is not open to interpretation is the importance of deadlines and submitting appeals timely … and I remember Mr. Steadman as the person who failed to file our appeal on time.
Fast forward 17 years, and he's representing the people from Senate District 31 (but definitely not workers, particularly public servants) and he's the mouthpiece for PERA staff and management in railroading through SB10-001's onerous measures to once more balance the state budget on the backs of state employees and raid their pensions. In 2010, Mr. Steadman chaired the (Colorado House) Finance Committee responsible for PERA oversight . . . and despite numerous pleas to him to show PERA members the financial records purportedly necessitating the draconian actions of SB10-001, Mr. Steadman would only give me his word that the financial situation was dire, as he personally looked at the books (which would be much too complicated for people like me to comprehend). NOT very reassuring, coming from a lawyer-lobbyist turned career politician who apparently couldn't read a calendar.
'nuff said. – Guy Santo
(My comment: Remember that the proponents of SB10-001 argued that the financial position of Colorado PERA was so dire [at a 69 percent funded ratio in 2010] that PERA pension contractual obligations had to be broken, yet now that the PERA funded ratio is in the low 60s, PERA officials argue that no additional contributions to the pension system are necessary.)
Comments of Former AFSCME Colorado Official Jeremiah Attridge:
"As the former President of AFSCME Local 3534 I would like to confirm the statements that Mr. Santo has made regarding a class action grievance filed on behalf of employees of the Colorado Department of Labor regarding the proposed 'class description' changes proposed by the Romer administration, and that the lawyer provided by AFSCME Council 76, Patrick Steadman, failed to file the suit in a timely fashion. As I recall, Mr. Steadman had been handed the final copy of the grievance written by Mr. Santo and Mr. William Lafferty a week before it was due, and for reasons unknown, Mr. Steadman waited until the last day the grievance was to be filed and then stated: 'When I got there, the courthouse was already closed.' As the complaint was not filed in a timely fashion in accordance with the rules of procedure, the state employees lost their rights to be heard, and the case was dismissed without any chance of appeal. The irony of this situation was that the basis of the employees' grievance was that management of the CDLE had failed to follow the correct procedures when implementing this reclassification of public employees, and as a result of this procedural flaw, their actions were arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to the rule of law. The case was a 'no-brainer.' It would have been an easy win, and would have increased the union's standing among state employees. Due to the case dismissal, the opposite took place and AFSCME membership plummeted.
Aside from the possible need of (Colorado State) Senator Steadman to revise and edit his resume, there is still a residual effect on the way state government functions and how PERA benefits are paid to certain individuals, that is a direct result of the Romer administration's 'Class Description,' program that Mr. Santo had tried to challenge. The reasons why the Romer Administration chose this course of action was due to the fact that the Governor had sought to expand the number of political appointees he could place in upper management positions. State Representative Tony Grampsas and State Senator Dave Owens who ran the JBC at the time informed the Governor that he could have his additional 125 appointees in the Senior Executive Service, only if the hiring of these upper level managers was 'revenue neutral.' In other words, if Romer wanted an additional 125 hacks on the payroll, then existing payroll had to be cut to pay for this increase in salary. This is why the 'Class Description' changes had to be made. Rank and file employee pay and the possibility of being promoted had to be severely cut. The reason why these changes to employee compensation still have an effect on the pension fund itself is due to this dirty, little secret, that nobody in the fourth estate, the State Legislature, the Governor's office, or even Jon Caldara and the guys over at the Independence Institute really like to talk about: You see, not all political appointees leave when their political patron leaves office. Some of them really like their high paying jobs, and quite a few of them stay in those positions for years, and thanks to some sort of unwritten rule of the Sherman Street Country Club, while political fealty may have been a prerequisite to becoming employed, once you get the job, it's yours for life. Almost all these jobs pay well over 100 grand a year, and if you can add in all those years as a State Legislator (you know like Joe Donlon, or Doug Dean, or Tom Plant, or Vicky Armstrong) to your total state service time, with the top three years deciding your pension level, well, gosh, I guess there really is a 'pot-o-gold' at the end of the PERA rainbow for some very special people, who, like the upper level managers of Pinnacol Assurance who all were allowed to grandfather in PERA pensions when Workers Comp was privatized (just like the guys in the other privatized agencies) well, you deserve to pull in 60 to 90 grand a year, without question. If you are an employee of PERA and you have never worked for the State in any capacity, you too can pull in a pension not only for your salary, but also for the bonuses you paid to yourselves while declaring a fiscal emergency at the same time. When State Treasurer Walker Stapleton tried to pull the lid off the cesspool two years ago, the PERA Board took him to court, and members of the Judiciary (who receive PERA pensions at a higher rate than other state employees) agreed with them that the State Treasurer had no business inquiring where and to whom state funds were being paid. It was a matter of 'privacy' the court said. That was a close one, after all, now with the passage of Amendment S, Governor Hickenlooper will be able to expand the SES from 125 to 270 positions and that means a lot more deserving people will be able to bleed the fund dry. Who knows, what with term limits and all, maybe the Governor can find a position for a Democratic State Senator in need of a job and having a really nice, well-edited resume."
More comments on Colorado Senator Pat Steadman's work for AFSCME Colorado (from Facebook:
"I believe, actually I know, that there were quite a few of us who thought he wasn't representing us correctly, particularly during a grievance and lawsuit filed regarding the changing of job classification and pay rates back around in about 1993 or so. Back then, Romer was proposing the creation of the Senior Executive Service that would allow him to expand the number of political appointees up to about 125 positions. (Hickenlooper's Amendment S increases it to about 350.) Well, as I recall, Steadman failed to file the initial court challenge in a timely fashion. I remember the grievants' disgust at the time and their quoting of Steadman's statement that: 'when I got there, the court was closed, and it was too late.' A lot of people dropped out of AFSCME because of this. Somehow Steadman's explanations didn't ring true and it was suspected, but never proven . . . told by AFSCME 76 to drop the matter. In the lovely world of AFL-CIO internal politics a lot of back room deals got cut. (They still are; it's a favorite past time of union staff reps to ____ each other over and cut political deals. I think the straw that broke the camel's back with Steadman, though, was that he failed to represent people in AFSCME Local 935 (Correctional Officers in Canyon City) in disciplinary hearings. Local 935 was the biggest local and they wanted Steadman gone due to the fact that he wasn't doing his job and was working on his Amendment 2 instead. After Steadman, there was a lawyer named Carol Iten who actually did the job, but then quit to go to work for Salazar when he became AG. She was replaced by Mark Schwanne who . . . CFPE for failing to file the necessary paperwork on behalf of grievants in the UI Tax Division about their job classifications. Schwanee went on to become the Executive Director of AFSCME 76 and was the guy who signed off on endorsing the PERA ____ over, and then selling off the AFSCME state employee locals to the SEIU (without a vote of the membership) to Colorado WINS, that thereupon hired him for a while, and then he . . . after Scott Wasserman, his friend at WINS, got a job in the Lt. Governor's Office. As a result, AFSCME in Colorado is a pathetic organization . . . representing a few employees in Pueblo, DU, and a dying local in the City of Denver. Their one employee who is an 'Assistant Director' is Cheryl Hutchinson. She started out as a Business Agent at the same time as Steadman and she might have the exact details . . .
One of my . . . contacts is a guy named Bill Lafferty. He was also involved in the job classification PPQ grievance: Let me clarify the background to that. Back then, (Governor) Romer wanted the Senior Executive Service, but (State Senators) Tony Grampsas and Dave Owen, on the JBC, wanted it to be 'revenue neutral.' In order to achieve those raises for upper management the Personnel Director, Andre Pettigrew along with Jeff Schutt and Ken Ailikian came up with the reclassification of all state employees: It eliminated many of the different job classes and put them into classes that were defined with broader, generalized titles. As a result, there were fewer steps and grades of employees which meant that there was a de facto elimination of career ladders and promotions on the lower levels of government and a general lowering of wages, resulting in a surplus of funds to pay for the Senior Executive Service. That was the court case Steadman dropped the ball on. The problem with the Corrections Local 935 had to do with disciplinary hearings: In all of the (state) departments, CDOT and Corrections always have the most disciplinary hearings. (They used to be called R-8-3's back then, now they are R-6-10's.) They are a pain in the ass to do, and there was a Business Agent named ____ (now deceased) who was supposed to do the R-8-3's but Reyes Martinez, the Local 935 President wanted 'the lawyer' to do them, and I guess (current State Senator Pat) Steadman didn't show up or something.
(My comment: It looks to me like insane, shady crap has been happening in the Colorado public sector unions historically and SB10-001 provides an example of these shady deals reaching the level of state government administration, the Colorado Legislative Branch, and Colorado courts. Perhaps if Colorado had stronger labor unions they would not have been tempted to support the breach of the contracts of their former members. This was kind of cannabalistic.)
Response:
"Well, that's the sad thing about it all: You see, unions were supposed to exist for the betterment of the rank and file, and in Colorado things got turned around and completely out of whack, particularly in the public employee unions where it got to the point that the rank and file existed for the benefit of the union staff reps who, actually, never were members of the rank and file; Wendell Pryor, the former Director of CAPE who endorsed (former Colorado Governor) Bill Owens' preventing public employees from having their union dues deducted from their paychecks and then was appointed to be Director of the Colorado Civil Rights Division over in DORA; Miller Hudson, who sold CAPE to the SEIU without a vote of their rank and file; Schwanne; Wasserman and Steadman, all had variations on the same theme.
While (current Colorado State Representative) Crisanta Duran who sat on the JBC last year had her law school tuition paid by grocery workers in UCFW Local 7, while she also pulled in 35 grand a year compliments of her dad, Ernie, the Local President. The list goes on and on from Joe Donlon to Ellen Golombek at the CDLE . . ."
In a recent article AFSCME (International) writes:
"The very Wall Street-backed politicians who raided and underfunded the pension systems in the first place are now 'using scare tactics and lavishly funded PR campaigns to cast teachers, firefighters and cops – not bankers – as the budget-devouring boogeymen responsible for the mounting fiscal problems of America's states and cities . . ."
http://www.afscme.org/blog/lawmakers-loot-public-pension-funds-then-blame-retirees-for-underfunding
Here is my posted response to the AFSCME article:
"AFSCME, if you really believe this, why did you allow your affiliate, AFSCME Colorado, to support the breach of Colorado PERA pension contracts in 2010, after the Colorado Legislature had underfunded the pension for a decade? The Colorado Legislature has failed to pay its pension bills for a decade, essentially borrowing from the pension fund, now they seek to shift their debt onto the backs of retired public sector workers. It's sick, but your own people supported this in 2010."
I received this response from a former AFSCME Colorado official:
"Actually . . . that isn't what happened: The rank and file members of Colorado State Employees AFSCME Local 821 had their local dissolved by a unilateral decision of AFSCME International and the Executive Board of Colorado AFSCME Council 76, prior to the sellout, as they were to be 'incorporated' into the Colorado WINS 'partnership' created with Ritter: without their consent or even being given the right to vote on the matter. The AFSCME 'representatives' who endorsed the PERA plan (i.e. Vivian Stovall and company) weren't even state employees: they were members of Denver City employees AFSCME Local 158, who aren't even covered by PERA. The Colorado State AFSCME retirees (Phyliss Zamaripa, Kathy Bacino, and Guy Santo) opposed the PERA plan put forth by Ritter, Schaffer, and Penry at the public hearing where proponents were allowed to testify first, and at length while opponents had their testimony relegated to the end of the hearing, and had their testimony time truncated. So please don't give the impression that the rank and file members of Colorado State AFSCME Local 821 had anything to do with this sellout, because we didn't. Give the credit to where it is due: Give it to Colorado WINS, and the SEIU."
(My response: "Thanks for this new information. I have noted that Colorado AFSCME supported the PERA pension contract breach since Colorado PERA has made this claim in its propaganda.")
Yet another reply from a former AFSCME Colorado official:
"The entire AFSCME endorsement of screwing public employees out of their pension (Colorado PERA pension) COLA's in Colorado is unfortunately quite true, however, it should be remembered that AFSCME no longer represents Colorado State Employees, and it hasn't for about 7 years now. It was decided 7 years ago in a backroom deal in Washington that the three state employee unions would become Colorado WINS. The rank and file members of AFSCME Locals in Colorado were not given the right to vote on this, nor were the members of CAPE or the CFPE. The people who espouse 'democratic labor trade unionism' in America, wouldn't allow it to take place in Colorado. Ritter and company granted an exclusive franchise to Colorado WINS (which is a subsidiary of SEIU) and Colorado State employees do not have the right to belong to any other union, as both Change To Win and the AFL-CIO have prevented other unions (such as the CWA, which has had a consistent record of fighting for public employees' pensions) from organizing. Thanks to their betrayal of Colorado State employees, Colorado AFSCME Council 76 is now a bankrupt shell of an organization that represents some county employees in Pueblo, city employees in Aurora, the remnants of Denver City employees Local 535 and 158 and the maintenance staff at DU. They have one 'assistant Executive Director' and two clerical workers for a staff. All they are is a paper tiger, shell organization that is used as a conduit to 'move money' in state elections."
(My response: "That seems rather disingenuous on the part of Colorado PERA to attempt to rationalize the PERA COLA-taking by citing the support of AFSCME Colorado, if AFSCME Colorado does not actually represent any employees in PERA." "Have you ever heard any sort of an explanation from Colorado WINS for breaking PERA contracts? I have always assumed it was to minimize future contributions that might be needed from active Colorado WINS members. To the extent that money can be taken from PERA retirees, the needed pension support from current workers is diminished, not a very good reason to trash the Colorado Constitution.")
Former AFSCME official:
"Yes, doesn't it? But then again, let us not forget the first piece of legislation that Colorado WINS supported was the bill written by Democratic Senator Dan Gibbs to do away with state employees having the right to strike or engage in labor stoppages. The 'S' in AFSCME is supposed to stand for 'State' but the International of AFSCME basically gave up on Colorado when Wellington Webb failed to deliver his campaign promise to give Denver City employees collective bargaining. The grand plan was 'First we'll get collective bargaining for Denver, then we'll repeal 8-73-104 (C) of the Colorado Labor Peace Act, and get all public employees' collective bargaining rights.' After they realized that wasn't going to happen, Gerry McEntee, Paul Booth, and Larry Scanlon decided to cut their losses, and 'traded' the Colorado State Employee locals to the SEIU which had acquired CAPE (that had gone into virtual bankruptcy when Bill Owens prohibited employees having their dues deducted from their paychecks.) All in all, it was a rather tawdry affair, and for AFSCME Council 76 to come out in favor of screwing public employees out of their pensions by having members of Local 158 of who were hacks from the Denver Democratic Party and Ritter supporters is just reflective of the fact that AFSCME has always placed the interests of the union and the Democratic Party above that of rank and file employees they profess to represent."
(My response: "As I recall, Miller Hudson, formerly of CAPE also supported SB10-001. This is ironic since Bill Owens eviscerated CAPE financially. Bill Owens is very culpable in the decline of PERA's funded ratio [selling PERA service credit cheap to encourage the departure of the more 'expensive' older employees, i.e., shifting labor costs from Colorado governments to PERA.] Why would Miller Hudson go along with pushing the PERA debt burden onto Colorado PERA retirees when the problem was caused by Bill Owens, and Bill Owens actions harmed CAPE? It doesn't make sense.")
Former AFSCME official:
"You'd have to ask Miller about that one. Now as far as Colorado WINS goes, well, you have to understand the way union organizers think: Why should they be concerned about the pensions of state employees who were not members of their union? What WINS wants is current state employees, and most of them who have been hired since 2005 don't have the same pension plan as older state employees, and that is not what they are concerned about: By concentrating on health care costs, and doing away with the inequitable 'pay for performance' plan proposed by Penn Pfifner and signed into law by Romer, Colorado WINS needs to play nice with the legislature and the executive branch so that they can market themselves with a 'victory,' to the majority of state employees who don't belong to their organization, or care about somebody else's pension. So why play the heavy and alienate the incumbent politicians in somebody else's fight? If you win, well, good. They'll get up there and say they were with you all the way……"
Quotations of Miller Hudson, formerly of CAPE:
"They will pay their taxes and rely on politicians to keep the promises made to them when they were hired. After 30 or more years, they will rely on their Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) pensions rather than social security to provide a modest but dignified retirement."
"In fact, they (Colorado PERA retirees) will shoulder more than 90 percent of the costs of fixing PERA. This isn’t because they haven’t been doing their part. They have."
"If state employees have learned little else, it should be that when economic times get tough both Democratic and Republican administrations will move swiftly to balance state budgets on their backs."
"Miller Hudson is a former state representative from Denver who served five years as executive director of the Colorado Association of Public Employees."
http://www.coloradostatesman.com/content/991576-so-called-perasites-are-tired-having-budget-balanced-their-backs
Miller Hudson states that Colorado PERA faces no financial "crisis," yet Miller Hudson "helped negotiate" the COLA-taking bill:
"Taxpayers have been told they will be held responsible for an imminent fiscal catastrophe projected in the tens of billions of dollars. These scare tactics fail to put the true situation in perspective. PERA benefits are much like the mortgage on your house. They will be paid out over the next 30 to 50 years. If Colorado misses a payment — or, more accurately, fails to collect as much as revenue as it should for a year or two — these shortfalls can be remedied in succeeding years. A home mortgage doesn't become due and payable just because a homeowner loses his or her job. Payments can be made out of savings."
"For Colorado's public employers, total contributions into PERA represent about 3 percent of their annual budgets. If this were to be doubled, it would be less than half the current 'sequester' cuts being absorbed in the federal budget. PERA is not a fiscal calamity."
"Unfortunately, when the plan went into surplus during the dot.com boom at the turn of the century, the Legislature reduced the state's contributions, increased the match for refunds paid before normal retirement eligibility and held a fire sale on the purchase of unearned years of service credit at a fraction more than 15 cents on the dollar."
"Miller Hudson served as executive director of the Colorado Association of Public Employees for six years (2003-10) and helped negotiate the 2007 and 2010 PERA reform bills."
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_23167652/there-is-no-need-panicky-fixes-pera
Miller Hudson:
"It is important to understand why tax credits and exemptions are referred to as tax expenditures. Without loopholes, taxpayers (both individual and corporate) would otherwise pay higher taxes dumping additional moneys into the general fund. Business and special interest lobbyists have understood this relationship for decades. Find a plausible rationalization and then you can begin campaigning for special treatment."
http://thetaborfoundation.org/hudson-the-math-isnt-so-simple/
Alan Greenblatt in Governing in 2006:
"In Colorado, at least some of (Governor) Bill Owens' pension problem was self-inflicted, the result of his pressuring PERA to sell discounted 'service credits' to public employees, allowing them to buy more time on the job." "Owens hoped that state employees would retire early, helping his efforts to streamline government." "Because pensions are, by their nature, a long-term problem, it's difficult to get public officials – classic short-term thinkers – to pay them serious attention even when the bills are coming due."
http://www.governing.com/topics/economic-dev/Plight-Benefits.html
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Algernon, keep up the good fight. Self-publish a book, then distribute a free copy to current and past legislators. I do think millions of public sector retirees around the country will suffer retroactive benefit claw-backs in the years ahead. Heck, in Colorado, TABOR rebates take priority over PERA funding. The Colorado legislature knows they can under fund PERA, create an "actuarial necessity", and then take back promised retiree benefits … retroactively if possible.