The Idiots Have Spoken

Thanks to a Greeley Report reader for this information.

Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief now.  According to "experts," PERA, the state employees pension fund is going to be okay.  Of course you have to believe the fact that investments are going to bring in returns far above normal.  And you have to wait 30 years (yes, 30 years) for PERA to actually come out of the red.  But it's okay!  NOT!

Now we must also keep in mind the fact that 25 percent of PERA employees currently make more than $100,000 annually.  Oh!  And they also pay $400,000 annually to lobby the state for their causes, despite the fact that they are actually a state goverment organization.  This is what "competent management and oversight" is supposed to be these days.  And of course to you and me, it looks like a liberal, socialist program, slam-dunked on us by demoncrats and RINO's.

PERA is not better, and it won't come out of insolvency.  It is a 90 pound gorrilla in the room, and it's eating everything in sight.  Don't be fooled.  Contact your legislators and insist they take permanent control of this fat-cat operation.  It may be like new kids running the candy store, but at least we elect them and they aren't appointed bureaucrats.  Folks, Colorado is broke.  We may have a balanced budget amendment on the books, but with PERA, taxes and fees skyrocketing, and a great deal of state money coming from the Federal government, it's all smoke and mirrors.

Comments

[Sam Hill]

Jim, With all due respect I still maintain my concerns for PERA. A great deal of the PERA funding and future "promise" is based on their investment in some risky business. They are basing their forecasts on a 7.5 percent return, which many analysts believe is nearly fraudulent. In order to bring in anything close to a return of this sort, PERA must be invested in things like securitized mortgages that can easily default given our present climate. If those in charge of PERA right now are doing this, your retirement is in jeopardy. I already know that my retirement is in jeopardy because of the current economic situation. I don't have an investment group of advisors like you (e.g., the PERA group). Furthermore, I cannot go to the taxpayers to demand my retirement be funded, either. You can. Still, I am concerned for your retirement as well. My intent was to awaken you. I may not have the best solution, but if your retirement is jeopardized as one that has served in government or education, don't you think that matters?

[Dennis]

Well Jim, you're doing better than me. I've been paying FICA taxes for over 35 years, but I don't expect that I'll see a dime of it come back to me.

If you are correct about PERA, then it sounds a lot like what Bush II was trying to implement with social security by privatizing it. That would make us all "stake-holders", wouldn't it?

I'm just curious, at what age can you start receiving the PERA retirement benefits?

[Jim]

Generally, I enjoy your comments but on the subject of PERA you are ignorant, prejudiced, and toying with my income. PERA is NOT insolvent and its funding was negatively affected not now but 40 years into the future -- the funding is NOT damaged now or for the next few decades. And it is recovering and it will fully recover, the more quickly if the stock market recovers more quickly. PERA is funded by its working members' income and you have no business trying to stick your fingers into my or anyone else's retirement income. PERA is essentially a capitalist enterprise, using monies from its members' paychecks to work with the stock market, the heart of the capitalist system, to enhance its members retirement incomes many years into the future. Do you have a problem with capitalism and entreprenneurship, Sam? PERA does NOT skim off a profit but returns almost all the gains to its members, minus very small administrative costs. The temporary damage to PERA began in 2003 with interference by the Colorado legislature. PERA has problems only when the legislature interferes and this is why PERA has to waste money lobbying -- to keep greed head financiers and ambitious political fools from wrecking the good work of an organization run by many unpaid volunteers and a handful of full time professionals. If you are worried about the taxes you pay, then your best option is to repair TABOR, not to attack an excellent pension system that works best when politicals and profiteers are kept out. Pension plans work by playing many years into the future. Short term greed and politics are anathema to healthy pension plans. So write your legislators and tell them to keep themselves, the financial industry, and Sam Hill out of PERA's business. By the way, who pays for your retirement, Sam? Everyone who pays too much money for your goods and services is who pays for your retirement. Get off the holier-than-thou soap box, please.