People often criticize government’s approach to tackling tough problems as “kicking the can down the road.” Many Colorado officials are doing worse than that when it comes to the state pension system — they won’t even acknowledge there is a problem!

As a member of the Joint Budget Committee, I have a front row view of the financial pressures the pension system creates. State contributions alone to the Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) system are expected to total $279 million this year — a $68 million increase from last year. These increases in spending are part of a plan approved two years ago to close a $21 billion gap between the pension system’s assets and its liabilities — representing almost one-third of the system’s total value — by dramatically increasing taxpayer payments into the system while doing little to manage benefits to an affordable level.

So far legislators have been willing to shoulder the burden of growing pension payments under the assumption that this is “what it takes.”  Now it looks like these efforts may not be enough. In a recent oversight hearing, PERA officials presented their long-term solvency projections which showed that the pension’s shortfall will narrow but not disappear over the next 30 years, if they can deliver investment returns of 8 percent per year. But under a more realistic independent projection of 6.5 percent annual return, the system’s overall solvency plummets.

But perhaps the most damning evidence presented during that hearing came from PERA’s executive director, Meredith Williams. He said that PERA pays out approximately $2 for every $1 it takes in. With a payment structure like this, how can anyone believe that we’re on course to solvency?

In the past I have sponsored bills to reform the system from the bottom up. My last attempt would have transitioned the current defined benefit pension plan into a 401(k)-like system, and allow those already vested in the pension plan to retire with their promised benefits. In a world of high unemployment and dangerously indebted economy, Colorado can’t afford to have one of the most generous benefit packages while maintaining one of the most insolvent balance sheets in the country.

To address PERA’s lack of transparency, I’m running SB84 to make the pension accounts of elected officials and cabinet members public information. With many press reports of abuse by legislators across the country and many state pension plans in the red, it’s only fair that the public and state employees know the value of the most lucrative part of elected officials’ pay packages.

In a similar vein, I’m running SB136, which will require the state to include the value of retirement benefits in its report on state employee compensation. Due to an oversight that no one seems to be able to explain, the state simply doesn’t count retirement benefits as part of employee “total compensation,” which is already defined by law. My bill will address this oversight and provide an accurate and honest picture of public employee compensation.

I am also supporting a modest proposal to cut the system’s unfunded liability by $914 million next year. The current starting point for calculating employee retirement benefits is an employee’s highest average salary over a three-year period. HB1150 would extend the average salary calculation period to seven years, resulting in a fairer snapshot of each employee’s earnings over the course of their service with the state.

Even if my attempts at reforming the state pension system fail this year, I’ll be satisfied if one simple fact sinks in: the pension system is not all right. The legislature’s bill to “fix” the system two years ago did not and will not solve PERA’s massive $21 billion liability which grows worse by the day. Allowing the system to continue to fester will only put our employees’ benefits into further jeopardy.

Kent Lambert represents El Paso County in the Colorado Senate.

Steve Russ was second-team All-WAC in 1994, and was selected to play in the Blue-Gray All-Star Game and the East-West Shrine game following that season. He was a seventh-round pick of the Broncos. Photo by COURTESY WAKE FOREST