In response to a letter from Robert Goodrich (Herald, April 7) regarding Colorado PERA, I’d like to state the facts as it pertains to retirement security and PERA.
Unlike the author, most PERA retirees paid into but will never receive Social Security benefits. Further, a 2014 report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows 6 in 10 new retirees having saved less than a paltry $25,000 for retirement. It has resulted in a skyrocketing need for public assistance in the form of food stamps and Section 8 housing assistance for the elderly. Further, a recent KUSA 9News report highlighted crimes such as theft and fraud committed by those 65 and over represent the fastest growing segment of our population committing crimes. KUSA pondered the reason: retirement insecurity.
Because PERA’s benefits are guaranteed for life, its retirees are self-sufficient in retirement, eliminating the need for its retirees to receive food stamp and housing assistance. Because most of PERA’s benefits are paid through investment returns, it is model of self-sufficiency.
PERA’s model should be celebrated, expanded and replicated, not dismantled. In addition to teachers, PERA employees include the state-mining inspectors who saved Mancos from a dangerous mercury disaster in 2013, brave CDOT workers who plow and made Red Mountain Pass safe this winter, wildlife agents who keep hunters and fishermen honest and state troopers who risk everything to protect and serve us. These noble workers have seen little if any raises in recent years as part of their sacrifice. They and PERA are not to blame for the school-funding crisis, which is rooted in a set of conflicting and archaic Colorado laws. Surely, these workers should have an opportunity for a stable and secure retirement in exchange for their lifelong dedication to preserving what we love best about Colorado. I would advise PERA’s naysayers to reconsider their views on PERA not as a problem but as a model of how we take care of Colorado and how we take care of ourselves.
Dave Dillman
Durango
