{"id":553,"date":"2026-06-15T10:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T10:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=553"},"modified":"2026-06-15T10:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T10:04:24","slug":"colorado-lawmakers-look-to-limit-pera-bonuses-following-sun-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=553","title":{"rendered":"Colorado lawmakers look to limit PERA bonuses following Sun investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Democratic lawmaker says he plans to introduce legislation next year to limit the bonuses that the Colorado Public Employees\u2019 Retirement Association pays to its investment staff.<\/p>\n

Read more What the heck is happening in downtown Denver?<\/a><\/p>\n

The proposal comes in response to The Colorado Sun\u2019s investigation last week that found PERA has paid its investment staff millions of dollars in performance bonuses in recent years \u2014 including $10.2 million in payouts following the stock market\u2019s disastrous 2022. That year, the pension lost $9.8 billion on its portfolio, but PERA still beat many of the benchmarks used to measure its investment team\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

When bonuses went out the following year, nine investment officials received more than $400,000 each in annual incentive payments that are supposed to reward good performance, The Sun found.<\/p>\n

PERA officials have defended their compensation practices, saying they need to offer the incentives to compete with private sector firms for talent.<\/p>\n

In interviews last week, state lawmakers who oversee PERA told The Sun they aren\u2019t opposed to incentive pay. But the timing and the size of the payouts showed they were right to be concerned when they passed Senate Bill 147 in 2025 requiring more transparency about PERA\u2019s finances and employee compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to see anybody making $1 million when they\u2019re losing money,\u201d said Sen. Chris Kolker, a Democrat from Centennial who sponsored the transparency measure.<\/p>\n

Kolker said he expects to introduce a bill next year to prevent PERA from paying bonuses when the pension\u2019s investments deliver negative returns \u2014 even if employees beat the index funds they use as a measuring stick.<\/p>\n

Kolker, a personal financial adviser and investment manager, said he previously raised concerns about the pension\u2019s investment losses in 2022. But PERA officials defended their performance, arguing that the investment staff had beat their benchmarks. \u201cThey just kept blowing me off on this, is how I felt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bad investment years can have real financial consequences for PERA members, he noted. \u201cWhen PERA shows a loss consistently, we have to put more money in or we have to raise contributions or we have to reduce the inflation adjustment (for retirees),\u201d Kolker said. \u201cIf you\u2019re losing money, you\u2019re not entitled to a bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, PERA declined to comment on the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cPERA does not comment on potential legislation that may be introduced in future legislative sessions,\u201d Patrick von Keyserling, a spokesperson for the retirement system, wrote in an email. \u201cPERA reviews and takes a formal position on pension-related bills once introduced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Byron Pelton, a Republican from Sterling who cosponsored the transparency bill, stopped short of proposing specific guardrails on how PERA pays its staff. \u201cI think we need to sit down and have a discussion with PERA again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe perception of this is not good for PERA,\u201d Pelton said. \u201cWe just want to make sure that it\u2019s all justified, transparent, all the way across.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oversight committee on hiatus<\/h2>\n

The came out at the end of last year. They showed that the pension had paid nearly $10 million in investment bonuses in 2025, with four employees earning more than $500,000 each in incentives alone.<\/p>\n

But the report made few waves at the state Capitol. Many of the legislature\u2019s committees, including the Pension Review Commission and its PERA-focused subcommittee, were on hiatus to save money amid a state budget crunch, and lawmakers never discussed the incentives publicly.<\/p>\n

The two pension oversight committees \u2014 created as part of the 2018 pension reforms to keep tabs on PERA\u2019s finances \u2014 aren\u2019t scheduled to meet again any time soon. They and most other legislative committees won\u2019t meet over the interim.<\/p>\n

Read more Michael Bennet, Phil Weiser clash over ambition and housing in last major debate before Democratic governor\u2019s primary<\/a><\/p>\n

Kolker chaired the Pension Review Subcommittee in 2024, the last time it met. He said he would push to meet about the bonuses when the legislature reconvenes in 2027.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Rebekah Stewart, a Lakewood Democrat who chairs the Pension Review Commission, said she was \u201cconcerned\u201d by The Sun\u2019s reporting, but she confirmed the commission wouldn\u2019t meet this year due to budget cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany hardworking PERA members and retirees are stretching their dollars further,\u201d she wrote in a text message. \u201cOur top priority is that PERA invests its members\u2019 dollars wisely, performs well and meets its goals in a cost-effective way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Renewed scrutiny on contributions<\/h2>\n

The money PERA spends on bonuses has little impact on its overall funding. In a board meeting last year, Executive Director Andrew Roth likened it to adding \u201cgrains of sand\u201d to the pension\u2019s $29 billion unfunded debt.<\/p>\n

But the same can\u2019t be said for PERA\u2019s impact on public services. The state and school districts have to contribute more than 21% of each employee\u2019s salary to the pension, most of which goes to pay down its unfunded debt to retirees. That\u2019s more than double what public employers had to contribute in the early 2000s, when PERA was fully funded.<\/p>\n

In recent years, pressure has been slowly building for the legislature to revisit the 2018 deal that increased contributions and cut retiree benefits. But there\u2019s no easy solution.<\/p>\n

Retirees want their cost of living raises restored, but doing so without increasing PERA\u2019s unfunded debt means government agencies and workers would have to contribute more. Meanwhile, many of today\u2019s workers and public employers say they already contribute too much for a pension that is far less valuable than it used to be.<\/p>\n

Kolker said state lawmakers can\u2019t continue ignoring PERA\u2019s role in the state\u2019s budget problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we say that we\u2019re underfunding schools and we\u2019re struggling, we need to look at PERA as being a huge expense that we\u2019re paying that nobody wants to talk about,\u201d Kolker said. \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to start talking to our members and say we have to look at reducing these contributions \u2014 which is a political nonstarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolker insists he doesn\u2019t want to harm the pension\u2019s finances. But, he says, the state went too far in requiring that PERA be 100% funded by 2048.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now we can\u2019t reduce these contributions until we\u2019re 103% funded \u2014\u00a0which we\u2019ve only been once in our history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jared Polis last year proposed temporarily cutting pension contributions in order to free up money to spend on employee raises.<\/p>\n

The Joint Budget Committee rejected the idea, arguing that reducing PERA\u2019s funding today will just lead to greater costs down the road. And everyone could pay the price unless the state rewrites the 2018 pension law. If PERA\u2019s funding slips too much, state law automatically triggers additional contribution hikes and benefit cuts to prevent another crisis.<\/p>\n

Read more What\u2019s Working: Uneven inflation still eroding affordability in Colorado<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Democratic lawmaker says he plans to introduce legislation next year to limit the bonuses…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-and-government"],"yoast_head":"\nColorado lawmakers look to limit PERA bonuses following Sun investigation - Colorado Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=553\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colorado lawmakers look to limit PERA bonuses following Sun investigation - Colorado Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Democratic lawmaker says he plans to introduce legislation next year to limit the bonuses...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=553\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colorado Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-15T10:04:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/coloradorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=553#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/coloradorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=553\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/coloradorelocationreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/144e01590ba7a61cfe6fd08a0fa7a482\"},\"headline\":\"Colorado lawmakers look to limit PERA bonuses following Sun investigation\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-15T10:04:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/coloradorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=553\"},\"wordCount\":1142,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/coloradorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=553#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/coloradorelocationreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/47aa697253f042db57432dadcc9b04a1-scaled.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics and Government\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/coloradorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=553#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/coloradorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=553\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/coloradorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=553\",\"name\":\"Colorado lawmakers look to limit PERA bonuses following Sun investigation - 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