Late Wednesday evening, May 9, the Colorado General Assembly voted to approve Senate Bill 18-200, sending legislation that will return PERA to full funding over 30 years to the Governor for his signature.

All stakeholders—PERA members, retirees and employers—will be impacted by the legislation. It will reset PERA’s path to financial resilience, making the retirement fund stronger and more stable.

Having already been approved by both the Senate and the House, the legislation passed out of conference committee Wednesday evening and, later on the 9^th, was again approved by both chambers. Some of the key provisions of the bill in its final form include:

•  PERA receiving an annual direct distribution from the state budget of $225 million.
•  Increasing employer contributions by 0.25 percent beginning July 1, 2019 (except Local Government employers).
•  A phased-in increase of employee contributions for most members by an additional 2 percent, reaching a total of 10 percent of pay by 2021.
•  Suspending the Annual Increase (AI, or Cost of Living Adjustment) for 2018 and 2019.
•  Capping the Annual Increase at 1.5 percent and increasing the waiting period from one to three years.
•  Increasing the age and service requirements for new hires as of January 1, 2020 to:

°  Any age with 35 years of service
°  Age 64 with 30 years of service
°  Age 65 with five years of service
°  Age 55 with 25 years of service for state troopers
°  Age 65 with five years of service for state troopers

•  Increasing from three to five the number of years used to calculate Highest Average Salary (HAS) for non-vested members as of January 1, 2020.
•  Implementing an Automatic Adjustment Provision for contributions, Annual Increases and the state’s direct distribution that will keep PERA on a path to full funding in 30 years.
•  For new members hired on or after January 1, 2019, expanded access to the PERA Defined Contribution (DC) Plan for the Local Government Division, and for classified college and university employees.

PERA on the Issues will continue to publish additional information about the legislation and its impacts on current retirees, members and employers. More details about Senate Bill 200 in its final form are available here.