Stakes are high for proposed changes to Colorado’s public pension fund

(Hart Van Denburg/CPR News)

More than a half million current and former Colorado school teachers and other government employees depend on the state’s pension system for their retirement. But as things stand, it will be decades before the Public Employees' Retirement Association, known as PERA, is fully funded, which puts it at risk of becoming insolvent first. The last round reforms, in 2010, weren’t enough to shore up the system. So next year the state legislature will consider new changes. Denver Post reporter Brian Eason has been following the issue and talked with CPR about how the system got off track and what its board wants to do now.