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

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4min 54sec
<p>John Daley/CPR News</p>
<p>The dome of the Colorado Capitol, January 2017.</p>
Photo: Colorado State House, State Capitol, December 2015, East Side, Snow
The Colorado State Capitol.

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.