2025 Proposed PERA-Related Legislation Status

The 2025 legislative session commenced January 8 and will continue for up to 120 days.

Below you’ll find summaries of proposed legislation affecting Colorado PERA. The status of each bill will be updated regularly.

Last updated: February 4, 2025


SB25-028

Public Employees’ Retirement Association Risk-Reduction Measures

Summary: Codifies into state law certain reporting practices the PERA Board already performs on a regular basis and modifies the cadence of those reports, including actuarial experience studies and independent reviews of actuarial audits.

Sponsors: Rep. Eliza Hamrick, Rep. Rick Taggart, Sen. Chris Kolker

Status: Introduced Jan. 8, scheduled for hearing in Senate Finance Committee Feb. 11.

HB25-1052

Income Tax Credit for Public Employees’ Retirement Association Retirees

Summary: Creates a temporary refundable tax credit of $700 for qualifying PERA retirees. To qualify, a retiree would have to be 65 or older at the end of tax year 2025 or 2026, and have annual gross income of no more than $38,000 for single tax filers or $76,000 for joint filers.

Sponsors: Rep. Eliza Hamrick, Rep. Rick Taggart, Sen. Chris Kolker

Status: House Finance Committee voted to postpone indefinitely Jan. 27.

HB25-1105

PERA True-Up of Denver Public Schools Division Employer Contribution

Summary: Would reduce the total employer contribution rate for the Denver Public Schools Division from 10.4% to 7.4% of salary beginning July 1, 2025.

Sponsors: Rep. Sean Camacho

Status: Introduced Jan. 27; assigned to House Finance Committee.

HB25-1150

Forfeiture of PERA Benefits by Sex Offenders

Summary: Requires a PERA member to forfeit part of their retirement benefits should that individual be convicted of a sex crime. It would also establish a new fund into which forfeited benefits would be transferred and these monies would be used to provide grants to survivors of a sex crime for necessary medical and mental health resources.

Sponsors: Rep. Ron Weinberg

Status: Introduced Jan. 29; assigned to House Finance Committee.

President Biden Signs WEP/GPO Repeal Bill into Law

Social Security’s Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) will soon be no more.

After legislators took historic action to pass the Social Security Fairness Act in the final hours of Congress in late December, President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Sunday, Jan. 5.

It’s now up to the Social Security Administration to begin implementing the changes.

Why it matters

The bill removes from federal law Social Security’s WEP and GPO, two provisions that can significantly reduce Social Security benefits for retirees who also receive retirement income from work that wasn’t covered by Social Security. In Colorado, most public employees do not contribute to Social Security and therefore faced reductions to any earned Social Security benefits under WEP and GPO if they or their spouse contributed to Social Security before or after their public sector employment.

Lawmakers had been trying for decades to remove or modify WEP and GPO, but those bills never made it to the floor of the House or Senate for a vote. The passage of the Social Security Fairness Act in 2024 marks a historic change; removing those two provisions means the public employees affected by them will no longer receive reduced Social Security benefits.

As written, the bill’s changes are effective for Social Security benefits payable starting in 2024 and beyond.

What does repeal mean for PERA members?

At this early stage, there are still a lot of questions about how the bill will be implemented. The Social Security Administration has not yet released any details on when or how any changes might take place. Visit ssa.gov for the latest information from the Social Security Administration.

It’s important to note the repeal of WEP and GPO does not affect a PERA retiree’s PERA benefit; the changes only apply to Social Security benefits. Any questions about Social Security benefits should be directed to the Social Security Administration.

Throughout the legislative process, much of the debate on the bill had to do with its cost—the Congressional Budget Office estimates it will require nearly $200 billion in additional spending over the next decade to provide larger Social Security benefits to those affected by WEP and GPO. That additional cost could also accelerate the depletion of the Social Security trust funds, which may add urgency to legislative efforts to shore up the program.

PERA On The Issues will continue to closely monitor this issue and provide updates when available. Be sure to subscribe to our biweekly newsletter and follow Colorado PERA on social media (we’re on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn) for the latest information.

What to Expect from the 2025 Legislative Session

State lawmakers convened at the Capitol Building in Denver on January 8 to begin the 75th Colorado General Assembly. Over the course of 120 days, legislators will introduce and debate hundreds of bills that could become law.

As in past legislative sessions, a handful of those bills will be related to PERA and its members. We caught up with PERA Director of Public & Government Affairs Michael Steppat ahead of the new session to get his perspective on what to expect.

What role does the State Legislature play in PERA?

While the PERA Board of Trustees is responsible for administering benefits and overseeing PERA’s investments, the Colorado General Assembly is responsible for many other aspects of PERA, such as contribution rates, benefit levels, providing oversight through various legislative committees, and setting the amount of the annual benefit increases that retirees receive.

It’s important to make sure lawmakers understand how PERA works and how legislation can potentially affect our funding progress. The majority of time spent in the weeks leading up to the start of the new session involves meeting with legislators and other stakeholders on PERA-related issues and potential legislation for the upcoming session.

How does the recent election impact PERA?

Due to term limits for state legislators in Colorado and just natural turnover, the previous election cycle and futures cycles include many individuals being elected for the very first time. This means it is an ongoing process to educate lawmakers on PERA-related issues. As is the case with most public policy issues, there are very few who are experts right out of the gate in every aspect of an issue and this is especially true with a state retirement system. There will certainly be incoming lawmakers with experience in finance or investments or actuarial science, but it is not common for someone to have experience in all aspects of a pension plan like PERA.

A primary focus, both year-round and following a recent election, is to meet with and educate lawmakers. To get a good sense of how quickly the state legislature turns over, just look at how many legislators are still part of the General Assembly who voted on Senate Bill 200 in 2018—it’s fewer than a dozen out of 100 total legislators.

We already have an idea of some of the PERA-related legislative issues lawmakers will be looking at this year. Can you tell us more about that?

Legislative work doesn’t only happen while the General Assembly is in session—throughout the summer and fall, various “interim” (the period when the legislature is not in regular session) committees meet and begin work on studying issues and drafting bills for the next session. This past September, the Pension Review Commission drafted two bills related to PERA.

The first, known as Bill A (until it is given a bill number after being officially introduced), is identical to a bill from last session that would provide a temporary tax credit for PERA retirees to reduce the impact of inflation. The second, Bill B, would codify into state law certain reporting practices the PERA Board already performs on a regular basis and would modify the cadence of those reports.

READ MORE: State Lawmakers Pursuing Two PERA-Related Bills in 2025

In addition, there’s been discussion at the Capitol regarding a potential ”conversion” of the State’s share of Pinnacol Assurance, which is currently the State’s workers’ compensation insurer, after the proposal was included as part of the Governor’s budget request to the General Assembly last month. The proposed conversion has two main aspects related to PERA that were both included in the budget request. The first is that if Pinnacol becomes a private entity, then it cannot continue to be part of PERA both for current and future employees, and it would have to disaffiliate from PERA. The second involves using the proceeds from the sale of Pinnacol to offset the State’s $225m ‘direct distribution’ payment to PERA in future years.

Aside from PERA-related topics, what are some other legislative priorities lawmakers will likely be pursuing this year?

A top priority for the Legislature this session will be coming up with a balanced budget. When Gov. Jared Polis submitted his budget proposal to the Joint Budget Committee, it included nearly $700 million in cuts to fill a projected funding gap. The Legislature ultimately develops the State budget, and they may have different ideas for how to make up the shortage, so we’ll be closely monitoring as that process plays out to see if there are implications to PERA.

It is important to note PERA benefits come out of the trust funds reserved for paying those benefits, which are funded through contributions from employees and their employers as well as investment returns.

At the federal level, a new Congress is just getting underway. What can we expect in Washington, DC?

The beginning of the year will be busy for Congress. The House and Senate convened on January 3, and President Trump will be sworn in for his second term on January 20. Then, Congress will begin confirmation hearings for Trump’s various nominees. With Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, we can expect to see the party try to push through many of its legislative priorities on issues such as immigration, trade, and regulation. One policy issue at the federal level which does often impact PERA more than many others is changes to healthcare policy and we will continue to monitor what, if any, proposals come forward in that respect.

In the final days of the last Congress, legislators took the historic step of approving a bill to repeal Social Security’s Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), and President Biden has since signed the bill into law. What’s the latest on that issue?

Congress had been trying to repeal or modify WEP and GPO for decades without success, but the political environment was just right to make it happen at the end of 2024. We were encouraged to see legislators take action to improve the retirement security of public employees and we’ll be watching closely to see how the repeal of those two federal provisions unfolds.

There’s still a lot we don’t know at this point—it’s unclear what the implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act will look like, and the Social Security Administration has yet to release any details. As written the bill should apply to Social Security benefits paid in 2024, so some retirees may be owed additional benefit payments, but we don’t yet know when that might happen.

What do you recommend to anyone who wants to get involved in the legislative process?

I always tell people the most important thing they can do is contact their legislators about issues that are important to them. In addition, the General Assembly website has lots of great information. You can listen to committee meetings, view calendars, review the status of a bill, and sign up to testify at committee meetings.

And of course the biweekly PERA On The Issues newsletter will have up-to-date information on any legislation that affects PERA.

U.S. House Passes WEP/GPO Repeal Bill, Heads to Senate

UPDATE (Jan. 7, 2025): Pres. Joe Biden has signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law. We posted an updated article here.

UPDATE (Dec. 30, 2024): The U.S. Senate on Dec. 21 voted to pass the Social Security Fairness Act. The bill now awaits President Biden’s signature.

UPDATE (Dec. 13, 2024): Colorado PERA and the Fire & Police Pension Association of Colorado sent a joint letter to Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, encouraging them to support the Social Security Fairness Act in the Senate. Read the letter.


In a historic first, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that aims to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), which can reduce Social Security benefits for Colorado PERA members and other public employees.

The bill, H.R. 82—also known as the Social Security Fairness Act—was introduced in early January 2023 and eventually gained the support of over 300 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle. Lawmakers didn’t take any significant action on the bill until September 2024, when sponsors Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Garret Graves (R-LA) filed what’s known as a discharge petition, seeking to move the bill out of committee and force a floor vote.

Despite an Election Day maneuver seeking to table the bill, House leadership put H.R. 82 to a vote on Tuesday, November 12. It passed by a vote of 327 to 75.

The bill’s fate now lies with the Senate as lawmakers have just days to pass legislation before the current Congress ends. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he intends to bring the bill up for a vote.

Some lawmakers have expressed concern about the bill’s cost; a recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office found it would require nearly $200 billion in additional spending over the next decade to provide larger Social Security benefits to those affected.

What are WEP and GPO?

Social Security benefits are designed to replace only some of a worker’s pre-retirement earnings, and lower-paid workers receive a larger replacement percentage than higher-paid workers. Prior to the WEP being enacted in 1983, non-Social Security government workers like PERA members would receive a larger-than-intended Social Security benefit because of those years in their earning record when they weren’t contributing to Social Security. The WEP was meant to remove that advantage.

The GPO applies to PERA retirees who also receive a Social Security spousal or widow(er) benefit and reduces the Social Security benefit by two-thirds of the PERA benefit. That’s because spousal and widow(er) benefits are considered “dependent” benefits and were meant to help spouses who stayed at home and depended on their working partner for financial support. According to the Social Security Administration, now that it is common for both spouses to work, the GPO requires the “dependent” benefit to be offset by the dollar amount of their own retirement benefit.

It’s important to note that a retiree’s PERA benefit will never be reduced to Social Security or other benefits. Learn more about PERA and Social Security.

Federal lawmakers also voted on another WEP-related bill, H.R. 5342, which would have introduced a new formula for calculating Social Security benefit reductions rather than a full repeal. That bill failed on a vote of 175 to 225.

PERA On The Issues will continue to monitor legislation on this issue and we’ll post updates when available. Be sure to subscribe to our biweekly newsletter to stay informed.

State Lawmakers Pursuing Two PERA-Related Bills in 2025

Lawmakers in Colorado are moving forward with two PERA-related bill drafts following a summer of legislative activity in interim committees.

PERA leaders and staff have been meeting with legislators throughout the summer to provide updates, answer questions, and provide feedback during this annual period of PERA review and oversight.

Drafts of PERA-related bills

The Pension Review Commission, which is responsible for recommending legislation pertaining to PERA and the Fire and Police Pension Association of Colorado, met on Friday, September 27 to finalize two bill drafts related to PERA.

The first, known as Bill A, is similar to a bill from last session that would provide a temporary tax credit for PERA retirees to reduce the impact of inflation. The $700 credit would apply to retirees who are at least 65 years old and have adjusted gross income of no more than $38,000 for single filers or $76,000 for joint filers.

The second draft, Bill B, pertains to PERA studies and reporting. The bill aims to lay out in statute some of the work the PERA Board already does on a regular basis, such as periodic actuarial audits and actuarial experience studies. The bill also would modify the cadence of those reports.

The Commission had been considering a bill to tie to inflation the State’s annual $225 million direct distribution to PERA, based on a recommendation from the Pension Review Subcommittee. Lawmakers decided not to move forward with that bill as one of their official interim committee-recommended pieces of legislation because of its added cost amid a projected shortfall in the state budget. Lawmakers may still decide individually to move forward with any particular bills during the legislative session.

Pension Review Subcommittee recommendations

Throughout the summer, PERA also engaged with the Pension Review Subcommittee, which consists of a mix of legislators and members of the public and reports up to the Pension Review Commission. In addition to making recommendations to the Pension Review Commission, the Subcommittee also makes recommendations to the PERA Board and writes an annual letter to the residents of Colorado on PERA’s financial health.

In the course of its work, the Pension Review Subcommittee came up with three recommendations for the PERA Board:

  1. Provide more detail on the benchmarks PERA uses to measure performance of the various asset classes in the PERA Defined Benefit Plan portfolio.
  2. Improve transparency around PERA Board meetings by making meeting recordings and materials more easily accessible online.
  3. Study the impact of allowing non-vested PERA members who refund their account to receive their balance plus investment returns instead of the current Board-established 3% compounding interest.

The PERA Board discussed the recommendations at its September Planning Session and agreed to consider all three. Investment staff provided the Subcommittee with the information requested on benchmarks, the Board agreed to archive meeting recordings and public materials online starting in November; meetings are currently streamed live and available upon request. The Board also agreed staff will study the cost of providing market returns when a member refunds their account.

What’s next?

All bill drafts from interim committees go to the Legislative Council Committee for consideration. If approved, lawmakers can then introduce those bills in the next legislative session, which begins on January 8, 2025.

The PERA Board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is set for November 15.

PERA Receives Results of 2023 Financial Audit

Colorado PERA once again received a clean audit at its annual hearing with the Legislative Audit Committee.

Results of outside audit

Every year, the State hires an independent auditor to examine PERA’s financial reports, compliance, and internal controls. Since 2015, the State has enlisted CliftonLarsonAllen, a nationally recognized financial services firm, to conduct that work. CliftonLarsonAllen presented the results of this year’s audit at the Legislative Audit Committee’s Aug. 5 meeting.

As in years past, the audit did not find any issues with PERA’s recently released 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and did not find any deficiencies or weaknesses in PERA’s internal controls.

RELATED: PERA Board Releases 2023 Annual Report

Additional interim committee activity

In addition to the Legislative Audit Committee, PERA staff and consultants meet with other legislative panels throughout the summer, including the Pension Review Subcommittee and Pension Review Commission. The Pension Review Subcommittee is tasked with making recommendations to the PERA Board and the Pension Review Commission. The Commission may then draft legislation that lawmakers may introduce in the next legislative session in January.

We’ll be monitoring the ongoing legislative activity at the State Capitol throughout the interim period and will post updates here on PERA On The Issues when we have them.

Lawmakers Pass Bill to Refresh Study on Value of PERA’s Defined Benefit Plan

The Colorado Legislature this month approved a bill that directs the Office of the State Auditor to commission an updated study comparing the value of PERA’s hybrid defined benefit (DB) plan to other plan designs.

House Bill 1427 calls for the State Auditor, in cooperation with PERA, to enlist an independent actuarial firm experienced with public pensions to conduct a comprehensive study comparing the cost and effectiveness of the PERA DB Plan to alternative plan designs, as well as providing an analysis of certain aspects of PERA’s current defined benefit and defined contribution plans.

The study will be similar in scope and purpose to a study that took place following similar legislation in 2014. That study compared various facets of the PERA DB Plan—such as cost per member, contribution rates, income replacement ratio, and portability—to other public and private sector plan types, including Social Security. The study concluded that PERA’s plan provides a better benefit at a lower cost than other plans, making it the best option for providing retirement benefits to the state’s public employees.

READ MORE: Key PERA Features Make Colorado’s Largest Retirement Plan Efficient and Effective (from 2015)

As Colorado’s public workforce evolves, it’s important that Colorado PERA remain flexible enough to meet the membership’s changing needs. This study will help policymakers assess PERA’s continued value in recruiting and retaining a highly qualified public workforce in the years ahead.

If HB24-1427 is signed into law, the State Auditor and PERA will have until the end of October to select an actuarial firm. When the study is complete, PERA and the State Auditor will provide a report of the study’s findings to the governor, the Joint Budget Committee, the Legislative Audit Committee, and the House and Senate Finance Committees.

In addition to HB24-1427, lawmakers have passed two other PERA-related bills, both of which will expand provisions for PERA members who return to work in retirement. Those bills have been sent to the governor for his signature.

RELATED2024 Proposed Legislation Status

State Lawmakers Pass Six PERA-Related Bills in 2024 Legislative Session

That’s a wrap—Colorado’s 2024 legislative session has come to an end.

Each session, legislators introduce hundreds of new bills, and it’s not unusual for some of them to pertain to PERA and its members. This year, lawmakers proposed nine PERA-related bills.

By the end of the session on May 8, six of those nine bills had passed and were either signed into law or will be sent to Gov. Jared Polis for action.

Below is a summary of the bills that passed. For information on the other proposed bills, click here.

Working after retirement

Lawmakers approved two bills that expand the number of PERA retirees who can return to work without a reduction in their benefits, both of which Gov. Polis signed into law.

Under current law, all PERA retirees may work up to 110 days or 720 hours per calendar year for one or more PERA employer(s) without a reduction in their retirement benefits. In addition to the 110 days for all retirees, employers in the School and Denver Public Schools (DPS) divisions, as well as each state college or university, can designate up to 10 retirees who are permitted to work up to 140 days or 916 hours per calendar year without reductions to their PERA benefits. House Bill 1044 will allow districts with more than 10,000 students to designate an additional retiree for each thousand students over 10,000.

Also, rural school districts can declare a critical shortage of qualified teachers, school bus drivers, food service workers, school nurses, or paraprofessionals and hire PERA retirees to fill those positions without having their retirement benefits reduced. Senate Bill 99 adds principals and superintendents to the list of qualified positions.

RELATED: Understanding the Financial Impact of Working After Retirement

Actuarial study

House Bill 1427 calls for the State Auditor, in cooperation with PERA, to enlist an independent actuarial firm experienced with public pensions to conduct a comprehensive study comparing the cost and effectiveness of the PERA Defined Benefit Plan to alternative plan designs, as well as providing an analysis of certain aspects of PERA current defined benefit and defined contribution plans.

As Colorado’s public workforce evolves, it’s important that Colorado PERA remain flexible enough to meet the membership’s changing needs. This study will help policymakers assess PERA’s continued value in recruiting and retaining a highly qualified public workforce in the years ahead.

READ MORE: Lawmakers Pass Bill to Refresh Study on Value of PERA’s Defined Benefit Plan

Other PERA provisions

Other bills that passed the Legislature made minor adjustments to PERA membership provisions by expanding the definition of “State Trooper” for the purpose of PERA benefits.

Senate Bill 169 expands the definition of State Trooper for the purpose of PERA benefits to include duly sworn employees of the Division of Fire Prevention and Control in the Department of Public Safety whose duties include structural or wildfire management, wildfire response, live-fire training, or wildfire leadership, as determined by the executive director of the department.

Senate Bill 186 expands the definition of State Trooper for the purpose of PERA benefits to include county coroners and deputy coroners.

Another bill, Senate Bill 13, seeks to establish salary parity among publicly funded lawyers in the criminal justice system. The introduced version of the bill also included a provision related to PERA, but this was removed from the final bill passed by the Legislature.

PERA Presents at Legislative Audit Committee Hearing

PERA presented to the Legislative Audit Committee on July 27. The primary agenda was a review of PERA’s financial returns. PERA staff and outside analysts were on hand to present and answer questions from committee members.

Financial Audit

Every year, an independent auditor hired by the Office of the State Auditor conducts a review of PERA’s financial status and fiscal controls. CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, which has been auditing PERA’s annual statements since 2015, audited the 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The auditors gave the 2019 CAFR a clean audit, and committee members heard an overview of results from the annual report. You can read a summary of the 2019 CAFR here.

Signal Light Reporting

In 2014, the Legislative Audit Committee directed the Office of the State Auditor to contract with an actuarial firm to develop a methodology to simplify the understanding of PERA’s financial status. The result was the development of a tool called Signal Light Reporting, which PERA submits annually to the committee. This report summarizes the funded status of each PERA Division by using a color scale. The scale resembles a stop light, from green, indicating that PERA is projected to be on track to fully funded status, all the way to red. PERA submitted and shared the latest report, which shows that all divisions are on track to reach fully funded status by 2048 (green).

Ongoing Oversight at the Capitol

PERA reports to numerous committees at the State Capitol, including the Legislative Audit Committee, Joint Budget Committee, Joint Finance Committee, Pension Review Subcommittee, and Pension Review Commission. These regular check-ins provide lawmakers the chance to learn more about PERA and ask questions to PERA management. They also provide additional forums in which PERA members can learn more about how PERA works. For those not able to listen to the live broadcast, a recording can be found here.

How It’s Made: PERA’s Financial Report, Part 2

This is the second installment of a two-part story. Read the first installment here.

Incorporating a View from Outside

After changes for the next year have been discussed and approved, the legwork begins, usually in late fall. This means welcoming into the mix a group of external auditors. PERA has internal auditors, but bringing in a truly outside perspective helps ensure the information in the CAFR is rigorously checked and, consequently, accurate to a high degree of certainty.

The word “audit” might conjure up IRS dread for some, but auditors are a routine presence in accounting departments in organizations like PERA. “In the fall, the auditors do what they call walkthroughs,” Maninger said. “They do deep dives into our processes, meeting with the Investments, Benefits, and other departments to see how they do their work. For example, they might follow the contracting and funding of a new private equity investment through every step until the wire goes out the door.”

In addition to analyzing the ways in which work gets done, they do a significant amount of statistical analysis of the mountains of data PERA keeps, looking for any anomalies. Say the auditors analyze monthly benefit payments. PERA sends out more than 100,000 checks of varied amounts every month. You’d expect the last digit of each check amount to be evenly distributed—about the same number of checks ending in a twos (e.g. $975.72) as eights (e.g. $1,000.68). However, if thirty percent of all checks ended in a two instead of the expected ten percent, the auditors would likely flag this as an anomaly and look into it further.

An anomaly doesn’t indicate that something is wrong, just that something could be. After investigating, they might discover an error or a process that needs improvement. “Our goal is to make the CAFR as accurate and as complete as we can possibly make it,” Maninger said. “We have a lot of information to share with members, and this information affects lives.”

Putting it All Together

The structure for the CAFR is usually in place by the end of the year. When January 1 rolls around, final returns start rolling in. Some of these returns are available immediately. Global equity and fixed income, for example, have prices that are readily available on any given day. Anyone can track the prices of PERA’s top holdings in global equity at the end of 2019—Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon—on a daily basis.

But returns in other asset classes may take until early April to receive and record. PERA owns companies that aren’t publicly traded in its private equity asset class. Determining the value of these companies takes a much longer time, as it requires a detailed financial analysis to come up with an informed price as opposed to watching for a stock ticker run across the screen on CNBC. This is one reason the CAFR isn’t released until June.

Another reason is that actuaries assess PERA’s demographic information—how many people are starting jobs and leaving them, beginning retirement and passing away, along with an array of other data points. This information is critical as PERA must chart the course for decades into the future.

Once these pieces are finalized and everyone, including the external auditors, signs off, the CAFR is sent to the Board of Trustees. They review it and, with a vote, they approve and release the report to the public.

Where to Start

The CAFR is unlikely to be a choice for a book club or a beach anytime soon. But, like the view from a window several stories up, it contains the best perspective on all things PERA. Reading only a few pages can help lead to a much better understanding of how PERA works and where it’s going.

“If someone is going to read anything at all in the CAFR, they should read the Letter of Transmittal,” Maninger said. “Ron [Baker, PERA’s Executive Director] works hard to communicate the most important parts of the CAFR in that letter.” The letter in the 2019 CAFR is found on page 3.

“If you’re interested in any changes or updates from past year, the section called Management’s Discussion and Analysis (page 29) will explain variances from one year to another,” she added

For those interested in PERA’s investments, Neugebauer said the Schedule of Investment Results (page 127) is the best place to see how PERA’s investments have done recently compared to their benchmarks.

Shelton said page 136 should be of interest to those who are saving and investing for retirement. “We have a number of options available for those who participate in 401k, 457, and DC plans, from investing in specific asset classes or using one of the Target Retirement Date Funds,” she said. “From my perspective, page 136 is important because it highlights the variety of options participants have and what the returns were for the most recent year. If they want to read more, descriptions of the investment options are on page 134.”

Meant to be Used

If you’re looking for a book to check out at your library, one method might be to look for the book that has tattered pages, dog-ears, and coffee stains. A book’s battered paper doubles as a public record of the value it’s brought to others.

That’s how Maninger, Neugebauer, and Shelton, view the CAFR. It’s not a yearbook, meant to commemorate a year that was: It’s a useful publication, meant to be picked up. “I have a copy at home,” Neugebauer said. “And in my office at work I have every copy going back to 1980.”

But the importance of the CAFR is perhaps best illustrated by a small action Shelton took months ago: “When we found out that we were starting to work remotely in March, I thought we were just going to be offsite for a week or two. But just in case, I grabbed my CAFR as I was going out the door.”