TOWN HALL: We must cut city employee benefit

Most of the world’s economies suffer today from absurd retirement promises made decades ago to public employees. Somehow, populations of public workers are supposed to receive extraordinary retirement benefits from societies that have declined to produce younger generations large enough to pay for it all.

The obligations owed by the public are already in jeopardy of default, and going forward on this path only appears more ominous.

Colorado Springs, unfortunately, is far from exempt.

City government cannot begin to afford its pension program, so Mayor Steve Bach is trying to correct course and prevent problems from getting worse. The budget, going forward, can’t even afford the employer portion of the contribution.

Bach will ask City Council on Tuesday for a resolution in support of a bill sponsored by State Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, that will reduce the amount the city is required to contribute to Colorado’s Public Employees’ Retirement Association. City employees would have to pick up more of the costs of their future retirements.

“The current level of PERA contribution for civilian employees made by the City of Colorado Springs is not sustainable,” Bach said in an email to council members.

It is a shame that our economy has not grown out of the problem, and shows little promise of doing so. No one wants to see the futures of government employees threatened or diminished in any way, and no one wants to see them burdened with new costs. It’s cold, hard reality.

Anyone tempted to view this as a needless attack on public employees should consider that Councilman Bernie Herpin, who has long been our community’s most unwavering advocate of city employees, told Gazette reporter Daniel Chacón that he plans to support the resolution.

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“As you probably know from news around the world, pensions are really what’s getting governments into trouble,” Herpin said. “It’s not that I’m trying to put more burden on our employees … I think we need to get a handle on our retirement.”

There is simply no question about it, and the private sector came to terms with this reality more than a decade ago by switching from defined-benefit pensions to defined-contribution plans that make employees more responsible for their own futures. The Gazette’s editorial board hopes a majority on council will approve the requested resolution. 

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