Former Democratic Governor Dick Lamm recently told Kyle Clark of 9News that the issue Colorado is ignoring at its own peril these days is our public pension system. While this statement is rather obvious, it is rare to see a high profile Democrat step out of line with the Party’s position that PERA (Public Employees’ Retirement Association) is being flawlessly managed. 
Perhaps all the work done by state Treasurer Walker Stapleton is finally breaking through to Dems like Lamm, who don’t really care about stepping out of line with the unions on this one. It will be interesting to see if more follow suit. After all, PERA’s unfunded liability, or money that it owes but doesn’t have in the fund, increased in 2015 by $2.2 billion to $26.8 billion.
The state is eventually going to have to find that money somewhere, which means they’re going to raid other funds, like transportation or education, or raise taxes.
See Lamm’s entire exchange with Clark starting at about the 16:55 minute mark.
