Just a little over a month after rating agency Moody’s stepped in and told the state of Colorado that it needed to shore up its ailing public pension fund, state House Democrats have proposed the state fund private companies’ retirement accounts, too. We know, it’s somewhat preposterous. From the Denver Business Journal:
“The House on Thursday approved House Bill 1235, which would create a task force to study how Coloradans are saving for retirement and then to propose any solutions that the Legislature could implement. But it did so on a fully partisan 33-30 Democratic-majority vote, leaving the bill in jeopardy as it heads to the Republican-led Senate.”
As it should be, in jeopardy, that is. This is a terrible idea. Fortunately, it’s scheduled to be heard today in the Senate kill committee.
Colorado already has the 16th largest long-term liability – $29 billion – despite efforts to stem the ballooning liability. The head of Colorado PERA told the Grand Junction Sentinel that eventually the fund would be solvent – in 35 years.
That’s why it’s so funny that House Democrats would propose that the state take over small business pension funds. Colorado cannot even pay for its own employees, much less some kind of bastard offspring of the Colorado Health Exchange and PERA pushed by the left-leaning Bell Policy Center.
One CEO, 24 or 25 year old Jacob Zax, who appears to still live at home, is supportive of the plan, telling the Denver Business Journal:
“Generally speaking, I trust the government. For a simple plan like this, a government-validated plan, it would reduce some of the stress about having to do this.”
That’s probably what some said about Obamacare. To that we say, if you trust the government to handle this, you haven’t been paying attention.