Legislators need reminding on PERA disclosure

Who's replied, who hasn't, listed below Colorado legislators preparing to vote on bills to close a yawning $13 billion deficit in PERA, the state pension system, owe the public a frank declaration of what financial stake, if any, each state Senator or Representative personally holds in PERA. Out of 100 members in the legislature, 79 have yet to provide such disclosure.

Claremont Institute wrote each member personally on Feb. 21, asking for a yes or no on PERA membership and, if yes, the year of joining and the amount of additional service credits purchased. The list below gives a fully tally of written replies received as of the requested deadline, March 3, along with several oral replies provided since then.

Articles on March 15 in the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post reported the generally dismissive tone of legislators toward our request for PERA disclosure.

In the present stormy ethical climate, the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate might be expected to lead pro-actively on this issue, but as yet they have not.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLAREMONT INSTITUTE Survey of Legislators’ PERA Membership All legislators were surveyed: Are you a member or not? The only replies are marked Yes or No. Status current through April 11, 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SENATORS Bacon, Bob Brophy, Greg Dyer, Jim Entz, Lewis -- YES Evans, John Fitz-Gerald, Joan Gordon, Ken Groff, Peter Grossman, Dan Hagedorn, Bob Hanna, Deanna Isgar, Jim Johnson, Steve -- NO Jones, Ed Keller, Maryanne Kester, Ken Lamborn, Doug -- YES May, Ron McElhany, Andy -- YES Mitchell, Shawn Owen, David Sandoval, Paula -- YES Shaffer, Brandon Spence, Nancy -- NO Takis, Stephanie Tapia, Abel Taylor, Jack Teck, Ronald -- NO Tochtrop, Lois Traylor, Kiki -- NO Tupa, Ron Veiga, Jennifer Wiens, Tom Williams, Suzanne Windels, Sue -------------------------------------------------------------------- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Balmer, David -- NO Benefield, Debbie Berens, Bill Borodkin, Alice Boyd, Betty Buescher, Bernie Butcher, Dorothy Cadman, Bill Carroll, Morgan Carroll, Terrance Cerbo, Mike Clapp, Lauri Cloer, Mark Coleman, Fran -- NO Crane, Bill -- NO Curry, Kathleen Decker, Richard Frangas, Jerry Gallegos, Rafael Garcia, Michael Gardner, Cory -- NO Green, Gwyn Hall, Dale Harvey, Ted -- YES Hefley, Lynn Hodge, Mary Hoppe, Diane -- NO Jahn, Cheri Judd, Joel Kerr, James King, Keith Knoedler, Matt Larson, Mark Lindstrom, Gary Liston, Larry -- YES Lundberg, Kevin -- NO Madden, Alice Marshall, Rosemary Massey, Tom May, Mike -- NO McCluskey, Bob McFadyen, Buffie McGihon, Anne McKinley, Wes Merrifield, Michael Paccione, Angela Penry, Joshua -- NO Plant, Tom Pommer, Jack Ragsdale, Ann Riesberg, Jim Romanoff, Andrew Rose, Ray Schultheis, David -- NO Solano, Judy Soper, John Stafford, Debbie -- YES Stengel, Joseph Sullivan, James Todd, Nancy Vigil, Valentin Weissmann, Paul Welker, Jim – NO White, Al Witwer, Rob - NO