Colorado Matters, Walker Stapleton, January 4, 2015
Station: Colorado Public Radio (CPR), KUVO, 90.1 FM
Show: Colorado Matters
Guests: Stapleton
Date: January 4, 2015
Topics:
COLORADO MATTERS CORRESPONDENT MEGAN VERLEE:
COLORADO STATE TREASUER WALKER STAPLETON: The game that goes on — the shell game in respect to public pension systems— is that you set investment assumptions as high as possible and hope for lollipops and rainbows and then you pervasively under fund the plan… and my perspective is, let’s get to a realistic, conservative investment assumption and then properly fund the plan so that we’re not creating in accounting terms what is called a deferred liability.
[…]
Tabor is the popular whipping post, but Gallagher and Amendment 23 have also created a Gordian Knot of automatic ratchets in the budget and we need to free ourselves of automatic ratchets and get more control over where we spend dollars and more results-oriented spending for our budget going forward in the future. But I’m not opposed reflexively to anything, other than I’m opposed to anything that doesn’t give taxpayers a voice in where their money is being spent.
[…]
We’re working on Colorado issuing its first ever comprehensive financial statement, just like a 10-Q that you’d look at from Microsoft or IBM, on a quarterly basis, so that all Coloradans can see, ‘Okay, this state agency issued this debt with these terms.’ The more transparent we can be about debt issuance in Colorado, I think the more fiscally responsible we can be as a state as well.
[…]
We processed more claims last year than ever in Colorado history. We processed a million and a half claims… 15-percent of our claims are over $10,000. But the average is a few hundred dollars.
