Tag: Colorado

Fired head of Colorado’s public pension system will get a year’s salary — more than $400,000 — as severance

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://coloradosun.com/2023/05/17/ron-baker-pera-severance/

Excerpt:

The fired head of Colorado’s $60 billion-plus public pension system will receive a year’s salary — more than $400,000 — as severance, under his contract and because of the way his employment was terminated. 

Ron Baker was fired May 1 by the 16-member Public Employees’ Retirement Association board nearly two months after he went on a leave of absence. 

Neither the board nor PERA has disclosed why Baker was fired, and Colorado Sun attempts over the past several months to contact Baker have been unsuccessful. Emails, texts and voicemail messages to Baker from The Sun, including for this story, were not returned.

Baker will get $412,108.80 in severance because the board terminated his contract without cause. Had he been fired for cause, he wouldn’t have been eligible to collect the severance. 

Baker’s contract says he could only be fired for cause if there was a breach of his employment agreement, for gross negligence, or if he had committed or pleaded guilty or no contest to a felony criminal charge. The contract says he could also be fired for cause for “wilfully engaging in any activity which is contrary to the best interest of the association (for) which activity is uncured by the executive for a reasonable period of time after he receives written notice concerning such activity.”  

Author(s): Jesse Paul

Publication Date: 17 May 2023

Publication Site: Colorado Sun

Ron Baker, the head of Colorado’s public pension system, is fired after two-month leave of absence

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://coloradosun.com/2023/05/02/ron-baker-pera-fired/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Ron Baker, the executive director of Colorado’s Public Employees’ Retirement Association, was fired Monday night by the 16-member board overseeing the state’s $60 billion-plus public pension system. 

Baker’s firing comes nearly two months after he went on a leave of absence. PERA refused to say why Baker went on leave or to say whether his absence was self-initiated or initiated by the PERA board.  

The PERA board convened in downtown Denver on Monday evening for a special meeting to discuss Baker’s employment status. The board immediately voted unanimously to enter a secret executive session, which lasted more than six hours. 

When the board emerged from its closed-door session, Vice Chair Suzanne Kubec made a motion to terminate Baker, which was seconded by Colorado Treasurer Dave Young, who sits on the board. The motion passed unanimously and the meeting adjourned.

….

Baker was appointed to be PERA’s executive director in 2018 and made an annual salary of more than $400,000, In January, the PERA board voted to award Baker a 19% performance bonus and increased his salary by 4%, according to meeting minutes.

Author(s): Jesse Paul

Publication Date: 2 May 2023

Publication Site: Colorado Sun

The insurance industry’s renewed focus on disparate impacts and unfair discrimination

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.milliman.com/en/insight/the-insurance-industrys-renewed-focus-on-disparate-impacts-and-unfair-discrimination

Excerpt:

As consumers, regulators, and stakeholders demand more transparency and accountability with respect to how insurers’ business practices contribute to potential systemic societal inequities, insurers will need to adapt. One way insurers can do this is by conducting disparate impact analyses and establishing robust systems for monitoring and minimizing disparate impacts. There are several reasons why this is beneficial:

  1. Disparate impact analyses focus on identifying unintentional discrimination resulting in disproportionate impacts on protected classes. This potentially creates a higher standard than evaluating unfairly discriminatory practices depending on one’s interpretation of what constitutes unfair discrimination. Practices that do not result in disparate impacts are likely by default to also not be unfairly discriminatory (assuming that there are also no intentionally discriminatory practices in place and that all unfairly discriminatory variables codified by state statutes are evaluated in the disparate impact analysis).
  2. Disparate impact analyses that align with company values and mission statements reaffirm commitments to ensuring equity in the insurance industry. This provides goodwill to consumers and provides value to stakeholders.
  3. Disparate impact analyses can prevent or mitigate future legal issues. By proactively monitoring and minimizing disparate impacts, companies can reduce the likelihood of allegations of discrimination against a protected class and corresponding litigation.
  4. If writing business in Colorado, then establishing a framework for assessing and monitoring disparate impacts now will allow for a smooth transition once the Colorado bill goes into effect. If disparate impacts are identified, insurers have time to implement corrections before the bill is effective.

Author(s): Eric P. Krafcheck

Publication Date: 27 Sept 2021

Publication Site: Milliman

Hospitals Are Flouting — And Fighting — Price Transparency Rules

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.levernews.com/hospitals-are-flouting-and-fighting-price-transparency-rules/

Excerpt:

The vast majority of U.S. hospitals are ignoring a new bipartisan federal law that requires the facilities to make their service prices available to the public, new research shows, and the Biden administration is facing growing criticism for not doing enough to enforce compliance with the landmark rule.

Now one state, Colorado, has taken matters into its own hands, passing an innovative law to bring its hospitals into compliance with the federal price transparency requirements — despite health care lobbyists’ efforts to sink the legislative effort.

….

Against the backdrop of limited federal enforcement, Colorado is leading the charge on creatively bringing hospitals into compliance, thanks to a new state law: House Bill 1285.

The law, recently signed by Gov. Jared Polis (D) and effective starting this August, has dual goals of accelerating the timeline on which hospital systems must meet the federal mandate, and curbing the crippling medical debt that plagues more than 100 million Americans.

The measure adds a state-level enforcement mechanism by requiring that hospitals be in compliance with the federal pricing transparency act in order to send Coloradans to collections for medical bills.

David Silverstein, founder and chairman of patient advocacy organization Broken Healthcare, wrote the bill and spearheaded the effort to get it across the finish line.

Author(s): Aditi Ramaswami

Publication Date: 27 Jun 2022

Publication Site: The Lever

In one of the country’s most vaccinated places, masks were still key to slowing Covid-19

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/01/health/covid-vaccine-colorado-tourist-town/

Excerpt:

San Juan County, Colorado, can boast that 99.9% of its eligible population has received at least one dose of covid-19 vaccine, putting it in the top 10 counties in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If vaccines were the singular armor against covid’s spread, then on paper, San Juan County, with its 730 or so residents on file, would be one of the most bulletproof places in the nation.

Yet the past few months have shown the complexity of this phase of the pandemic. Even in an extremely vaccinated place, the shots alone aren’t enough because geographic boundaries are porous, vaccine effectiveness may be waning over time and the delta variant is highly contagious. Infectious-disease experts say masks are still necessary to control the spread of the virus.

Author(s): Rae Ellen Bichell, KHN

Publication Date: 1 Oct 2021

Publication Site: CNN

Restrict Insurers’ Use Of External Consumer Data, Colorado Senate Bill 21-169

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2021a_169_signed.pdf

Link: https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb21-169

Excerpt:

The general assembly therefore declares that in order to ensure
that all Colorado residents have fair and equitable access to insurance
products, it is necessary to:
(a) Prohibit:
(I) Unfair discrimination based on race, color, national or ethnic
origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, or gender
expression in any insurance practice; and
(II) The use of external consumer data and information sources, as
well as algorithms and predictive models using external consumer data and
information sources, which use has the result of unfairly discriminating
based on race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, disability, gender identity, or gender expression; and
(b) After notice and rule-making by the commissioner of insurance,
require insurers that use external consumer data and information sources,
algorithms, and predictive models to control for, or otherwise demonstrate
that such use does not result in, unfair discrimination.

Publication Date: 6 July 2021

Publication Site: Colorado Legislature

How States Are Letting Small Businesses Avoid The SALT Cap On Their Tax Returns

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizfarmer/2021/07/01/how-states-are-letting-small-businesses-avoid-the-salt-cap-on-their-tax-returns/?sh=7ef5a29127c5

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Excerpt:

Colorado recently became the 14th state to enact the new workaround, which allows (or in Connecticut’s case, requires) pass-through businesses to pay state income taxes at the entity level rather than on their personal income tax returns. For small businesses like partnerships, declaring that income as a business instead of passing it through to their individual tax returns means the state taxes paid on that business income don’t count toward their SALT cap.

The new mechanism is called a pass-through entity (PTE) tax, which is exempt from the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction that was part of President Trump’s 2017 tax reform. For business owners in high property tax states like New Jersey and Connecticut, it’s a critical change because it allows those taxpayers to deduct more of their local taxes from their other personal income.

Author(s): Liz Farmer

Publication Date: 1 July 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

A law equal pay law in Colorado is costing residents remote work opportunities

Mary Pat Campbell
A law equal pay law in Colorado is costing residents remote work opportunities

Excerpt:

Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act — a set of laws aimed at ending wage discrimination, especially for women and minorities —  went into effect earlier this year.

But instead of adhering to the legislation, some companies have decided to exclude Colorado-based remote employees in job listings.

Why?

The act specifies that employers hiring in Colorado must include an expected salary range and benefits in job posts. Some reports claim that companies don’t want to reveal their cards.

…..

Even if these rules are a good idea, they demand new systems and processes for any business hiring in Colorado. Many are balking, so it’s looking like a “cobra effect” law: when a well-intentioned rule backfires.

Author(s): Ethan Brooks

Publication Date: 29 June 2021

Publication Site: The Hustle

Why It’s Time for States to Raise Their Tobacco Taxes

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.governing.com/now/Why-Its-Time-for-States-to-Raise-Their-Tobacco-Taxes.html

Excerpt:

In the face of the pandemic, states across the geographic and political spectrum — including Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico and New York — are actively considering tobacco tax increases during their legislative sessions. Last month, a bipartisan supermajority in the Maryland Legislature moved to increase the state’s cigarette tax by $1.75 per pack, the first increase in nearly a decade, and to establish a tax on e-cigarettes to fund tobacco cessation and health programs.

The growing legislative momentum comes after voters in Colorado and Oregon approved tobacco tax increases in ballot measures last November. Colorado, which had not raised tobacco taxes in 16 years, will collect an estimated $175 million in revenue during the 2021-22 budget year for tobacco cessation and health programs. In Oregon, higher tobacco taxes will generate an estimated $160 million per year and help to fund the care of people with mental illnesses and other conditions.

Author(s): NANCY BROWN, AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Publication Date: 15 March 2021

Publication Site: Governing

Early Warning Systems Can Help States Identify Signs of Fiscal Distress

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2021/03/04/early-warning-systems-can-help-states-identify-signs-of-fiscal-distress?utm_campaign=2021-03-09+Squeeze+map&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Pew

Excerpt:

In a white paper for The Pew Charitable Trusts, Eric Scorsone and Natalie Pruett of the Michigan State University Extension’s Michigan Center for Local Government Finance & Policy assessed local government early warning systems through case studies in Colorado, Louisiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Each of these states applies various financial ratios—an approach known as ratio analysis—and other indicators to identify signs of local fiscal distress. Ratio analysis uses fractions that capture financial or economic activity within a locality—such as total expenditures over total revenues—to measure solvency, the ability to pay debts and liabilities over the short or long term. Ultimately, the authors determined that there isn’t one optimal system and instead offer several recommendations for states to build or improve their early warning systems.

The authors present detailed descriptions of the four states’ systems and analyze trade-offs and implications of the indicators employed to measure different types of solvency. They offer a variety of recommendations for states to consider, including use of indicators for four types of solvency:

Author(s): Jeff Chapman

Publication Date: 4 March 2021

Publication Site: Pew Trusts