Excerpt: Pension officials face steep legal, political and financial hurdles in climbing out of the $12 billion funding hole that chaotic markets dug for the state's largest public pension plan. The board of the Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association wants actuaries to calculate remedies for a funding drop that sent PERA's assets tumbling at least 29 percent this year. But some solutions may be unconstitutional, others won't produce enough money, and nearly all will stir political opposition.  MORE >>