Excerpt: [Colorado] is the first state to impact the benefits of existing retirees, many of whom lobbied for current and future public employees to shoulder the cuts contained in SB1. Others complained that the state is breaking a contract with them, and pointed to a Colorado attorney general's ruling from 2004 that said benefits cannot be cut to workers who are already retired under the plan. Lawmakers countered that reductions in the cost-of-living raises PERA pensioners have come to expect do not amount to a reduction in benefits.

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