Arapahoe County retirement-plan update shows pension about 63% funded ahead of June 23 review
Pre-meeting materials for a June 23 study session say Arapahoe County staff will present a 2025 actuarial update and propose raising the employer contribution rate to 10.25% in 2027.
Arapahoe County commissioners are scheduled to review an annual retirement-plan update June 23 showing the county’s defined-benefit pension was 63.18% funded in the Jan. 1, 2025 actuarial valuation, with $421.9 million in actuarial assets, $667.8 million in liabilities and an unfunded liability of about $245.9 million.
Pre-meeting materials for the study session say staff are proposing to raise the county contribution rate from 10.0% to 10.25% in 2027 while keeping the employee contribution at 9.0%, according to the board-summary report.
The same actuarial valuation says the plan’s net employer actuarially determined contribution was 10.31% of pay for 2025, compared with an expected county contribution of 9.75% — a gap of 0.56% of pay. The actuary also said the plan is funded on a fixed-rate basis and that a fully actuarially determined approach would call for a closed-period amortization policy.
Arapahoe’s June 23 agenda lists the retirement update as a 1:30 p.m. study-session presentation by GRS actuaries Dana Woolfrey and Krysti Keisel and Retirement Plan Administrator Ben Colussy. The packet includes a board summary report, presentation, a Colorado county contribution comparison and an actuarial cheat sheet, but the item is listed as a study-session discussion rather than a vote.
County materials argue that Arapahoe compares favorably with peers on contribution levels. The board-summary report says Arapahoe is one of five Colorado counties that still offer a traditional defined-benefit pension plan and that, even with the proposed employer increase, its rates would remain among the lowest in that group.
The packet also says the pension outlook is more stable than it was earlier in the decade, though the plan remains well short of full funding. The study-session presentation says the funded ratio slipped slightly because of actuarial assumption changes but remains among the strongest the plan has posted in more than a decade.
The underlying valuation did not recommend any new assumption or method changes for 2025; GRS said assumptions and methods were unchanged from the prior valuation. It did note two plan changes already taking effect in 2025: the county contribution rose from 9.50% to 9.75%, and the vesting requirement for members hired on or after July 1, 2010 fell from eight years to five.
What commissioners think about the proposed 2027 increase is not yet clear from the public record. As of Friday, the materials available for review were pre-meeting documents, and no transcript, minutes or recording reviewed for this story showed whether commissioners signaled support for further action.
If commissioners pursue the issue after the study session, the near-term question will be whether they support a modest increase to narrow the gap between the county’s fixed contribution policy and the higher actuarially determined employer rate identified by GRS.