Illinois Admits $137 Billion in Retirement Liability to State Workers – NOT Including Local Governments
Illinois Admits $137 Billion in Retirement Liability to State Workers – NOT Including Local Governments
Editor’s Note: In this report Mike Shedlock references an acknowledgment by the state of Illinois that their best current estimate of the underfunding of their state employee retirement obligations is $137 billion. That’s just the underfunded portion, not the amount of the entire liability. But what is even more staggering is the fact that Illinois...
By Mike Shedlock
Wisconsin Recall Outcome to Set the Tone for November
Wisconsin Recall Outcome to Set the Tone for November
Last August, Big Labor attempted to undue Governor Scott Walker’s initiative to cure Wisconsin’s massive debt, incurred as a result of years of Big Labor collective bargaining gone wild. The plan was to hold recall elections on six state Senate Republicans in order to regain the majority in the Wisconsin senate, but the plan failed...
By Dave Bego
Bankruptcy, the Best Way to Deal with Public Unions
Bankruptcy, the Best Way to Deal with Public Unions
Distressed cities are finally doing what they should have been doing long ago, declaring bankruptcy to force concessions from public unions. Numbers are still a trickle, but at soon as a major city such as Oakland or LA selects that option, we will likely see a torrent of municipal bankruptcies. At a packed, two-day conference...
By Mike Shedlock
Great Britain Bans Federal Worker Collective Bargaining
Great Britain Bans Federal Worker Collective Bargaining
I am pleased to report the end of collective bargaining at the national level. Unfortunately, I am talking about the UK, not the US, and also unfortunately, local wage bargaining will remain in place. The Telegraph reports National pay rates will be scrapped in budget. Millions of teachers, nurses, civil servants and other public sector...
By Mike Shedlock
What Public Employee Unions Are Doing to America
What Public Employee Unions Are Doing to America
Many scholars are better versed on the history of public employee unions than I am, but there is one credential I can claim that they cannot: I am a taxpayer in the People’s Republic of New Jerseystan. That makes me an authority on how public sector unions—especially at the state and local level—are thwarting economic...
By William McGurn
California’s Broke Cities and Counties Consider Bankruptcy Option
California’s Broke Cities and Counties Consider Bankruptcy Option
Economist Allan Meltzer once quipped that “Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin. It doesn’t work.” Americans have been witnessing this axiom on a broad scale, as government efforts to prop up industries, bail out the financial sector and protect select private businesses from failure have only caused a prolonged financial crisis. Without failure,...
By Steven Greenhut
California Tax Revenue Drops, Businesses Leaving
California Tax Revenue Drops, Businesses Leaving
California Tax Revenue Plunges Inquiring minds have noticed a huge plunge in California Tax Revenue for the month of February compared to February 2011. That is a 22.55% plunge in spite of the fact that this February was a leap year adding a day to the calendar. Madeline Schnapp, at TrimTabs Investment Research sent me...
By Mike Shedlock
Fiscal Mess Coming to City Near You – Thanks to Public Sector Unions
Fiscal Mess Coming to City Near You – Thanks to Public Sector Unions
Stockton, Calif., a hard-pressed industrial city of nearly 300,000 people in the agriculturally lush Central Valley 80 miles east of San Francisco, is grabbing national headlines because it might become the largest U.S. city yet to enter Chapter 9 bankruptcy. First, it must go through a 90-day mediation process mandated by a new California law...
By Steven Greenhut
New York Cities Borrow from Pension Funds to Make Payments into Pension Funds
New York Cities Borrow from Pension Funds to Make Payments into Pension Funds
In the worst possible form of kicking the can down the road, at the worst possible time as well (given the lofty overvalued condition of the stock market), To Pay New York Pension Fund, Cities Borrow From It First. When New York State officials agreed to allow local governments to use an unusual borrowing plan...
By Mike Shedlock
Government Employees – The True “1%”
Government Employees – The True “1%”
Editor’s Note: The claims made in this commentary by Wayne Allen Root are incendiary. But they are true. We are on track in the United States to pay more money to 20 million public sector retirees – at an average pension of $65,000 we will pay these retirees $1.3 trillion per year, then we will...
By Wayne Allyn Root
California Politician Submits “Personal Pension” Legislation
California Politician Submits “Personal Pension” Legislation
The gall, arrogance, and stupidity of public union pandering has reached new heights. A senate bill sponsored by written by Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles seeks to force businesses with five or more employees to create personal defined benefit plans, managed by CalPERS. The Sacramento Bee reports California Democrats push pension plan for nongovernment...
By Mike Shedlock
San Diego Public Employee Unions Go to Court to Fight Pension Initiative
San Diego Public Employee Unions Go to Court to Fight Pension Initiative
In my last column, I documented how California’s pro-union Attorney General Kamala Harris provided an unfair and dishonest title and summary to a pair of pension reform initiatives submitted to her office, thus effectively killing the measures. Last week the unions tried—and almost succeeded—with an even nastier stunt designed to undermine democracy. In San Diego,...
By Steven Greenhut
Stockton Nears Bankruptcy Because of Untenable Union Benefits
Stockton Nears Bankruptcy Because of Untenable Union Benefits
Bondholders of Stockton, California debt are about to be punished as City Manager Takes Steps Toward Bankruptcy. Stockton, California, may take the first steps toward becoming the most populous U.S. city to file for bankruptcy because of burdensome employee costs, excessive debt and bookkeeping errors that misrepresented accounts, city officials said today. The Stockton City...
By Mike Shedlock
California Legislator Proposes “Public Employee Bill of Rights”
California Legislator Proposes “Public Employee Bill of Rights”
The average state or local government worker in California makes nearly $70,000 per year (ref. U.S. Census 2010 State Payroll – California and U.S. Census 2010 Local Government Worker Payroll – California). The average state or local government worker in California, if they work 30 years, will retire with a pension that averages $66,864 per...
By Editor