“The creation of the mortgage bond market, a decade earlier, had extended Wall Street into a place it had never before been: the debts of ordinary Americans.” – Jared Vennett (played by Ryan Gosling), The Big Short (2015) Along with another superbly authentic movie Margin Call (2011), The Big Short provides a vivid look into the rigged, Darwinian, ruthlessly...
The 2016 tax filing deadline is now just one month away. Which makes it timely to point out how unfair our tax system is to middle class workers who want to prepare for their retirements. It is also timely to explain how there is a completely different set of retirement rules, far more favorable, that...
“Pension-change advocates failed to find funding for a measure during the depths of the 2008 recession and the havoc it wreaked on government budgets, so they won’t pass (a measure) when the economy is doing well.” – Steve Maviglio, political consultant and union coalition spokesperson, Sacramento Bee, January 18, 2016 It’s hard to argue with...
“For the first time in the pension fund’s history, we paid out more in retirement benefits than we took in contributions.” – Anne Stausboll, Chief Executive Officer, CalPERS, 2014-2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report There are few examples of a seemingly innocuous statement with more significance than Stausboll’s admission, buried within her “CEO’s Letter of Transmittal,” summarizing the performance...
Part 2 of 2… Introduction In Part One, I enumerated reforms needed at the state level. That list was in part plugging up the “cheats” used to run up the statewide pension deficit of about a trillion dollars. Employee unions control the state legislature, the attorney general, all executive offices and all retirement administrators; therefore...
Earlier this week, noted pension reformer John Moore published “The Mechanics of Pension Reform,” listing specific principles of pension reform. Moore’s article focuses on state policy; he intends to focus on local pension reform policies in a later article. The list he has produced for state legislators is quite detailed; here’s is a partial summary...
Part 1 of 2… Since the passage of SB 400, adopted by the California Legislature in 1999 (93 for, 7 against), pension deficits have steadily grown in California. According to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, as of the end of 2015, credible estimates of the total unfunded pension obligations owed by California’s state and other...
re·ac·tion·ar·y, rēˈakSHəˌnerē, adjective 1. (of a person or a set of views) opposing political or social liberalization or reform. – Source: Google search “what is a reactionary” When it comes to civic financial health and quality public education, “reactionary” is a word with increasingly bipartisan connotations. But the other qualities connoted by the word all still apply; shrill...
UnionWatch has just released the fourth and final installment of “The Fall of Pacific Grove – The Final Chapter,” written by John Moore, who is a retired attorney and resident of Pacific Grove. This four part series constitutes an extended epilogue to a eight part series on Pacific Grove which was published last year on UnionWatch. Links...
The Final Chapter, Part 4 of 4 The facts and law indicate that the lawyers defending the city in the POA pension reform law suit, directed by the city attorney, and supported by a city council majority, consciously and intentionally failed to uphold two legal ordinances which could have prevented the financial “Fall of Pacific...
The Final Chapter, Part 3 of 4 The parties to the law suit made final oral arguments, and on June 18, 2013, Judge Wills issued his Statement of Decision, setting forth his conclusions and the legal reasoning that led to his conclusions. First, he found that because the charter stated that the city council was...
The Final Chapter, Part 2 of 4 In June of 2010, the City of Pacific Grove (City) received an initiative petition from a citizen’s group containing the requisite number of signatures. Thereafter the city adopted the petition as an ordinance. The ordinance limited the city’s obligation to pay for employee pensions for work not yet...
Attending a high school reunion after more than a few decades ought to be a memorable experience for anyone. Hopefully the occasion is filled with warmth and remembrance, rekindled friendships, stories and laughs. But as our lives develop and we build our adult networks based on shared values and common professions, a high school reunion...
The Final Chapter, Part 1 of 4 Editor’s Note: In early 2014 we published a eight part series, “The Fall of Pacific Grove,” written by retired attorney and Pacific Grove resident John Moore. It describes in detail how this small coastal city slid inexorably towards insolvency by yielding, again and again, year after year, to pressure...