Unfunded Pension Costs Driving Huntington Beach to Become More Like Ferguson, MO
Unfunded Pension Costs Driving Huntington Beach to Become More Like Ferguson, MO
It’s been 19 months since the U.S. Department of Justice released its scathing report on the Ferguson Police Department. Chief among the DOJ’s findings: Ferguson’s law enforcement practices were “shaped by the city’s focus on revenue rather than public safety needs.” Nearly every policing activity – including tickets, misdemeanor fines and court fees – was...
By Matt Smith
For Nov. 8th: $32B in Local Borrowing, $2.9B in Local Tax Increases
For Nov. 8th: $32B in Local Borrowing, $2.9B in Local Tax Increases
New local taxes and new local borrowing are a regular phenomenon in California elections, but this year our government union controlled politicians have outdone themselves. Let’s compare: November 2014 – $11 billion in new borrowing proposed via 118 local bond measures, 81% passed. Of the 117 local proposals for new taxes, 68% passed. June 2016...
By Edward Ring
The Case for Limited Government is Now Stronger Than Ever
The Case for Limited Government is Now Stronger Than Ever
I have studied U.S. and California politics in particular since the mid-1990s, and believe the case for limited government is stronger now, than at any other time in history. A series of emerging trends have coalesced to produce a political environment that makes it very unwise to try to enact sweeping policy change in today’s...
By David Kersten
Proposition 13 Is Safe — For Another Few Weeks
Proposition 13 Is Safe — For Another Few Weeks
The Legislature is in adjournment, and with lawmakers at home campaigning for reelection, they are unable to engage in their favorite pastime of undermining Proposition 13 and its protections for California taxpayers. However, this time out is only a brief respite from the Sacramento politicians’ inexorable pursuit of taxpayers’ wallets, the ferocity of which matches...
By Jon Coupal
Average Costa Mesa Firefighter Makes Nearly $250,000 Per Year. Why? Pensions.
Average Costa Mesa Firefighter Makes Nearly $250,000 Per Year. Why? Pensions.
Does that fact have your attention? Because media consultants insist we preface anything of substance with a hook like this. It even has the virtue of being true! And now, for those with the stomach for it, let’s descend into the weeds. According to payroll and benefit data reported by the City of Costa Mesa...
By Edward Ring
California Business Community Should Not Enable High Cost Government
California Business Community Should Not Enable High Cost Government
The business community is in a very tough position in California. The California Legislature is completely controlled by the Democratic Party and its pro-labor base. The California Republican Party and Republicans candidates are their most natural allies but Republicans are only viable in a relatively small minority of legislative races. The result is that the...
By David Kersten
Court Pension Decision Weakens ‘California Rule’
Court Pension Decision Weakens ‘California Rule’
The one thing some pension reformers say is needed to cut the cost of unaffordable public pensions: give current workers a less costly retirement benefit for work done in the future, while protecting pension amounts already earned. It’s allowed in the remaining private-sector pensions. But California is one of about a dozen states that have...
By Ed Mendel
Average "Full Career" CalPERS Retirement Package Worth $70,000 Per Year
Average "Full Career" CalPERS Retirement Package Worth $70,000 Per Year
“‘What makes the ‘$100,000 Club’ some magic number denoting abuse other than the claims of anti-pension zealots?’ said Dave Low, chairman of Californians for Retirement Security, a coalition of 1.6 million public workers and retirees.” This quote from a government union spokesperson, and others, were dutifully collected as part of Orange County Register reporter Teri...
By Edward Ring
Teachers Union Hits Taxpayers with ‘Money Club’ Again
Teachers Union Hits Taxpayers with ‘Money Club’ Again
The California Teachers Association has just dropped $10 million into its campaign to extend the “temporary” income tax hike voters approved when they passed Proposition 30 in 2012. Proposition 55, which will appear on this November’s ballot, would extend the highest income tax rates in all 50 states for another dozen years. Four years ago,...
By Jon Coupal
The Consequences of Weak Pension Earnings
The Consequences of Weak Pension Earnings
Several reporters have asked about the consequences of CalPERS’s weak investment earnings. Although CalPERS has not issued an actuarial report since June 30, 2014, one can draw an inference that its Unfunded Liability has grown about $50 billion since then, to $140 billion. Here is how you get there: Start from this chart on page...
By David Crane
Pensions and Taxes Increase While Labor Unions go Unchallenged
Pensions and Taxes Increase While Labor Unions go Unchallenged
In January 2015, the Manhattan Institute’s Steve Malanga, writing in the Wall Street Journal about public pension costs gulping down tax raises, quoted me saying that no matter what local politicians tell voters, when you see tax increases, think pensions. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan: Here I go again! Recent accounts indicated that the California Public Employees’...
By Joel Fox
CalPERS Sinks Further into Fiscal Insolvency
CalPERS Sinks Further into Fiscal Insolvency
Orange County Register reporter Teri Sforza quietly released a story that blows the whistle on another fiscal bombshell of bad news at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). The story states that according to unofficial preliminary numbers from CalPERS the fund lost about 2% of its market value in the 2015-16 fiscal year that just ended–which...
By David Kersten
California Pensions Take Above-Average Tax Bite
California Pensions Take Above-Average Tax Bite
California pension funds take a bigger share of tax revenue than the national state average, a research website shows. Why the growing costs are outpacing the norm is not completely clear. A prime suspect for some would be overly generous pensions, particularly what critics say is an “unsustainable” increase for police and firefighters widely adopted...
By Ed Mendel