Whenever CalPERS, or any government worker pension fund, suggests that a long-term projected rate of return of 7.75% is realistic and prudent, one needs to consider the following: Across every major stock index in the U.S., and on most indexes in the rest of the world, publicly traded stocks have been down for the last...
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We have already covered the recent statewide attack on initiatives in California by labor unions, but their offensive has just begun. In an earlier editorial posted on June 13th, entitled “California’s Legislature Continues to Propose Laws to Preserve Government Union Power,” we document no fewer than four bills submitted so far in 2011 by union-friendly...
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On July 25th the SEIU Local 1000 in California alerted their membership to a state ballot proposition that is working its way through the signature qualification process. In the “campaign news” section of their website, they posted a report entitled “Big business launches another attack on us,” where they state “a new initiative has been...
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The agenda of California’s union-controlled state politicians is to do whatever they can to increase the amount of tax revenue flowing into the government, and increase the amount of dues revenue flowing into the coffers of government worker unions. This isn’t news, and any law they pass can be appropriately viewed in this context. But...
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To declare that union reform, public sector union reform in particular, is a nonpartisan cause, is certain to attract vociferous challenges from defenders of unions, but events continue to trump ideology. As documented in our earlier editorial “The War for the Democratic Party,” even in California, a state where public sector unions wield nearly absolute...
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The San Diego Union Tribune ran a report on June 17th entitled “Escondido firefighters do contribute to pensions.” Apparently this report was to correct an error from a previous article in which the Tribune stated that Escondido’s firefighters did not make any contribution to their pension. In reality the firefighters contribute to their pension fund...
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California’s legislature is moving a bill forward that will throttle back the ability to place citizen initiatives on the statewide ballot. As noted in Ballot Access News on May 10th in a post entitled “California Democratic Legislators Advance Bills Injuring Ballot Access for New Parties, Initiatives,” the bill is nearing passage by both houses of...
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Today’s Sacramento Bee featured a viewpoint column entitled “Pension ‘Reformers’ distort facts on benefits.” The column was written by Martha Penry, “a special education teacher’s assistant in the Twin Rivers school district.” Not disclosed in the article was the fact that Ms. Penry is also a high ranking public employee union official, as evidenced by...
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Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “Private Accounts Can Save Social Security,” authored by Martin Feldstein, former chairman of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors and a member of the Wall Street Journal’s board of contributors. In this article, Feldstein made the following assertion: “With a 3% payroll deduction, someone...
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According to the CalPERS website, in their California Investments section, “as of January 31, 2011, approximately 10.3 percent of CalPERS total assets are invested in California.” This means that out of the $233.5 billion in assets under management by CalPERS (ref. Current Investment Fund Values), $24 billion is invested in California. Apparently CalPERS would have us...
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Facing budget cuts, the California Teacher’s Association has declared a “State of Emergency” and is planning statewide actions during the week of May 9th. UnionWatch has obtained links to documents being used to prepare CTA members, such as this “State of Emergency Plan” approved by their leadership council. Here is an excerpt from this plan:...
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“Our political principles are pretty straightforward. We’ll support those that support us.” This comes from Harold Schaitberger, President of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), as quoted earlier this week in a Huffington Post article entitled “Firefighters, Cops Warn Republicans Anti-Union Stance Has Consequences.” Since 82 cents out of every dollar of political contributions...
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Advocates of public sector union reform have long been accused of playing partisan politics, but the data suggests it is the unions, not the reformers, who are political partisans. According to OpenSecrets.org, a nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit research group tracking money in U.S. politics, just the top 20 labor unions over the past 20 years...
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A great irony of American politics is that the agenda of the left, especially big labor, causes more economic harm than good to the average American worker. Explaining this irony is not easy, but a contributor to the Washington Times, Doug Ross, did a pretty good job yesterday in his guest column entitled “Union members...
By Editor
a new form will got here