Marc Joffe is President of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association and a California Policy Center visiting fellow.
After a long career in the financial industry, including a senior director role at Moody’s Analytics, he transitioned to policy research at CPC and Reason Foundation. Joffe’s research focuses on government finance and state policy issues.
Marc earned an MBA from New York University and an MPA from San Francisco State University.
Last week’s report from State Auditor Elaine Howell reveals some disturbing budgeting and compensation practices at the University of California’s Office of the President (UCOP). But the problem isn’t just limited to UCOP; it is a systemwide phenomenon. We have previously reported that Robert Reich makes close to $300,000 annually to teach one class at...
By Marc Joffe
On Monday, the Assembly Transportation Committee voted against a bill that would have increased high-speed rail’s financial transparency. The measure, AB 66, would have implemented recommendations from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), a non-partisan official body that analyzes budgets and proposed legislation. In its analysis of the High-Speed Rail Authority’s 2016 draft business plan, LAO...
By Marc Joffe
C alifornia school and community college districts are contributing $5.6 billion to CalSTRS and CalPERS during the current school year. These contributions will total $6.7 billion in the next school year, and, according to CPC’s analysis of actuarial projections, they will reach $11.3 billion in the 2022-2023 school year. In 2015-2016, CalPERS and CalSTRS collected...
By Marc Joffe
CPC’s latest review of pension reports and local government financial documents reveals the following: In Fiscal Year 2017-2018, California local governments will pay about $5.3 billion to CalPERS. We project those CalPERS payments will rise to $9.8 billion in Fiscal 2022-2023 – an increase of 84%. In the coming fiscal year alone, California governments will pay...
By Marc Joffe
Over 50,000 California public employees received pension benefits of $100,000 or more last year. Learn more about these beneficiaries at our $100k pension club web site.
By Marc Joffe
I testified for the first time before a state legislative committee on Tuesday. My main takeaways: The argument in favor of High-Speed Rail is catastrophically weak, and parking near the State Capitol is awful. My testimony did little to persuade Senate Transportation and Housing Committee members. They ultimately killed SB414, a bill that would have...
By Marc Joffe
On March 29, Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders announced a 10-year $52.4 billion transportation plan that will boost the cost of living dramatically for working-class commuters. Transportation projects in the plan, now part of Senate Bill 1, will be funded by additional vehicle registration fees and a 12-cent per gallon increase in fuel taxes. While the registration fees...
By Marc Joffe
Prudence is always a virtue, but it is especially vital for those with large debts and limited means to repay them. Our state, whose public obligations total over half the size of our economy, is in no position to take on more imprudent spending projects. Advocates of California High Speed Rail have not provided convincing...
By Marc Joffe
While the public pension crisis has been an issue on the right for many years, left-wing thinkers show relatively little interest in the issue. When progressives do opine on pensions, they often reject the alarm expressed by conservatives, seeing it as a smokescreen for unneeded austerity or a way to attack the public sector. In...
By Marc Joffe
The East Contra Costa Fire District (ECCFD) has financial problems because it pays more for retirement benefits than it does in salaries to current employees. With most of its staff eligible to retire on the 3% at 50 formula and at least two current retirees receiving more than $100,000 annually, the district is functioning as...
By Marc Joffe
Thirteen of Orange County’s 34 cities contract their policing services to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Contracting out services can save cities the hassles and costs of dealing with their own unionized workforces. But when Orange County cities contract with the County Sheriff, they are absorbing the high cost of OC’s unionized law enforcement. The...
By Marc Joffe
This article originally appeared in The Capitol Weekly. Back in 2012, then Treasurer Bill Lockyer called for an early warning system that would give state officials time to proactively address local government fiscal emergencies before they wound up in bankruptcy court. We are now five years closer to the next recession and its attendant set of...
By Marc Joffe
Last week we learned that a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system janitor managed to boost his annual compensation to $271,000 by clocking an enormous number of overtime hours – hours that apparently were often devoted to sleeping in a subway station closet. The revelation reminds Bay Area commuters that BART’s unreliable service comes with...
By Marc Joffe
Relative to earlier years and their peers in other states, most California city and county governments were in good financial condition at the end of fiscal year 2015. California Policy Center’s study of audited financial statements and socioeconomic indicators show widespread fiscal strength, but a few trouble spots as well. Our analysis extends a fiscal...
By Marc Joffe
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