Chico Taxpayers Association

Did you know, the California State Teachers Retirement System has come up short some $74 billion? That’s B-B-B-BILLION!

I wondered when we’d hit the B-word.

CalSTRS is the CalPERS for teachers. $74 billion. Just for teachers. 

That is the “unfunded pension liability” we been hearing about. I remember when Brian Nakamura started feeding us that word, like a little bit of cod  liver oil. We should thank him, really, except, I don’t think  most of us were paying attention.

This unfunded pension liability, which I will from here on refer to as “The Big Li”, is the amount of money our public workers have been  contractually guaranteed in retirement, that hasn’t been paid for yet. As Dan Walters explains, CalPERS (and CalSTRS), by way of legislators who also receive pensions, sold the California taxpayers a big wad of hooey.  

“The more egregious error was the cowardly failure of politicians to pay for the benefits they were so eager to provide, pretending that high-flying investment earnings would cover them with no cost to taxpayers. The classic example was Senate Bill 400, the 1999 measure that sharply expanded pensions for state workers – retroactively. Then-Gov. Gray Davis and legislators found political cover in assurances, later proven false, from CalPERS that the new benefits would cost taxpayers nothing. That scenario was repeated hundreds of times in cities and other local governments as unions pressed their governing boards to match the state. But CalPERS’ assurances collapsed when its investments were hammered in the recession and it raised mandatory contributions to cover its losses.”

Months ago Walters told us about the CalSTRS mess, and predicted it would hit the schools hard.

“Ignoring pensions’ long-term costs has consequences, as illustrated by what it’s taking to close a $74 billion shortfall in the State Teachers Retirement System. Governors and legislators dithered for years as the gap widened by millions of dollars a day. Finally, however, Assembly Bill 1469 was enacted this year, boosting contributions into STRS by school districts, teachers and the state to close the gap over 32 years. However, because of the long delay in confronting the issue, and the decades-long closure plan, covering a $74 billion gap will actually cost $237.7 billion, according to a table drawn up by STRS. And school districts will pay over 70 percent of it as their pension costs ratchet up from 8.25 percent of payroll to 19.1 percent. By design, the payments will phase in slowly, thus softening the political impact. School districts will see only a tiny increase this year but by the end of the decade, the STRS chart shows, they will be paying nearly $4 billion a year extra into the trust fund, and the bite will eventually climb to as much as $9.4 billion a year. Gov. Jerry Brown and legislators have overhauled school finance to sharply expand per-pupil spending, particularly on poor and ‘English-learner’ students.”

Teachers only pay 8 percent of their own pensions,  so that burden is going to fall heavily on the “school districts” – meaning, local taxpayers.  I’ve read nothing about this in Chico Unified agendas, or seen anything in the local  papers, but here’s a recent article from the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-schools-pensions-20140521-story.html 

The article details the progression by which school districts will pay more, at the expense of students. 

“To make matters worse, officials said, the highest contribution rate takes effect after the expiration of a temporary tax increase that is now boosting school revenues.“

The school districts will just be the first entities to go. This will play  itself out in city chambers and county meeting halls all over the United States. This pension scam has been going around like the infamous Pyramid Scam for a few decades now. 

I haven’t sat in on a discussion about the city of Chico’s Big Li since Nakamura left, so I wrote a note to city finance staffer Frank Fields, asking for a current figure. The figures I received:

• $51.8 million for miscellaneous employees
• $47.8 million for sworn police and fire

About $99 million total – Nakamura gave a figure around $98 million. 

That is the money we owe to people like ex-city manager Tom Lando, who takes a pension of about $149,000/year, but we haven’t paid it into CalPERS. CalPERS allowed public entities to go along for years without paying, as explained above, and now they are demanding we up our ante. When I started looking into this issue the total payment for the city, including city and employee contributions, was less than 20 percent of the total cost of the pension, and now it’s over 30. Employees who were paying NOTHING to 9 percent, are now paying 9 to 12 percent, but management and public safety workers have been given generous salary increases to cover their payments – how stupid is that? We – the employer – are paying a bigger percentage of the pensions, as well as  bigger salaries. We pay one way or the other, while management and public safety, particularly,  are lining their pockets. 

They will ask  us for tax increases. We have to be firm but polite, cause they have the guns, but we have to tell them to buck up and stop being leeches and pay their own fare.

NO MORE FREE RIDERS.

Thanks to David Little for the reminder – I had meant to continue my rambling narrative of the Local Government’s Committee meeting I attended a week or so back, because they discussed the county Behavioral Health Department. Little wrote a pretty generic “remember National Mental Health Month” piece, without really knowing what’s going on locally, cause he didn’t attend or send a reporter to that meeting. Typical Chico media – the News and Review ignored it too.

But I’m glad for the reminder – the Behavioral Health Department is central to Chico’s “homeless problem.” The BHD is responsible for taking people who “are a danger to themselves or the public” off the cops’ hands. For years now the center on Rio Lindo has been inadequate, open only Monday through Friday from 9 – 5, as if people only have mental breakdowns during the work week. After 5pm and on weekends, Chico police officers who get calls about indigent, inebriated, injured or “crazy” people must dump them like a sack of laundry on the staff of Enloe Emergency Room. Here, they become Enloe’s problem, and their unpaid bill becomes another unpaid liability for Enloe. Oftentimes, since they haven’t been arrested (because then the police would be liable for the bill), they just get up and wander out when they feel like it. Staff can’t stop them. 

How’d you like to wake up with a ringing hangover in a hospital bed, somebody presenting you with a $30,000 bill for a one nighter? Last I heard, Enloe charges $7,000/hour for the ER, and another $7,500 a night for a room (old figures, probably more now). Per person.  You can’t force somebody who was not willingly checked in to pay, so there we are.

I have heard the cops complain about this at various meetings with city and local agency staff. This problem has been in discussion for at least two years now, according to my notes from Police Advisory Board and other meetings. 

Little, in his editorial that sounded like a C grade high school research assignment, talks about the “white card” program instituted by the county a year or so ago, by which people who have sought treatment for mental problems receive a card that tells police they have mental problems, essentially – “I’m crazy, I’m not responsible for my behavior, please don’t kill me for acting weird…” 

This is not a solution to the problems around Chico – shoplifting, vagrancy, armed robbery, burglary, public filth, vandalism, arson, assault/murder, and other criminal activities associated with the little army of the night we have camped out in our town. 

At the Local Goverment Committee meeting I attended earlier this month, county staffers announced they are in escrow on a property that will become the new BH center for Chico, located near the Enloe facilities on Cohasset Road. Staff said this facility would be staffed and open 24-7, suited for 10 “clients” at a time. The discussion was over before I could ask about funding for staffing, or why those salaries are so much lower than the management salaries, but that would be a good question for you to send in to County Administrative Officer Paul Hahn. Hahn is a nice guy and will answer your questions to the best of his ability. He’s also very sharp and competent, so don’t waste his time. It’s just good to let him know your concerns.

That’s PHahn@buttecounty.net. 

I got my Cal Water notice Monday, I assume you all did too. I’ve been too mad and really, too busy, to write about it, but here’s an article from Lou Binninger. I don’t agree with Binninger that water is being “wasted” on fish. I think that’s misplaced, but he’s right about the pensions – that’s the real story in these rates hikes, and no other media source is covering it. Cal Water management do not pay anything toward their outrageous pensions. I’m not sure what the lower tier workers pay, if anything. Like public employees, these “quasi-public” workers get 70 percent of their highest year’s salary at age 55, and we pay for it. 

When the court recently ruled that utilities can’t charge more for their product than it actually costs to produce it, the state came up with “penalty charges” that seem completely unrealistic. That’s because Jerry Brown is insane – I’m no shrink, but he seems to have a notion of “grandiosity,” or what we lesser humans call a “superiority complex.” To the point that he has no regard for people he doesn’t know personally. The Moonbeam would probably approve a plan by which everybody making less than $50,000/year was made into Soylent Green and fed to those making less than $100,000/year. All presided over by public employees making $150,000 plus benefits.

We need to get rid of Brown, and then go about dismantling these hog agencies he set up, based on embezzlement through our utility bills. 

Cal Water Profits from State Water Mismanagement

By Lou Binninger

Beginning June 2015, Cal Water Service (CWS) is requiring Marysville customers to reduce their water consumption by 24% compared to their 2013 usage or face financial penalties. The recent CWS mailer attributes the reduction to  Governor Jerry “Shut Up” Brown’s statewide water reduction mandate. The CWS penalty / surcharge will be twice the per-unit-cost for the highest quantity tier, up to an additional $10 per CCF (1 CCF=748 gallons).

Water activist Connie Walczak says the problem is that most Marysville customers were already conserving in 2013 because water became unaffordable. Cutting back another 24% using 2013 as a baseline may be impossible to attain. It appears that Gov. Brown and Cal Water’s hatchet approach rewards bad water use behavior. Those already conserving in 2013 are allotted less water before a penalty than water wasters. The mailer explains the rules and how to file an appeal. Other restricted uses of water will bring a $100-a-day fine.

Cal Water Service (CWS) prides itself on serving Marysville for more than 80 years. Until recently, it was a wallflower monopoly with little presence in the community. They once provided a state-regulated product that was affordable. Rates went up slightly over the years, but in 2011 residents were stunned by a 53% increase. Bills spiked. Landscapes dried up. CWS justified the increase because the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) agreed. However, the CPUC, created to be a watchdog of monopolies for the consumers, is now under investigation for corrupt practices favoring egregious rates for big utilities. Commissioners have hired a law firm specializing in criminal defense.

In 2013, CWS applied to the CPUC for another 47% rate hike. If successful it would have been a 100% increase since 2010. That caught the attention of East Marysville resident Connie Walczak. Walczak filed the first rate complaint ever with the CPUC against CWS.

After rejecting Walczak’s complaint, the commissioners granted an over 10% increase along with additional fees and adjustments, a 63% bump in rates since 2011. Private water companies are a cash cow for investors and CWS is one of the most successful. CWS has paid dividends to stockholders 279 quarters in a row. CPUC granted them a $45 million increase in revenue in 2013. Net income in 2014 was $56.7 million.

In 2014, their top 5 executives received a total of nearly $7.5 million not including benefits. The CWS President / CEO collected $2.8 million.

CWS employees are generously rewarded with top salaries, ‘Cadillac’ health insurance policies, retirement plans, school tuition subsidies and many get company vehicles. CWS recently constructed new corporate digs in San Jose and a Marysville office. All improvements and benefits are incorporated into the rates. Like all utilities they are guaranteed a profit by the CPUC.

As water usage goes down Cal Water’s revenue and profits are insured by a WRAM charge (Water Revenue Adjustment Mechanism) that will increase. It is listed on your bill along with the service line cost, usage charge, CPUC fee and Public Purpose Programs. Under Brown’s state water doctrine consumers will pay more for less while millions of gallons of water each day are wasted on fish.

More information can be obtained from the mailer, calling Cal Water 530-742-6911 or attending a meeting Wednesday, May 27th, 5:30pm at 130 D St., Marysville.

Wednesday afternoon I attended the Local Government Committee meeting.  I’ve told you about the garbage franchise discussion, but there was a lot of interesting stuff at that meeting.

About the hottest topic around town right now is PG&E removing 70 trees from the area between Estes Road and the Midway, along Comanche Creek. I only know what I heard – Chico City Manager Mark Orme reported he’d just met with PG&E at the site when he arrived at Wednesday’s meeting. This will be interesting to watch – the same people that just sat there while PG&E jacked our rates to cover their pensions are going to war over the removal of trees. It’s amazing to me what it takes to get people off their dead asses.

That conversation I overheard because Orme felt it necessary to update the various members of council as they arrived for the meeting, including Mayor Mark Sorensen.

Once the meeting was up and running, minutes had been approved, and we heard reports on the garbage franchises from county and city staff, we got a report on a dump expansion. The county will expand the dump at Neal Road to include an “aerobic” composting set-up. They’re negotiating on the property right now, I have no idea how much they are going to spend on this. Paul Hahn was very enthusiastic about revamping and modernizing the dump to collect electricity from methane gas and other wonders, but it all depends on rate increases for customers, that’s the bottom line. And it will depend heavily on Chico – the county is lobbying Chico to force haulers to take Chico trash to Neal Road, this is a huge point. The dump can’t make it without Chico’s trash. According to Mark Orme, everything about the city trash deal is “still in negotiation.” He’s like a cat watching a gopher hole.

What this new expansion will mean, as far as I can tell, is we will be able to dump our food scraps in with our yard waste.  The state is pushing us always to reduce the amount  that  goes into the actual dump. Up until now, the haulers have asked us not to put food scraps in our yard waste bins, for good reason. Food scraps, especially if they include MEAT scraps, don’t compost the same as yard waste, they draw flies and rats and other pests, etc. It has to be sorted, by somebody. It stinks. So, we’ve been asked to put our plate scrapings in the trash, and it’s added to the mountain that was once a canyon. 

Now Mannel says, they will ask customers to put their food scraps in the yard waste bin, and hire people to sort it out by hand.  Mark Sorensen seemed to have a problem with this – he was hung up on the “manual” aspect of this job. See, Mark doesn’t get his hands dirty. He might talk alot about “farm boys,” but he’s never been one. When this topic of sorting out food waste came up at a morning meeting last year, he wouldn’t even discuss it. He said, “those aren’t the kind of jobs we want…” He wouldn’t even hear the woman who came forward with the proposal.

At a time like this, we’ve got Mark Sorensen picking and choosing what kind of jobs we want around here? 

When I asked Mannel about having customers sort their food scraps into an extra bin – alot of people, like me, compost their own food scraps anyway. He indicated this was not an option – he said, “People treat all cans as garbage cans.”  Meaning, the customer cannot be trusted to do the right thing? I couldn’t argue with him, I’m not privvy to what other people put in their cans. I had a conversation years ago with a woman who ran the campus food recycling program – she said she didn’t take table scraps because they included stuff like meat and cigarettes, and she felt uncomfortable asking minimum wage college kitchen staffers to pick through people’s leavings. Mannel has no problem with dump employees sorting through a mish-mash of yard waste and food scraps as it streams by on a conveyor belt. I’m sure they’d be equipped with safety gear. As a housewife it’s no biggee to me, it’s every day life. Sorensen seemed genuinely disgusted with the idea. I see it as “green jobs.” 

So, we’ll keep an eye on the dump, it should be interesting.

The next item of interest was the new Behavioral Health Center, I’ll  pick that up when I get a chance.

http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2015/05/pensions-leaving-cities-in-holes/

Starting Friday May 1, the City of  Chico – bless their black little hearts – will be offering the annual “rebate” of  money they’ve been dipping out of your utility bills  all year. You have until June 30 to gather all your bills and your tax return together, and mail or deliver them to the city finance office. Here’s the application with the income requirements:

http://www.chico.ca.us/documents/UUTREFNDApplicationPageupdated.pdf

Remember, the taxpayers were never asked about a Utility Tax – it was mandated by city council back in the 70’s. Scott Gruendl led the charge about 10 years ago to raise it to the maximum 5 percent. If we barnstormed Sorensen and the council now we might be able to get them to lower it back to 3 percent, now that they’ve found all this money ($4.8 million) in the couch cushions. We’ll put that on our wish list under, “Overturn the stupid bag ban.”

Last year Chris Constantin instituted a new policy – you have to leave all your paperwork, and they will review it for a couple of months, then send you a check. They used to give you cash on the spot if your rebate was under a hundred dollars – this is Constantin’s way of belittling people out of reclaiming their stolen money. You can ask for your billing back – last year they actually paid the postage to resend me twelve months of PG&E bills, I can’t remember what it cost them. It also took them about two or three months to get it back to me. 

Yeah, I save all my bills, that’s how I know what kind of screwing we’ve been taking from PG&E. I know, a lot of people prefer to be ostriches – put their heads in the sand. Well, you know where that leaves your ass…

I even have copies of a month’s worth of the city’s PG&E bills, from last year. I’m waiting to go down and get the billing for the same month 2015. I’ll let you know what I find.

People who aren’t curious about this kind of stuff might as well paint a bull’s-eye on their rear end, as far as I’m concerned. 

We only have about $50 coming, so my husband had to ask, “Why bother?”  I reminded him, they just take it from our utility bills. I’m sick and tired of the taking.  I’d go in for that rebate if it was 5 cents, just to tell Chris Constantin, “you’re a thief, little man, you steal from the poor to line your nest!” 

I hope that gets in his guts, I hope it eats a hole the size of an SUV.