I don’t hate Christmas, I just hate what it’s become

21 Dec

Gather ’round Children, I want to tell you about a film that might just change your life, or at least, make you think about your consumer habits.

Over 10 years ago, I met a man named Bill Talen, who, with his wife Savitri, runs the “Church of Stop Shopping.” Talen’s stage name is “Reverend Billy.” He’s very theatrical, wears a white (nowadays pink) suit and clerical collar, and performs with his “Stop Shopping” choir, both on tours around the  country and at a regular gig at Joe’s Pub in NYC.

I met them on the 2008 tour they did to publicize the film, “What Would Jesus Buy?”  They had come all the way to Sacramento, and, since my family had been listening to me yak about them, they drove me up to see the show. 

At the time, Bill wasn’t really sure what to do, there was really no set-up. He’d been invited by the owners of a small coffee shop, and they hadn’t done any preliminary advertising, just expected him to show up and gather a crowd, on a seedy street corner miles from the shopping centers. Instead of the usual choir, it was just him and Savitri, who looked very nervous.  He greeted my family very warmly, autographed my copy of the movie, and went about his street preaching. 

Instead of shoppers, we were immediately surrounded by a kind of hostile group of transients.  I used to work in a store down the street when I was in college, the neighborhood had been bad then, it was worse in 2008, and it’s really bad now. But I had to admire Bill’s resolve as he went into his pitch. I stood nearby shouting “AMEN!” at the appropriate moments while my wide-eyed family moved closer to the store fronts, under the lights. At one point a drunk came speeding up on a bike and nearly hit Bill. He didn’t miss a beat. 

We shook hands and made our goodbyes as the night moved in, Bill thanked us for driving all the way from Chico, and we left him with Savitri standing in front of the darkened store fronts. 

But I still have my DVD copy of the movie, and I watch it once a year. It’s funny, but it has a pretty sinister dark message to it. 

The film opens with warm scenes of America at Christmas. But it goes quickly from small town fall colors and simple visions of children decorating a Christmas tree, to glitzy ads, roads shut down with traffic, and crowded shopping malls – “the halls of worship”.

The narrator speaks of a new God . “He tells us to buy now and pay later, he tempts us with promises of endless credit, as he leads us down the path to eternal debt.”

“We used to be a nation of producers and are now a nation of consumers. “

“For the first time since the Great Depression, our household personal savings rate is below zero, and 60 percent of us are in long  term debt on our credit cards. We now spend under one hour a week in religious or spiritual time, and over 5 hours a  week shopping.”

The narrator compares shopping to addiction. A news woman remarks that most people would run over a pregnant woman to get what they want at Christmas.

Christmas, says the narrator, creates 5 million tons of extra waste every year.

And here we meet Reverend Billy, who had just launched his first nationwide “Stop Shopping Tour”. 

I don’t really go in for theatrics usually. I like Bill’s street preaching, but the big productions with the choir are not really my thing. They sing pretty silly songs, and the old time revival setting is a little much. But my favorite part is when Bill asks people in the audience to bring forward their credit cards for “exorcising.” 

It’s also fun to watch him walk into a store, hold a huge Mickey Mouse toy over his head, and proclaim, “Mickey Mouse is the Anti-Christ!” 

I know, if Bill was your brother in law, you’d probably skip family  dinners. He can be a bit much, like all your theater friends.  But he’s right – America is out of control on spending. Even 11 years after this movie was made, it’s pertinent, probably more pertinent than ever.

Just today my grocery checker says she’s already getting aftershock from the spending. “I can’t believe I put so much on my credit card,” she tells me. “It will take me til Easter to pay for it!” 

I’ll guess, she’ll be paying it off for years, because most Americans never pay off their credit cards, they just keep using them and paying that interest. So, that gift you bought on Black Friday because you thought you were saving all this money will end up costing you more than the regular price.

A Walmart employee recounts being spit on by “about a 60 year old woman” because she did not have the X-Box the woman wanted for her 6 year old grandchild. Yes, I’ve seen that kind of behavior. While you don’t see violence every day, you get used to JUST PLAIN RUDE. The one time my family went Black Friday shopping, while we were at an out-of-town kids’ sport tournament, I was at one of those outlet stores, looking at a pair of pants for my husband and a woman LITERALLY grabbed them out of my hands, put them in her cart and rolled away.

I’m not going to go Glenn County over a pair of pants. I see some people are more aggressive than me, so I stay away from the stores after November 21. I mean, if I don’t have a present for you by the end of October you can forget it. Today I went grocery shopping and it was already getting crazy.

I used to say, “I hate Christmas,” but I realize, I just hate the way people act at Christmas. So after you get home from the mall tonight you might take a look at this film. Here’s the trailer on youtube, where you can also watch the full movie.

 

Now get out there and spread some peace and joy, DAMMIT!

Parks not pensions

18 Dec

Busy little bees. 

Chico Area Recreation District has submitted Measure A, a parcel tax. Measure A will add an initial CORRECTION: $85 a year to your property taxes, increasing each year with inflation. I had to look up the rate of inflation – right now it’s 1.8%, up from 1.7% last year, and expected to go to 1.9% in 2020. 

This is what my dad called “rabbit math.” Not only does the “base” ($85) go up every year, but the percentage by which the base goes up goes up every year. Next thing you know you got a basket of rabbits on your prop tax bill,  eating your money like lettuce.

I was in 4-H as a kid, I had rabbits, so I get it. This is actually worse than rabbit math – momma rabbit can only have so many babies at a time. It’s the number of momma rabbits that makes for the increase – that would be the initial value, going up incrementally. But this tax will not only add momma rabbits every year, it will increase the number of babies momma rabbit is able to have – the percentage of increase goes up every year.

I hear a voice in the back of my head – “evil never sleeps...”

I don’t hate taxes – taxes are how we all share the cost of stuff we need as a community. We need roads. God in Heaven we need sewer. We need cops and fire. And, given the amount of money we pay into the pot, we sure as hell deserve  better parks. 

We don’t need over-priced bureaucrats who give themselves raises and raid road, sewer and park funds to feather their retirement nest. 

Repeat after me – No Shirt, No Shoes, No Dice... meaning, “pay your own pensions or forfeit.” There it is. Learn it. Know it. Live it. 

 

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“Fungibility” – moving peas under walnut shells

14 Dec

My husband constantly reminds me that the new revenues brought in by tax increases just free up existing funds to be spent on pensions and benefits. Dan Walters has a word for this deception – “fungibility” – “If a city’s voters can be persuaded to raise their taxes for parks and recreation, for example, it effectively frees up more money to pay its pension bills without acknowledging that motive.”

Walters calls this a bait-and-switch approach to getting voters to raise taxes on themselves – they offer you a carrot – oh yeah, ice rink – to take your eyes off their pension deficit. The city of Chico, for example, has been taking money out of various funds and placing it in the General Fund, from which they can transfer it anywhere they want. And they’ve established TWO pension “trust” funds – “CalPERS Unfunded Liability Reserve Fund (903) and the Pension Stabilization Trust (904).

From budget policies 2019-20

“CalPERS Unfunded Liability Reserve Fund (903)
Fund 903 has been established to accumulate funds for the annual payment of the CalPERS unfunded liability payment for the City. The targeted reserve amount is equal to the estimated unfunded liability payment for the subsequent year due to CalPERS. In accordance with GASB 54, this fund balance is committed.”

“Beginning in FY2017-18, each department will set aside a set percentage of payroll costs to fund the annual payment of the CalPERS unfunded liability. A target reserve of 10% of the annual unfunded liability expenditure will be retained in the fund.”

From 2019-20 draft budget – page FS 75, Attachment A, Fund Summaries CALPERS UNFUNDED LIABILITY RSV FUND

In fiscal year 2017-18 they moved $7,323,978 into the Unfunded Liability Reserve Fund – $3.9 million from the miscellaneous employees payroll, and $3.2 million from public safety funds.  In 2018-19 they took $8,358,417.  The city manager’s recommendation for 2019-20 is $9,615,778. 

The Pension Stabilization Trust is a separate fund – The City Council established a Pension Stabilization Trust under Internal Revenue Code
Section 115 on June 19, 2018. The irrevocable trust is restricted for use to pay future CalPERS retirement contributions. The investment model strategy for the Trust is conservative. A conservative investment model is defined as a strategy that does not exceed an investment allocation over 20% in equity securities with the remainder investment allocation in fixed income securities. The model strategy may only be modified by the City Manager with City Council approval.

Fund 904 – Pension Stabilization Trust shall account for the financial activity of the Trust. Trust accounting will be provided at least quarterly as part of the monthly monitoring reports provided to City Council.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but what I see is not only a fund through which they take from other funds to pay down their deficit, but another, separate fund that also takes money from other funds – to be invested on behalf of the pensioneers. 

Here’s something scary I ran across in the budget policy documents – the city manager can approve up to $100,000 transfers without council approval.

Transfers Between Council Approved Capital Projects (Different Years – Rescheduling Projects) – Projects are approved over a ten-year period by Council. Each budgeted project has been appropriated an amount that may include funding from multiple City Funds. Appropriation transfers between capital projects scheduled in different years requires approval of the City Manager and City Council based the following authorization amounts:

• Up to $100,000 – City Manager;
• Over $100,000 – City Manager and City Council

Now, ask yourself Pollyanna – why are the road, sewer and park funds bottomed out? 

Because, as Walters reports, pension costs, especially for public safety employees, “are rising especially fast. They now average about 50% of payroll and are projected in the new report to top 55% by the mid-2020s. A few cities are already nearing or reaching 100%.”  And, city management, as you see above, is allowed to dip into funds as they wish, transferring the garbage tax money from the Road Fund to the General Fund last year, as noted in the budget. From the General Fund they can transfer as much as they want into the Unfunded Liability Reserve or the Pension Stabilization Trust, as long as it’s in increments less than $100,000.

When Brian Nakamura came on as City Manager in 2012, he reported two deficit figures – one about $168,000,000, the other around $194,000,000. I think the  first figure was the pension deficit figure, and the second was the total deficit for pensions AND benefits. Today the city finance manglers report a total deficit of around $130,000,000. How do you think they paid that down so fast? 

Here’s Walters on the subject:

Dan Walters: It’s a bait and switch on the state’s public pensions

By  | CalMatters

Local officials, particularly those in California’s 400-plus cities, have been complaining loudly in recent years about pension costs, raising the specter of insolvency if they continue their rapid increase.

Last year, the League of California Cities issued a report declaring that “pension costs will dramatically increase to unsustainable levels.”

The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) confirms that projection in a new report.

The report reveals that mandatory “employer contributions,” including those from the state and school districts, as well as local governments, rose from $12 billion in 2016-17 to $20 billion a year later.

It also warns that the payments will continue to rise well into the next decade as the giant trust fund tries to recover from dramatic investment losses in the Great Recession, adjusts to lower earnings projections and handles a surge of baby boomer generation retirees claiming benefits.

“The greatest risk to the system continues to be the ability of employers to make their required contributions,” the new report declares, adding, “It is difficult to assess just how much strain current contribution levels are putting on employers. However, evidence such as collections activities, requests for extensions to amortization schedules and information regarding termination procedures indicate that some public agencies are under significant strain.”

Pension costs for “safety employees,” police officers and firefighters mostly, are rising especially fast. They now average about 50% of payroll and are projected in the new report to top 55% by the mid-2020s. A few cities are already nearing or reaching 100%.

However, as much as they complain about CalPERS forever dunning them, California’s local officials are largely unwilling to directly ask their voters for more taxes to pay pension bills.

Hundreds of local tax increase measures were placed on the ballot last year and hundreds more are likely to be proposed next year, but almost universally they are billed as improving popular local services, such as “public safety” or parks.

It’s where the concept of “fungibility” kicks in. If a city’s voters can be persuaded to raise their taxes for parks and recreation, for example, it effectively frees up more money to pay its pension bills without acknowledging that motive.

We saw a wonderful example of fungibility last year in Sacramento, where voters were persuaded to raise local sales taxes on the promise of civic improvements by an amount that closely matched increases in the city’s obligations to CalPERS.

We may be seeing another in Oakland next year.

The Oakland City Council is placing a “parcel tax” — a form of property tax — on the March ballot to improve parks, recreational and homeless services and stormwater drainage. The tax, $148 annually per real estate parcel, would generate an estimated $20 million a year.

As it happens, however, the most recent CalPERS report on Oakland’s pension obligations reveals that they will increase from $194 million in 2020-21 to $226 million by 2025-26, which would more than consume the revenue from the parcel tax.

So why don’t city officials just own up and publicly acknowledge that pension costs are driving their budgets into red ink and ask voters for more tax money to cover them?

They — and the unions that finance tax increase campaigns — clearly fear that being candid would backfire. If voters knew they would be paying more taxes to support pension benefits for city workers that are probably much better than they have themselves, they might refuse to go along.

Bait and switch is more politically expedient.

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Linda McCann: Wake up people, you should be concerned as another hand wants to slip in your pocket to remove your cash!

11 Dec

It’s official – I got my “free” subscription from Mike Wolcott and now I know – the only good part of the tired, old and fuddled Enterprise Record cat box liner is the letters section. Thank you Linda McCann for tipping us to the latest assault on Prop 13.

 

I read with interest and concern the article in the December 6 Chico E-R regarding AB 48, or as it’s been dubbed Proposition 13.   OK I get that,  a proposition to put to a vote a bond issue to raise money for our schools. However there’s one sentence that is of great concern to me as it should be to all home owners protected under the 1978 Proposition 13.

The article states and I quote, “AB 48, Proposition 13 is not to be confused with the 1978 Proposition 13 which some education groups hope to overhaul in November to raise revenue for cities and schools.”

Wake up people, you should be concerned as another hand wants to slip in your pocket to remove your cash!

— Linda McCann, Paradise

Here’s the legislative digest entry:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB48

This is a proposal to lower the voter approval for bonds from 2/3’s to 55 percent. This is not democracy, it’s overpaid school administrators sticking their hands in our pockets to pay for their outrageous pensions. In Sacramento, one school district is tanking because of a 15% raise they gave their already generously compensated teachers. 

Do they really think we’re stupid enough to fall for this trick? Calling a bad proposition “13”? Are we that dumb? Don’t wait until after the election to find  out – tell your family, friends and neighbors not to fall for this trick. Write a letter like Linda McCann. 

Just think, what if Paul Revere had thought his actions didn’t matter?

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Two groups competing to recall Gavin Newsom – which petition should I sign?

8 Dec

UPDATE, 1/13/21 – Here is the link to the current recall effort    https://recallgavin2020.com/

A couple of months ago I heard somebody(ies) were circulating a petition(s) for the recall of Gavin Newsom. I found out there are two groups, and there’s “some drama involved.” Hear all about it from Sacramento radio windbag Phil Cowan. 

https://recallnewsom.us/phil-cowan-whats-going-on-with-the-recall/

Here’s what I got – 

  • Two groups, “takecaback.org” and “recallnewsom.us”
  • “takecaback.org” is being run by California senate candidate Erin Cruz  (feb 13 deadline)
  • “recallnewsom.us” is being run by a San Diego physician named James Veltmeyer

That’s the facts. Which petition should you sign? Can you sign both? Cowan quotes a woman named “Mimi” from “recallnewsom.us” as saying you can sigh both petitions without voiding your signature. Given Cowan’s obvious bias, and blowface style, I decided to check other sources before I pass that along. 

Also, I would suggest you listen to Erin Cruz’s response to Veltmeyer’s condescending proposal that she drop her recall and join his team. He offers to make her “the face” of his campaign, as if that’s all a woman wants. Then he offers to include a fundraising packet with each petition packet mailed out – that makes the whole campaign sound suspicious.

I was offended by Veltmeyer’s proposition, telling Cruz to step back, and let a doctor from San Diego run a political campaign. Blowhard Cowan says Cruz’s ego is getting in the way, and insinuates that her recall efforts are all about getting her elected. I don’t know – it sounds to me like Veltmeyer is setting himself up as a future candidate.

Cruz reports that she already had her petition approved and circulating when Veltmeyer contacted her. She is telling the truth, as reported by Ballotpedia.

https://ballotpedia.org/Gavin_Newsom_recall,_Governor_of_California_(2019)

Cruz also ran a good race against Dianne Feinstein in 2018, I liked her message, and  voted for her, even though I knew I was throwing my  vote away in that overcrowded race. So, I’m signing her petition. I don’t trust Veltmeyer’s source when she says it’s okay to sign both petitions – the “language” does sound very much alike. 

You can look at both petitions for yourself. You can download, print, sign and send yours back if you prefer:

Click to access TakeCABack-Petition-to-Recall-Newsom.pdf

https://recallnewsom.us/petition-update/

 

I tried to navigate Covered California – do the words “Donner Party” mean anything to you people?

6 Dec

My husband and I have been trying to figure out what to do about the California health insurance mandate. We can’t afford  good insurance, so we went to the Covered California website and looked into subsidized plans.

The first thing we did was fill out our personal information. The website isn’t as easy to navigate as they say, it took almost an hour. They demanded we download our taxes, so we did that. They told us they’d get back to us at our email address. We heard nothing for days so logged back in. They needed more information, they said – so, why didn’t they notify us of that at our email address? We even listed our phone number.

So we logged into our account at the website. They said our taxes indicated we qualified for Medi-Cal, and that means, we are not qualified to receive the subsidized plans offered through Covered California. 

I know what’s really going on – we went through this when my husband was ill years ago, and we told the hospital we wanted to make the “cash  deal” – pay what Medi-cal and the insurance companies pay – 10%, within 30 days. They told us we had to apply for and be turned down for Medi-cal before we could make the deal. As long as our application was in process, the deal was on hold. 

The Medi-cal application process took almost a year. We got letters from Butte County about every two months, telling us we had a new worker, and that our application had essentially gone back to step 1. Meanwhile, the hospital waited for their money. 

After about 8 months, we received a letter from Butte County telling us we DID NOT qualify for Medi-cal, and therefore we could participate in the “cash deal”. We paid our 10% and went on our way. 

They never told us why we did not qualify, but my research indicates that a person can’t get Medi-cal if they own a rental property. If you own a house, they take that when you die. Great! 

Back to Covered California. They insist we need to apply for Medi-cal before they’ll talk to us about plans. They want to see our taxes again, they want to see our receipts and expenditures on our rentals, etc. They expect us to go through the same rigamaroll we went through to make the  deal with the hospital. Who knows how long that will take, and the entire time, we are uninsured. We know we don’t qualify for Medi-cal, and we don’t want it anyway. Not only do we NOT want to pay a mandate that gives us NOTHING, we don’t want to get stuck with a plan that gives us nothing.

Medi-cal IS THE DEATH MACHINE. No competent care giver will accept their rates, so you just die.  And then they come after your kids’ inheritance – if you own a home they just take it.

So, my husband and I are going to make an appointment with an insurance agent, just to figure this bullshit out.   Every time I see a Covered California commercial I want to turn off my tv.

You may be aware of the little battle that takes place every year when Enloe tries to refuse Anthem/Blue Cross. They negotiate annually over premiums, Enloe trying to get more, and ABC just rolling over and raising rates to cover the payments. Right now, Anthem is paying higher stock market dividends than Walmart.

https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/antm/dividend-history

https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/wmt/dividend-history

This isn’t health care reform. Health care is getting worse and worse as more people sign up for Covered California. Doctors and hospitals are just refusing to take their “Bronze Plan”, which I prefer to call the “Mister Shit Plan”, demanding more and more co-pays from patients. Insurance companies make money no matter what, they just drop patients who won’t pay more. 

So I’ll keep you posted. 

 

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The voters aren’t so dumb after all – Harris is OUT!

4 Dec

Wow, no one could have been more shocked that I was when Kamala Harris decided to drop out of the presidential race. I saw her dropping in the polls, but I had no idea that mattered to her – egomaniacs never believe the polls.

She couldn’t raise enough money? That is crazy – this woman has done favors for people, you’d think they’d be lining up to make her Queen of the Universe.

People like former California Public Utilities Commission chair Michael Peevey. When Harris was California Attorney General, she said that she had evidence to prosecute Peevey for illegal activities. But, all she did was talk – she let the case go until it was too late to prosecute, and Peevey skipped off with a huge severance package. 

You’d think Peevey would have wanted to bankroll this woman – just think what she could do for him in the White House.

I was afraid people would be fooled by Harris – child of immigrants, first “woman of color” (aren’t all women one color or another?) to hold several offices, A WOMAN RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!  I was waiting for the bullying tactics that Obama supporters used – in fact, more so –  we’d be not only racist, but SEXIST, not to vote for Harris!

But I was relieved that people saw through this woman’s veneer. People have watched her climb the ladder, never staying in one office for more than half a term before she’s running for the next.  One political analyst quipped that she’s only been a state senator for about 15 minutes. I was also surprised how many people, liberal and conservative, were unhappy with her tenure as city attorney in San Francisco, particularly her support of the Sanctuary City declaration. 

So voters aren’t soooo dumb. Good for that.

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The Homeless Industrial Complex is a failure – how many people will die on Chico streets this winter despite all the money shoveled into the system?

30 Nov

The headlines were conflicting this week in Chico – Black Friday shopping, Thanksgiving fun run, community meals, city setting up a “warming tent”, and a woman found dead along Lindo Channel.

Knowing how extensive our “homeless” services are here, I have to wonder – how does this happen?

The city and county continue to bumble the whole operation. We have services, plenty of them, but they are not coordinated, often compete for funding, and work toward their own instead of the public’s best interests. For example, Tom Tenorio gets a very generous salary out of the Esplanade House, even taking one of the apartments intended for housing a family to supplement his office. I’m reminded of a scene from Doctor Zhivago: “All this office, for just one fat-cat bureaucrat!“

There’s alot of competing for funds and in-fighting in the Homeless Industrial Complex. They fight over money like crows fighting over road kill. When Stairways manager Mike Madeiros made a decision not to accept a grant because it would mean allowing transgender individuals into his shelter, Tenorio went on the warpath, complaining that they would lose that grant because Madeiros had refused it. Wow, that was an eye opener about the way these “non profits” are operated – too bad so few taxpayers were paying attention.

We also have disagreements over who will be served.  Madeiros was uncomfortable with allowing transgender or women in his all male shelter, worried about conflicts. Some shelters will not accept inebriated people, so CHAT (Chico Housing Action Team) has had set up “low barrier” shelters in houses around town. The city offers a warming tent, set up this weekend, that is supposed to be open to anyone who is cold. So far these tents have served less than 20 people a night, including city officials  and staffers.

And now Chico Housing Action Team wants to install “elderly” transients in Tough Sheds in a field along the freeway. 

All these programs are competing for money. And, as of this weekend, they are failing in their mission to get people off the street. 

In Chico we have many “low-income” subsidized housing projects. I just found out a huge old apartment building around the corner from one of my rentals is owned by HUD.  We have newer stuff, like Jarvis Gardens in south Chico, and 1200 Park Avenue, both built to house low-income seniors. These are public projects, paid for with tax dollars. 

But again, there is a lack of coordination. The Camp Fire is a good example of how these agencies have failed – here we had truly needy people, a natural disaster, and we couldn’t house them? But we spend millions a year on programs set up for drug addicts and criminals? 

CHAT proposes little sheds built on an empty lot along the freeway. These people are duplicitous. They already run low-barrier shelters in homes spread out across Chico, no noticing of the neighbors – CHAT knows they need to keep this project a secret. They have nothing to crow about – no list of names of people permanently taken off the street into stable housing. No success stories. And every year, several people die out on the street, regardless of all their feel-good fascism.

Now they want to build a project with city support –  they’ve already racked up a pile of $taff Time with their demands.  They want to be let out of the regular building process, sub code, no environmental review, NO FEES. And they are not being honest about how much it will cost to provide sanitary infrastructure. They first said there would be a common bathroom – now they show us plumbed sheds with toilets? Those will all have to be hooked up to sewer, which is not available on the property. There isn’t even water or electricity on the lot. 

But when my family bought a crapped out old house, the city and county, the school district, CARD – they all wanted to get their thumb in our pie, with all kinds of fees and constant inspections. The code enforcement officer, without so much as a smile, told us we had to put more Dap on the toilet because we had male children. She demanded a ladder to climb up on our roof.  She told us we had to  tear down an old building on the property before we could get clearance on the house.  And then she told us the tear  down required yet another permit. 

This is how taxpayers get treated. 

The city of Chico is a mess. Our finances are in the red, we have constant threats of bankruptcy, although, you will only hear about these problems in Chris Constantin’s pitch for a sales tax increase. Constantin and Orme are walking a fine line – trying to tell us what a mess our city is in without taking any blame for that mess.  For years they’ve mismanaged our money, putting most of it into their salaries, pensions and benefits, admittedly deferring maintenance on city infrastructure all the while. Management salaries are at an all time high, and Constantin admitted recently we spend more on cops than other California cities our size. 

The transient problem is just another part of the mismanagement. They allow these bums to trash our parks and creeks, predate on our neighborhoods, and spread drugs to our kids because they are a revenue source. When the city council signed the Shelter Crisis Designation, they got an annual grant worth over $4 million. They got another $4 million for handing part of the county fairgrounds over to the Jesus Center. That’s an annual grant, and it will go up. And they don’t have to spend it on the “homeless”, it just goes right into the General Fund. 

Just like the proposed  sales tax increase. 

So, we need to ask ourselves – why would we hand a tax increase to Mark Orme and Chris Constantin?  They stand over this whole mess, it’s their recommendations that council follows, dumb and blind. The best argument against this sales tax increase is our current management, and how they have mismanaged millions already.

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Jen Sidorova: Why millennials should care about government pensions

25 Nov

Here’s something hopeful – Bob sent this piece from Market Watch, written by a young person. 

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-millennials-should-care-about-government-pensions-even-if-they-dont-have-one-2019-11-21

Jen Sidorova explains the pension crisis and why young people should be concerned. 

“Governments with underfunded pensions need to come up with the money somehow, and the most obvious way is to raise taxes. What this means for millennials, who are already the largest generational group in the workforce, is that more of their tax dollars could be diverted to paying down public pension debt instead of paying for public services. All the funds that should have otherwise gone toward schools, roads and state parks, could be redirected to cover underfunded pensions for employees who stopped working 10 or 20 years ago. So, pension debt will affect all millennials, even those outside public sector jobs — because everyone’s a taxpayer.”

That last line, “everyone’s a taxpayer,” seems to escape certain groups – like renters, and young voters who still live at home or are supported by their parents. Young people have to stop saying “No worries” and start worrying about this mess before it’s just a fact of their lives. 

Sidorova explains the two-prong fork – not only will young people live with crapped out infrastructure and higher taxes, if they go into the public sector – like my son and many of my friends’ kids – they will not enjoy the same level of pay and benefits generously lavished on their predecessors. In fact, their contributions go directly into the pockets of retirees they never even knew.

“Currently, state and local pension contributions make up about 26% of the total payroll costs. According to my analysis of the PPD, in states like Illinois and Kentucky, the government’s contributions exceed 50 percent of the total payroll costs of their largest pension plans — a consequence of enormous unfunded liabilities. All the money that could’ve gone toward increasing salaries and improving work conditions now goes toward paying pension debt. That means young workers are missing out on benefits and pay raises in the short term. For state employees, given the constitutional protection of pensions, salary freezes are another likely consequence of growing pension debt.”

Here she talks about solutions,

“As these systems try to find solutions, it’s crucial they focus on reforms that ensure paying down debt as fast as possible, adopt more conservative actuarial assumptions about investment returns, and introduce financially sustainable retirement plan offerings, as those could go a long way to ensure retirement security of the millennial labor force.

what she doesn’t talk about is who should pay down the debt. I believe the workers should assume much higher shares, or accept the loss of their pensions and go with 401ks. But that would take strong, publicly supported politicians, and I don’t know where we will find those people. What I do know is, neither our city councilors not the CARD board have the guts to do this. In fact, Tom Lando, who has been with CARD for a few terms now, is the city of Chico’s biggest current pensioneer.

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2012/01/30/heres-why-lando-wants-to-raise-your-sales-tax/

LANDO, THOMAS J CHICO $11,236.48/mo $134,837.76/yr

That’s a nine year old post, they get cost of living increase every year. Here’s an up-to-date table from Transparent California.

https://transparentcalifornia.com/pensions/search/?q=Thomas+Lando

Wow, cost of living increases more than $1,000/year, for some people, because Lando’s pension has gone up by about $16,000 in 13 years, to $150,671.00  And he serves in various interim positions, which come with more salary – for example, he was the interim director of Feather River Recreation District, and then the interim city manager of Oroville for a couple more years. 

https://www.chicoer.com/2018/03/21/tom-lando-appointed-interim-oroville-city-administrator/

He took a smaller salary – “not to exceed $30,000” – so what? How many of us would like to pocket another $30,000, in addition to the $150,000/year we already get? For nothing. 

This is so  ridiculous – people have to wake up.

It’s up to us to vote for better people. In the mean time, we need to get the word out to young people about how they can change their own futures for the better.

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Joshua Rauh: Public Pensions are an economic time bomb, and young people will be at the epicenter of the blast

24 Nov

Bob sent a link to a really interesting video that explains the “pension time bomb” in language the average person can understand.

https://www.prageru.com/video/public-pensions-an-economic-time-bomb/

Josuah Rauh is a professor of finance at Stanford School of Business, Director of Research for the Hoover Institute, and has written extensively on the nationwide pension problem. I love his no-nonsense style. This problem is really simple.

Rauh doesn’t mince words.  “I want to talk about three words that should scare the heck out of you, especially if you’re young. PUBLIC PENSION LIABILITIES”

He’s absolutely right, young people will be left holding the bag.  To quote Chico City Manager Mark Orme and Assistant Manager Chris Constantin, this city has “kicked the can down the road” on infrastructure maintenance  for many years. What neither man mentions is that the city has continued to pay increasing salaries and benefits for city management. They both lie through their teeth, claiming to have “stopped the bleeding…” performed “a miracle”. In truth they have both taken very generous pay raises and have already added a 401k plan to their already generous pension packages. More about that later.

So, our kids will get stuck with failing infrastructure and the billions in taxes it will take to fix it. Not to mention, paying for generations of public workers, like Orme and Constantin,  allowed to retire at age 50 – 55 with well over $100,000/year in pension.

Unfortunately, this is a message that mostly falls on deaf ears. Rauh continues, “that’s why all of this is so scary – no one is paying attention.” Well, in defense of the average citizen – myself – I’ll say, it’s been made complicated on purpose – go to a meeting, and listen to staff make it as convoluted as possible. 

Rauh puts it in simple language, as if he is explaining this to someone from another planet, who has never heard of such a ludicrous policy. “What is a public pension liability,” he asks rhetorically. “A guaranteed lifetime payment to somebody after they retire.” That seems simple enough, but the important word here is “guaranteed“.

Years ago,  private sector workers got pensions, but private businesses were not able to keep up with the costs associated, and either dropped their pensions plans for 401K’s or went under. Right now, once giant media conglomerate McClatchy (which formerly owned newspapers and tv stations all over the state), is going under due to unfunded pension liabilities. 

McClatchy’s financial distress has the company exploring options — including a sale

 

But public workers will not cooperate, they demand to keep their guaranteed pensions.  According to public employee unions,  no matter how the economy tanks, they get their money. While CalPERS promised to fund these outrageous pensions via investments in the stock market, they have failed miserable, and now they are laying the bag at our feet. 

Rauh continues, “They are eating state and city budgets alive… more than 62,000 retired public employees are receiving pensions of over $100,000/year…  Currently many cities are paying for multiple public departments at the same time, the department that’s working now, and (due to people living longer) a generation of two of public employees.” Estimates of the state’s total unfunded pension liability go over $200 trillion. 

The problem, he says, is “a corrupt merry go round  – public employee unions give donations to candidates who are then responsible for negotiating how much of your money  goes  to public sector workers“. In Chico the biggest donors in every local election are the employee unions, usually led by Chico Police Officers Association. 

The other problem is, “they hide the payments that are  due down the road.” Here in Chico, you have to know the right question to ask, in the proper vernacular, or they just ignore you. You have to watch agendas and read onerous reports printed in the smallest typeset available, sideways on the page. 

You have to be forward with these people.  Even when Dave Howell corrected CARD General Manager about their pension deficit, Willmann overstated employee contribution figures at the informational meetings. She corrected herself in an email when I questioned her about it later, after she’d already been misinforming people for weeks. She made no attempt to correct herself publicly, even after I wrote a letter to the paper about it. 

Rauh points out same. “How do they get away with this? They use a time tested political strategy – they lie.“

The first, big lie was that they could pay for these increasingly generous pensions, “not by collecting taxes but by making investments.” Then they went about raising the roof on salaries. For example, former city manager Dave Burkland left in 2012 at $130,000 base salary. His replacement, Brian Nakamura, came in at $219,000. About a year later, Nakamura left for another job, and his assistant manager Mark Orme, also his former assistant in the city of Hemet, replaced him at a salary of $205,000. Now Orme enjoys a base salary of $223,000/year, with a benefits package of over $42,000. 

CalPERS keeps claiming a return of 7% on their investments. But, as Rauh says, ” it’s less and less likely that they will make their investment assessment, because they do risky investements.” So, why, oh why, does our council keep agreeing to annual pay raises for Orme and other management? Why did they give these people, in addition to their costly and generous benefits packages, 401k plans complete with an employer share? 

The problem is the salaries are too generous for the taxpayer to ever be able to guarantee 70 – 90% in retirement. Rauh says, “We need to turn things around using public pressure, discipline and common sense.”

Public pressure – read agendas and reports, do some simple research, and contact your elected officials to tell  them what you know about this problem. Some of our city council members seem genuinely clueless, willing to be led by  staff instead of the people. It’s time for the people to lead.

Discipline – I mean, really, read the damned agendas, read the reports, look up stuff you don’t understand, ask questions. Don’t let yourself believe you can’t make a difference, but yeah, it’s a lot of hard work. 

Common Sense – this issue really is simple, don’t let public employees try to make it sound too complicated. Here’s one common sense question to ask yourself – was I included in the conversation? Did I make these promises? Why should I be on the hook for these outrageous salaries and pensions? 

Now, using public pressure, discipline, and common sense, here’s what Rauh says we need to do:

“We need state and local governments to report their  unfunded liabilities honestly, the real numbers, using the 2 – 3 % yields that sound financial reporting would require. No more pie in the sky stuff…”  We have Stephanie Taber to thank, back in 2011, for demanding the finance reports be given properly. Then Finance Director Jennifer Hennessy was not doing reports at all, her boss Dave Burkland didn’t require her to do it. Can you believe that? What private sector company would get away with that? Taber had to use public pressure, discipline, and common sense. Now the finance reports are given every month and available online. 

And now, using letters to the editor and posts on this blog, Dave Howell is trying to question the city about their true pension costs, demanding they make their Annual Finance Report (CAFR) available to the public. The city is hiding their true liability figures, saying they are only $130 million in deficit when the true figure is over $200 million. 

“the truth should shock  voters into demanding action.”  Yes, it should, but people use the most ridiculous excuses for not paying attention. This is where discipline comes in – I’m not an accountant, but I’ve made myself read and understand those finance reports. You can too. And then open your mouth and squeal like Ned Beatty, cause you are being screwed.

The action Rauh suggests we demand is “to phase out the guaranteed pension programs as quickly as possible and introduce 401k plans…

I agree with Rauh. Public employees who do their jobs should be amply compensated. He calls 401k’s a “win-win’ which,  “if designed properly, can provide excellent retirement benefits…” Here’s the win for taxpayers – employees are responsible for their own investments, and if they choose poorly, the taxpayer is not on the hook to bail them out. 

Furthermore, “401k’s are portable, employees can take them along, don’t have to be locked into government jobs to get retirement benefits.“

Now, unfortunately, here’s where the corrupt merry-go-round comes in – our council, fed on employee union donations, has already given management employees a type of 401k called a “457 plan”, in addition to their guaranteed pensions. Here’s Orme’s contract, read it for yourself:

Click to access OrmeEmploymentAgreement10-2017.pdf

“The City has established a Deferred Compensation Plan in accordance
with Internal Revenue Code (IRC) 457 (“IRC 457 plan”). Effective from the first pay period in
January 2017 considered in calculating the maximum IRC 457 plan limit and annually, City agrees
to contribute nine thousand dollars ($9,000), to Employee’s IRC 457 plan. Additionally, effective
October 15,2017, the City agrees to contribute four and fifty- two hundredths percent (4.52%) of
base salary to Employee’s IRC 457 plan.”

In Chico, public employee unions SEIU, CPOA, AND IFFA are among the biggest donors in every council election. I think the only donor that gives more money is Franklin Construction.  So, I would add to Rauh’s list – change the laws to restrict donations from public employee unions. Our city council can do this, but as you can guess, that would take a lot of public pressure.

Rauh suggests “lets end the current structure of public sector pensions and move to a sustainable way of compensating our public employees.” He’s not advocating cutting anybody off, but frankly, I am. I would suggest we press council to refuse to approve new contracts for management employees who refuse to take pay and benefits cuts. As stated in Orme’s contract, council has the right to refuse salary increases, and even to ask employees to take a cut. Again, this would take a lot of public pressure. 

So, it’s really up to us. 

 

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