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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (150965)	11/23/2010 10:17:30 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 543284

"California bails us out. It has been bailing out the rest of America since, oh, about 1849 — before it even joined the union." Please don't post stuff like that. It will upset the red states. Let them wallow in smug ignorance.

To: Sam who wrote (150965)	11/23/2010 10:23:53 AM
From: KyrosL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543284

Excellent article. Interestingly, if the Republicans manage to extend the Bush tax cuts to all, the main beneficiary will be California.

To: Sam who wrote (150965)	11/23/2010 11:09:41 AM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 543284

The Truth About California by Brett Arends Terrific piece. Thanks. Reminds me of the New Jersey stuff. Outgoing governor Jon Corzine said the budget had a $500 million surplus; incoming governor Chris Christie said, about a month later, that it was a $1 billion deficit. Christie has yet to fully explain why that was. But didn't wait a second to blame the public service unions for NJ's terrible financial shape, while refusing to keep in place a surcharge on wealthy New Jerseyans.

To: Sam who wrote (150965)	11/29/2010 8:54:08 PM
From: 8bits	Respond to of 543284

But how big are these costs in California? The non-partisan Legislative Analysts' Office in Sacramento estimates there's a $136 billion gap in the state pension and benefits system. It may work out to more or less. But that's the actuarial figure at the moment. Another study (using more conservative accounting assuming a lower rate of return (around 5% as opposed to 8%..) came up with a shortfall of more than $500 billion in the three largest pension plans. "A study released Monday by Stanford University estimates that California's three largest state-operated, public-employee pension funds—the California Public Employees' Retirement System, California State Teachers' Retirement System and University of California Retirement System—currently face a total shortfall of more than $500 billion. The figure dwarfs the funds' own combined shortfall estimate of $55 billion as of July 2008, according to the report, which doesn't account for the more than $100 billion loss sustained by the funds during the recession. That adds a further wrinkle to California's already precarious fiscal situation." online.wsj.com And the author has not touched on the fiscal state of many of California municipalities: "Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Orange County, local pension systems for city and county public employees are also underfunded as much as $49.2 billion, according to “Trouble Brewing, The Disaster of California State Pensions.” California bails us out. It has been bailing out the rest of America since, oh, about 1849 — before it even joined the union. False... California received more Federal dollars than it sent to Washington DC between WWII and the mid 1980s. Crucially a large amount of this money went into industries (Defense, electronics, and software...) that now benefit the state greatly.