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Council Votes to Put Tax Increase on Ballot
Sorry Paul, Johnny Vegas has all the answers, all the time. He just keeps on repeating the same drivel. He undoubtedly believe if you say it long enough someone, anyone, will believe. All I'll say is, City Attorney, Former Judge, and former elected State Assemblyman from the 75th District, Jan Goldsmith has said vested pension benefits are constitutionally protected. ============== There you go, JustClueless with his "constitutionally protected" entitlement claims again. He is going to beat those public union trough feeder talking points until he is blue in the face Yeah, those "constitutional" protections worked out real good in AL, didn't they!!!! The train wreck is here, so sit back, grab a lawn chair and some popcorn and watch the "entitlement" claims get tossed around 24/7 by the troughies as they try to stop the train wreck that is already here; L.A. pensions may consume a third of city's general fund by 2015 City administrative officer reports that benefits for retired police, firefighters, DWP workers and other city employees could grow by $800 million in the next five years. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-la-city-p…— August 4, 2010 9:26 p.m.
This Crisis Is New? The City Confessed Six Years Ago
Starting salary 33,000 - pretty good for a 21 year old. 3 % increases every year. By SanDiegoParrothead ========== That is just the cash salary- if you add in the true employment/costs-employee/comp that number doubles. Pensions that pay 90% of highest years salary after just 30 years, especially with bumps of 3% per year-add at least 60% or more of the salary onto the comp. I don't know what rate the city system uses (8%??), but Calpers and many others are using a 7.75% dicounted rate, and that is pure pie in the sky baloney (to go along with their bogus claims that 3%@50 would not cost anything extra!!!). The true return will be in the 5% range, and for every 1% point drop in return you need to increase the contribution by 25%, so a 3% drop from 8% down to 5% would make the pension contribution rate exceed the actual cash salary. Crazy.— August 4, 2010 6:03 p.m.
Council Votes to Put Tax Increase on Ballot
I will tell you what JustClueless and his fellow public employees will say-that they have a "contract" and they are "entitled" to the pension they signed on at. It is all baloney. There is no law that says you cannot freeze a current public employee pension plan for past years of service and go forward with a different plan, just as the entire private sector has done forever. Colorado is in fact (trying to) doing this right now-I will have to see how that case goes and report back when there is a decision. We know one thing-with states and munis across the nation upside down in one sided gov pay and pension scams the courts will have to make decisions that keeps the states munis solvent, and they will do exactly what it takes to get there-like what the federal BK court did in to Prichard, AL. retirees, cancelled their vested gov pensions b/c there was NO MONEY LEFT. That day is coming to states and munis all across this nation, and CA, IL, and NJ are at the front of the train wreck..........— August 4, 2010 5:53 p.m.
Philadelphia Finds DROP a Big Drain
Two salaries could provide income for two people. But with DROP, one person gets both. That is wrong. It isn't fair. ========== Same point I have made for years.......and the trough feeder reply will be they do not have to pay benefits for the second worker-and to that I say the current employee is being comped at twice the rate of a new employee so it would be cheaper to hire two employees, and that settles that issue.— August 4, 2010 5:44 p.m.
Escondido traffic checkpoints take families' cars
I was at the DMV a few months ago and witnessed the saga of one of the victims of the Escondito Police. The young man in front of me was visiting from out of state and had been driving through the area the night before. =========== In CA all vehicles need insurance to be registered, it is sent both electronically and by USPS to DMV by the insuance provider-it can be checked just as easily as the drivers license by the police thru the state computer databases. Now, the problem here is you said your friend was from out of state-but went to DMV to fix this mess. Out of state vehicles need only conform to the state in which they are registered in, so if you're from MI and they don't require proof of insurance then you need not carry proof when driving in CA. Same with all vehicle issues-if MI says you do not need a front license plate (which they don't) then CA law enforcement cannot enforce the CA law that mandates you do need one.— August 4, 2010 4:04 p.m.
Escondido traffic checkpoints take families' cars
If you or your vehicle fails to meet the requirements of driving legally on the road, then you should not be on the road. If you choose to violate one or more laws then you take the inherent risk in being punished for being illegally on the road. By vcrez ============= You may be punished if CONVICTED, but the issue of towing a car BEFORE a trial on any allegation is very clear, if the car is registered and has insurance and is not a threat to public safety-such as being pulled over and parked in a legal street parking space-then the police have no legal right to tow or impound it, if they do then they get sued and there goes a few hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer $$$ down the drain due to a GED educated cop being an idiot. Please know the law before popping off junior.— August 4, 2010 3:59 p.m.
Philadelphia Finds DROP a Big Drain
But no one makes a peep about a lawyer making $950 an hour sitting on his old tired ass flying cross country, probably in 1st class. By JustWondering ============ I am positive Levitt flew 1st class and charged it to the City-that is standard operating procedure. I think everyone was PO's about the hourly rate and the $20 million final price tag. And I am pretty sure we are all speaking out against it again right now-does that qualify as a "peep"?— August 4, 2010 3:52 p.m.
Philadelphia Finds DROP a Big Drain
We should give Kroll a call and have Arthur Levitt perform a "proper" study of the DROP program. It's the only legitimate way to find out what Aguirre (oops, I mean Anthony Webb) has already discovered. By paul ============== You left out Levitt's hourly rate-which he charged for his plane travel commuting time back and forth between NY (or was it DC??) and San Diego. I believe it was $950 an hour if memory serves me correctly :)— August 4, 2010 1:15 p.m.
Philadelphia Finds DROP a Big Drain
One of the proposals in the pending possible sales tax increase is that this study would be finished and acted upon. ============= Here, I have an idea, why don't we give Anthony Webb-lead author of the Boston College study- a call. San Diego's fearless leader KFC Sanders can ask Webb to evaluate the San Diego DROP scam. The fact of the matter is Mike Aguirre already did an analysis of DROP, and up until the date of that analysis-3 years ago-it has cost over $400 million. Cost neutral my butt......— August 4, 2010 11:31 a.m.
This Crisis Is New? The City Confessed Six Years Ago
I'm off to the 8:30 AM Clowncil meeting on the "Pension Tax".....errrrr... I mean "sales tax"..... proposal:) I hope they allow public comments, the SurfPup has a lot to get off his chest.........will report back this afternoon........— August 4, 2010 7:27 a.m.