5 responses to “Friends With Benefits – Part 11 San Jose Acts”

1. holyroller

   June 11, 2011

   That sounds ridiculous.
   1. Does anyone know what President Hoover put the people of the USA through during his administartion?
   2. Does anyone know what and who the “Little Hoover Institute/Commission is?
   3.Does anyoneone know how the Little Hoover supports it self-who the people are who fund it?
   NOW THAT IS A STORY!

2. Go for it

   June 20, 2011

   County ready to talk budget
   June 20, 2011, 04:06 AM Daily Journal Staff Report
   County supervisors begin this morning the multi-day task of wading through the recommended $1.69 billion budget which drops spending by $129 million, takes $47.5 million in general funds reserves and slashes 208 positions.
   The Board of Supervisors will hear public presentations by individual department heads on their respective budgets and any requests for additional funding. The tentative recommended budget will be approved Thursday afternoon and the final document adopted in September.
   On Monday, the board will hear opening remarks by County Manager David Boesch followed by presentations by the following departments: sheriff, district attorney, probation, private defender, public safety communications, fire, coroner, county support of the courts, grand jury, First Five Commission and health.
   The budget, for the fiscal year beginning July 1, is the fourth installment of a five-year plan to eliminate the county’s structural deficit and protect reserves. If the county does not stay on track to limit spending, the general fund will run out of reserves in 2015, according to Boesch’s calculations.
   Of the 208 positions on the chopping block this week, 65 are filled. County officials hope to minimize pink slips through a combination of early retirement, voluntary separation incentives and moving employees into vacant positions.
   The county is also filling the budget gap by $13 million worth of hiring freezes and employee benefit changes, departmental consolidations, elimination of vacant positions and cost-saving programs like cutting down on energy and paper use.
   The complete recommended budget and presentation schedule are available at http://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/budget.
   The hearings begin 9 a.m. Monday, June 20 in Board Chambers, 400 County Government Center, Redwood City.

3. Lorne

   June 28, 2011

   From today’s Financial Times:
   June 28, 2011
   US pension reform
   Politics makes strange bedfellows indeed. But can they respect one another in the morning?
   Democratic state and local lawmakers in the US have long had public employee unions, against which they must negotiate at the bargaining table, as their main supporters. Recently though, serious strains have started to emerge as fiscal pressures mount. Unions recently helped elect the governors of two of America’s largest and most left-leaning states, California and New York. These ostensible allies have proposed the sort of pension initiatives more typical of Republicans.
   New York’s Andrew Cuomo has outlined reforms, including raising employee contributions and the retirement age, that would save the state $93bn and New York City another $30bn over 30 years. California’s Jerry Brown has proposed prohibiting techniques some employees use to inflate pension benefits. In perhaps the biggest betrayal of all, majority Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey, a union bastion led by pugnacious Republican governor Chris Christie, approved some of the most sweeping benefit reductions of any state. “We’ll remember in November” (when elections are held) went the refrain of the union faithful.
   This would not be happening were it not for a looming crunch, as past pension promises threaten to overwhelm cash budgets. Unfunded liabilities at the state level, some $1,000bn on official numbers, are three times as high using stricter actuarial methods.
   Are the cuts enough? Even Mr Christie’s radical reforms may take decades to return pension funding to a solid footing. Mr Cuomo’s plan, by contrast, would impact only new hires while leaving many towns devoting an unacceptably large chunk of their budget to retiree benefits. Mr Brown’s proposed reforms are milder still.
   Democratic governors have little choice but to swing the axe at union demands with more vigour. If you have to betray your friends, you might as well do it thoroughly.

4. holyroller

   June 29, 2011

   There are a lot of City, State, and Federal workers that do not pay into or receieve Social Security.
   That may be a political position for those bargining groups to take when the future of Social Security beomes a partisan voter issue.
   Another way for Multinational Corporations to get the middle class to fight each other.

5. Lorne

   July 7, 2011

   Refreshing example of political cojones (from this week’s Economist):