Posted on 07/04/2017 2:10:52 PM PDT by Rockitz
A new San Francisco civil grand jury report blames $5.8 billion in unfunded county public pension liabilities on voters not realizing that they were voting for two pension spikes.
Despite being Ground Zero for social justice warrior elites, San Franciscans always assumed they would never be ravaged by unions and crony liberal politicians spiking unfunded pensions, because the city’s century-old county charter required a public vote for any enhancement of a government benefit.
But when the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Statements 67 and 68, which required greater public pension liability disclosures by mid-2015, auditors calculated that the national unfunded public sector pension liability for state and local governments had jumped by almost 50 percent to $1.378 trillion. In a surprise to ultra-liberal San Franciscans, their unfunded pension liability spiked to $5.8B.
According to a finding by the grand jury’s June 2017 report: “There are several causes for the underfunding of the Retirement System, but the main underlying cause is the retroactive retirement benefit increases implemented by voter-approved propositions between 1996 and 2008.”
The grand jury documented 12 separate initiatives that were put on the ballot by San Francisco’s County Supervisors and dutifully passed by the public between 1996 and 2012 that had some type of impact on retro-active retirement benefit increases.
The grand jury found that 10 ballot initiatives had a “Voter Information Pamphlet” that did not adequately inform voters of what they were voting on. Two of those voter-approved initiatives involved “significant” retroactive pension increases amounting to $3.5B.
...
The grand jury referred to the spiking liability as a “Pension Tsunami.” It specifically found that between 1996 and 2008, “the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, Retirement Board, and Controller did not fulfill their responsibility to watch out for the interests of the City and its residents.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Who were mayors for San Fran between 1996 and 2008?
Frank Jordan, Willie Brown, and Gavin Newsom.....SHOCKER.....NOT!!!
so they’re saying that their sjw’s are too stupid to vote?
Duh!
The Democrats love democracy, just so long as the people make the decisions that they are expected to make. If the people get it wrong, then the Elitists can come in and “fix” things by making the right decisions for the people. That’s what makes Democracy great.
Or something.
Easy to Gruber.
Just how the ‘Rats like the voters/
I know that they'll be expecting a Federal bailout (who can print money out of thin air ... apparently). Hopefully they won't get it.
The Chief Administrative Officer for Santa Cruz County, where I live, one of California’s smaller counties just retired at 62 after 27 years of public employment. Her final salary with benefits was $380,000 per year. Her retirement will be $200,000 per year. To purchase an annuity that would pay that amount you would have to contribute $4,000,000. Work for the government and become a millionaire.
What you said
OMG!!! Government pensions are OUT OF CONTROL!!!
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ill-funded-police-pensions-put-cities-in-a-bind-1499180342
Ill-funded Police Pensions Put Cities in a Bind
Municipalities that try cutting the retirement plans face pushback both from the officers, some of whom quit, and from a generally pro-police public
By Heather Gillers and Zusha Elinson
July 4, 2017 10:59 a.m. ET
When the city of San Jose had trouble affording services such as road repair and libraries because of the cost of police pensions, it obtained voter approval to pare them. What happened next proved sobering for other cities in the same pickle. Hundreds of police officers quit. Response times for serious calls rose.
Faced with labor-union litigation, San Jose this year restored previous retirement ages and cost-of-living increases for existing police officers, and last month it gave them a raise.
Police pensions are among the worst-funded in the nation. Retirement systems for police and firefighters have just a median 71 cents for every dollar needed to cover future liabilities, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data provided by Merritt Research Services for cities of 30,000 or more.
snip
Sometimes in one party states, the party in power is able to get away with almost anything, often by trickery. In Maryland, rated the state with the least compact legislative districts (most gerrymandered), conservative (minority) citizens actually jumped through all necessary hoops to get the legislative map onto the ballot. BUT the way it was worded made people think that they were voting for something far different from the spagetti-appearing map. Here is the wording:
Referendum Petition Congressional Districting Plan (Ch. 1 of the 2011 Special Session)
Establishes the boundaries for the State’s eight United States Congressional Districts based on recent census figures, as required by the United States Constitution.
Understandably people not intimately informed with the actual meaning voted for this statement. The US Constitution only says that districts must be contiguous and about the same population. Thus Maryland's map that sometimes runs for miles down a single street to connect regions nowhere near each other satisfied the Constitution. Of course the leftist media did not show the map to the citizens who would have been horrified by it.
My point is that in leftist controlled states with leftist media, it is easy to fool people.
Fooled?
Hey they back their masters there in S.F. 100%.
Call it the Homosexual / Sanctuary City / Union dues tax.
So, the SF voters are too stupid to be voting?!!!
AG, this $hit is everywhere here in CA. Up here in the San Ramon Valley (and actually it’s a statewide problem), our Firefighters are taking the taxpayers for a continual ride. As you are well aware, “public service” employees in CA get to retire at 50 ( the poor babies by that age, have even gotten to the point where they can no longer “eat until they are sleepy, they sleep until they are again hungry”), ditto for the Fire Chiefs. So in the past three years, we have had two FC’s retire in succession. And as if $181k per year isn’t enough, when they gross up their pensions with all their accrued, but untaken vacation, these MFers go out at $100k per year more than they were earning when the “worked.” I have done some rudimentary calculations and these two worthless turds, if they and their spouses live to be 80 (which is a good bet since we will also be paying for their gold-plated healthcare benes), will end up taking home about $10 million each!
And the average FF, who makes at least $100k per year, can expect to at least double that figure with the “overtime scam” they pull. You know: “I call in sick so I can work at my private business for a day, and you get paid OT to cover my shift, then I do the same in return for you!” And the taxpayer picks up the tab while both FF’s make even more money working in their own businesses, Weed abatement is a big second job, and since the Fire District “manages” weed abatement, you know who gets the business.
This is true in Illinois as well. When the unions strike a deal that involves pensions. Usually its trading pay for pensions, it almost always ends up being retroactive to someone. This should be considered fraud but its not. For instance, a government union employee works 25 years expecting a 50% pension, forgoes a few years of pay increases and instead gets a 55% pension for the rest of her life. A few years later they bargain to get the retro pay increases.
They do this to stop the unions from striking and to balance the budget for the time the politicians are in office. Pensions are someone elses problem. Because they go into affect later even if they are retro. A politician sound like they are bargaining well when you hear about a pay freeze. And nobody notices the pensions just got a lot more expensive.
Wisconsin is the only state that has this right. Unions can bargain for pay. But not for pensions. Wisconsin is the only state in the union with a pension surplus.
Sounds like a policy to live by for everyone. Thanks for sharing.
Another thing to watch when it comes to pensions. Many governments need inflation to cover pensions. But when interest rates go up, public debt goes up too. Governments could collect more taxes when the price of things go up and the wages go up. But now there is no inflation so pension funds are having a hard time investing in a way that safely creates an income to pay pensions. They need inflation. But that only works when the state does not have a huge debt. Now you can float bonds and pay only a few percent. But this year the bonds just became a percent more expensive. If in a year or two we get that inflation the price of debt could double.
Our governments are hoping for GRP growth with inflation and low interest rates. Something that has never happened for more than a year or two in the late nineties.
Well they voted for it, let them enjoy being liberal and pay for their values.
"Fooled"??? - These are the same people that vote for SanFran Nan. Fooling them is less than child's play.
I guess they missed this bit on the Washington DMV web site -
Things to know
•First, you must get your Washington (WA) driver license, then register your vehicle(s). You have 30 days to do this after you’ve moved here.
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