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The San Jose City Council voted Tuesday to move forward with an analysis of a proposal from Mayor Chuck Reed to rein in retirement costs, amid vehement opposition from city employees and state representatives.
At the same time, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee Tuesday announced a measure for the November ballot that proposes widespread reform to city workers’ pensions and health benefits.
The San Jose council voted 8-3 to move forward with a study of Mayor Reed’s proposal, which was also supported by Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen, Councilman Sam Liccardo and Councilwoman Rose Herrera. The dissenters were Councilmen Xavier Campos, Kansen Chu and Ash Kalra, who said he supports pension reform as long as it is legal.
“We’re putting forward a proposal that will end in a real fiscal disaster,” they said.
Reed announced the proposal last week, saying that it would help the city avoid further cuts to services and the loss of hundreds of jobs.
Reed has said retirement costs are “skyrocketing” and contributing to the city’s $115 million budget deficit, which will likely force the city to lay off hundreds of workers, including 195 sworn police positions and 64 firefighter positions as well as reduce library service to three days a week.
Retirement costs are projected to rise to $400 million by 2016, and could be closer to $650 million after actuarial adjustments.
“We have to act now,” Reed said at the council meeting Tuesday. “The cost of not acting will be a thousand times worse.”
Among the nearly 70 people who addressed the council directly to voice their concerns was Wisconsin state Sen. Spencer Coggs, one of 14 Democratic senators who left the state to protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to end collective bargaining for workers.
Reed said his proposal is not the only solution to the fiscal problem and that the council is open to working with employees to find alternative solutions.
The proposal directs city staff to meet with unions and begin exploring changes to the charter by June 21. On that date, the council is expected to adopt the final budget.
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In San Francisco, Mayor Lee said his proposal for a proposed charter amendment — the result of months of negotiations between city officials and labor and business leaders — would cap pension benefits and raise retirement ages for city workers, and require them to contribute more to their retirement and health plans.
Lee said the proposal would save the city between $800 million and $1 billion over the next decade. San Francisco’s pension costs are set to increase by more than $125 million in the next fiscal year, and by more than $100 million in each of the next three years, according to the mayor’s office.
Lee said “we needed to fix our financial house in the city,” and called the measure “a consensus, comprehensive plan that we believe will fix this problem for the long-term.”
Among the details of the proposal are the raising of the retirement age from 62 to 65 for most city employees and from 55 to 58 for police and firefighters.
The plan would create additional cost sharing of up to 6 percent for future and current city employees, and all elected officials would be required to begin paying into their retirement plans.
Lee stressed that the proposal was developed with the input of labor unions and the business community.
“We’re proud to say that in working on this, we were making sure we talked to everybody and allowed every voice to be heard,” he said.
The measure will be discussed by the rules committee next week before being considered by the full board, which could vote to place it on the November ballot.
The proposal appears to have the support of a majority of the 11 supervisors, nine of whom were at Tuesday morning’s news conference at City Hall.
Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who has been one of the board’s strongest backers of pension reform, said, “This is real reform … that every San Franciscan can be proud to support come November.”
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Budget concerns were also the focus Tuesday at the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meeting where County Administrator Veronica Ferguson said the county may have to eliminate 223 positions and lay off 63 employees to help balance its 2011-2012 budget.
Ferguson estimated in January that 300-500 positions might be eliminated — 300 to help close a $44 million deficit in its $377 million general fund budget and 200 more because of potential state budget actions.
The county currently has around 3,800 employees.
County departments were asked in January to identify 25 percent savings in their budgets.
The criminal justice portion of the budget, which includes the sheriff’s, district attorney’s, public defender’s and probation offices, would lose 115 positions. Administrative and fiscal service sectors of the budget would lose 54 positions.
The latest figures are preliminary, however, and the county will not know until mid-September how many positions and actual jobs will be lost until the state legislature adjourns after presumably passing the state budget, Ferguson said.
“This is the worst budget I’ve ever seen. We have to be as conservative as possible,” said Supervisor Valerie Brown, a board member since 2002.
This year, 135 county employees are expected to participate in a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program, Ferguson said. Each employee will receive $20,000 to end their employment with the county.
The payouts will cost $2.7 million but are expected to save $15.6 million in annual, ongoing salary and benefit costs, Ferguson said. Updated figures will be known in July, she said.
The county has received 15 cost-saving ideas from its employees. They include purchasing efficiencies, reducing some retirement benefits, combining smaller departments into larger departments with similar programs, and establishing a county-wide hiring freeze in lieu of layoffs.
Some of the ideas need the approval of employee unions.
The county will release its $1.1 billion total budget on June 1 and hold hearings June 13-24.
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Here’s a round-up of other Tuesday news reports from around the Bay provided by the Bay City News bureau.
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Drunken driving charges will not be filed against San Carlos Vice Mayor Andy Klein, according to the district attorney’s office.
Results from a blood alcohol test taken by California Highway Patrol officers in the early morning hours of May 12 showed that Klein’s blood alcohol level was 0.07 percent, just below the legal level of 0.08 percent, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
The test results combined with an absence of any driving infractions left a lack of evidence to pursue any criminal charges, Wagstaffe said.
The CHP was notified of the district attorney’s decision.
Klein had pulled over to the shoulder of an Edgewood Road off-ramp from Interstate Highway 280 to make a phone call when he was approached by San Mateo County Sheriff deputies at about 12:30 a.m.
The deputies smelled alcohol in Klein’s car and called the CHP to administer a Breathalyzer test, according to CHP Officer Art Montiel. Klein’s blood alcohol level was measured at the legal limit, 0.08 percent, and he was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
Klein, who has been acting-Mayor of San Carlos since former Mayor Omar Ahmad died of a heart attack two weeks ago, publicly apologized for the arrest at a San Carlos City Council meeting Monday night.
Klein withdrew his name from consideration for mayor and said he hoped the incident had not brought any embarrassment to the city of San Carlos.
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The family of hospitalized San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow has filed a lawsuit against a Los Angeles baseball team and its affiliates, as stated in a suit filed Tuesday Los Angeles Superior Court.
The suit — against the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, owner Frank McCourt and others — is on behalf of Bryan Stow and his two minor children, Tyler and Tabitha Stow, according to the suit prepared by the family’s Los Angeles attorney Thomas Girardi.
The Stow family suit claims damages for various counts including negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and assault and battery after a March 31 attack in the Dodger’s parking lot after a Dodgers-Giants game.
Other complaints of damage include loss of future services, earnings and protections for Stow’s two children, according to the suit.
Included in the suit is a mention of a donation from former San Francisco Giants baseball player Barry Bonds.
The suit follows Sunday’s arrest of Los Angeles suspect Giovanni Ramirez, 31. Ramirez was taken into custody from the 800 block of Mariposa Avenue in East Hollywood, according to police.
Ramirez was booked on $1 million bail and faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
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Additional search and rescue personnel were brought into the search for a 15-year-old Danville girl whose bike was found Tuesday morning near the Golden Gate Bridge, a National Park Service spokesman said.
The Marin County sheriff’s department is adding to the multi-agency intensive search for Danville resident Allison “Alliy” Bayliss, 15, who was last seen on Monday at 8 a.m. on her bike in front on San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, National Park Service spokesman Howard Levitt said.
After discussions with Allison’s family, Danville Police Chief Steve Simpkins said Allison is considered at-risk and that the case is “absolutely not criminal, it’s a personal matter.”
About 100 volunteers arrived at the Presidio in San Francisco between Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon after Allison’s parents called authorities when they found her bike parked in the Battery East parking lot near the Golden Gate Bridge’s San Francisco side, Levitt said.
Simpkins said the Danville volunteer support in Allison’s search has been awe-inspiring.
“The community of Danville is acting as if it’s their own family member,” Simpkins said.
Searchers are covering shorelines and nearby waters, and some volunteers are planning to expand the search deeper into San Francisco, away from the coast, Levitt said.
Authorities and family members are waiting in Danville should Allison return home at any point, Simpkins added.
A vigil is planned for Allison at 7 p.m. today at the Danville Congregational Church at 989 San Ramon Valley Blvd. in Danville, church office manager Lynda Manstrom said.
Some of the congregation’s youth group members are friends with Allison and are concerned about her, Manstrom said.
Allison is described as a white girl with blond hair who is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. She was last seen wearing a red zippered hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.
Levitt said anyone with tips or information should call the Danville police department at (925) 646-2441.
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Firefighters from across the East Bay responded to a four-alarm fire at an apartment building in San Leandro Tuesday afternoon that burned for almost an hour, an Alameda County fire spokeswoman said.
The blaze was reported just after 3 p.m. at 724 Lewelling Blvd., near Hesperian Boulevard. Alameda County fire spokeswoman Aisha Knowles said the fire burned at a four-story building that is part of Chateau Manor.
Firefighters from the Oakland, Hayward, Piedmont, Fremont and Alameda fire departments assisted in the response and extinguished the blaze shortly before 4 p.m.
Knowles said the fire appeared to have started on the building’s lower floors and climbed to the third and fourth floors. Four apartments sustained fire damage and several others were damaged by smoke.
As of 4:30 p.m., firefighters remained at the scene and the fire’s cause remained under investigation.
Firefighters assisted two people in exiting the building, Knowles said, including one person who suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene but declined medical transport.
A total of 12 engines, four fire trucks and one heavy rescue unit responded, Knowles said.
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Officials at the Chevron refinery in Richmond submitted an application to the city Monday to restart construction on a project to upgrade the refinery.
The project, which now includes building a new, more efficient hydrogen plant and equipment improvements that will allow the refinery to process crude oil with a higher sulfur content, was initially approved by a 5-4 vote by the Richmond City Council in 2008.
Shortly after the company broke ground in 2009, a coalition of environmental groups represented by the law firm Earthjustice sued Chevron and the city to stop the project.
They argued, among other things, that the project would enable the refinery to process heavier crude oil that would result in increased pollution, an impact they said Chevron had failed to disclose in the project’s environmental report.
In July 2009, a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge sided with the environmental groups and ordered Chevron to halt construction on the half-finished project.
That decision was later upheld in the state Court of Appeal.
In the company’s application to restart the project, known as the Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project, Chevron officials said the new “environmental review will confirm that the project will not change the refinery’s capability to process light-intermediate crudes and will eliminate any confusion created by project opponents about the refinery’s ability to process heavy crude oil.”
Chevron officials said the project will also improve the energy efficiency and reliability of the plant while reducing overall emissions.
Greg Karras, a senior scientist with Communities for a Better Environment, one of the groups that led the lawsuit, said Tuesday that community members had been celebrating the oil giant’s decision to submit the application to restart the project because it means they have decided to fully disclose and mitigate the impacts of the project.
“What it means is the final stage of a great victory for the community,” Karras said.
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The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning voted to implement a new area code via an overlay method, in which residents signing up for new service will be assigned a 669 area code but existing phone numbers will stay the same.
The board voted 4-1 in favor of the change, with Supervisor Liz Kniss dissenting. Kniss called the overlay method “a lousy idea.”
“I don’t think it’s very sensible,” Kniss said.
The change will not require any businesses or individuals in the county to change their existing number from the 408 area code.
Santa Clara County Chief Operating Officer Gary Graves said it is the method preferred by most affected parties over the other option, a geographic split.
Supervisor Ken Yeager said the overlay method is the better of two bad options.
“The problem is, neither choice is good and it’s going to cause disruption whichever way we go,” Yeager said.
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Three teenage boys were arrested Monday morning in connection with an attack on a San Francisco Municipal Railway bus driver during a skirmish over transfer slips, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
The attack happened after the teens boarded a 30-Stockton bus at Clay and Stockton streets at about 6:15 a.m. Monday and asked for transfer slips even though they did not pay, police said.
The driver told the teens they could not have the slips without paying, so they exited the rear door of the bus at Columbus Avenue and Union Street, but then got back on the bus through the front door at the same stop, according to police.
The teens tried to pull the transfer slips away from the driver, who pulled them back. At that point, one of the teens struck the driver in the head with a skateboard, and all three then fled without the transfers, police said.
The bus driver complained of pain and was taken to St. Francis Memorial Hospital, police Officer Albie Esparza said Tuesday.
Officers responding to the attack found the juveniles a short time later at Powell and Francisco streets. All three were positively identified and arrested, police said.
The boy who allegedly wielded the skateboard, a 15-year-old from San Leandro, was booked at juvenile hall on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, attempted robbery, and conspiracy.
A second teen, a 16-year-old San Francisco resident, was booked on suspicion of attempted robbery and conspiracy, and the third, a 16-year-old from San Mateo, was booked on an outstanding warrant, police said.
The names of the teens are not being released because they are juveniles.
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Firefighters tackled a two-alarm fire in San Jose Tuesday night that destroyed a Capewood home — causing $500,000 in damage — and threatened at least one other home, a fire captain said.
The fire department received a report of a home on fire on Junewood Avenue at Capewood Lane at 5:13 p.m., Capt. Rob Brown said. The first crews arrived within three minutes and found the home with its front fully engulfed by flames.
An adjacent house was threatened due to windy conditions at the time, Brown said.
“The house that was on fire was a total loss — a lot of interior damage and roof damage. The front of the living room was mostly burned off,” he said.
One resident sustained injuries but refused transport to a hospital. Brown said that the man will be staying with family and friends because the home is uninhabitable.
The fire caused approximately $500,000 in damage to the structure and its contents, Brown said.
About 40 firefighters responded to the blaze, which took about 80 minutes to control. Brown said the fire was under control by 6:35 p.m.
Although the cause of the fire remains under investigation, a preliminary investigation suggests that it was electrical in nature and was sparked in the living room, Brown said.
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Two unrelated robberies were reported a block away from each other and within five minutes of each other early Tuesday morning in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, police said.
The first robbery was reported at about 4:25 a.m. at Golden Gate Avenue and Polk Street.
A 70-year-old man was approached from behind by a suspect who demanded his bag. The victim refused, and a second suspect pointed a gun at him and he eventually gave up the bag, along with his cell phone and wallet, according to police.
The two suspects fled with a third suspect, and they had not been found as of Tuesday morning.
They are described only as black men in their 20s.
About five minutes later, another robbery was reported a block away at Golden Gate Avenue and Larkin Street.
A 37-year-old man was approached by four suspects who punched him and demanded money. One of the suspects held the man at gunpoint, and he gave them his cash, police said.
The suspects, described only as one black man and three Hispanic men in their 20s, fled and had not been found as of Tuesday morning.
Police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza said the robberies were not related despite their proximity.
Anyone with information about the robberies is encouraged to call the Police Department’s anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or send a tip by text message to TIP411.
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Rain is likely in the Bay Area today, with highs in the 50s to mid 60s and southwest winds of 10 to 20 mph.
Tonight is expected to be partly cloudy, with a slight chance of showers in the evening and lows around 50.
Thursday is expected to be mostly cloudy in the morning, becoming partly cloudy, with highs in the 50s to upper 60s.
Patricia Decker, Bay City News
Patricia Decker, Bay City News
It’s nice to see the Pleasanton Weekly continue their reporting (in this case a report about about a report) about the serious nature of unfunded pensions (unfunded healthcare liabilities are also a serious issue).
Unfunded pension liabilities are a serious taxpayer burden that increase employee cost beyond the control of the city, are leading to reductions in services, and are driving the need for tax extensions and parcel taxes. Of course, wage escalation is also a significant factor and the increased compensation increases the pension obligations. These issues are just beginning to effect education, and it will get worse.
As a community (and as a state), I think we have to ask ourselves if it’s reasonable or prudent to provide pensions of more than 60% of ones salary. If you consider that experts argue you need 65-75% of your employment income during retirement, to maintain your standard of living, and we are paying the employee medical benefits, then you need to ask why are taxpayers spending their retirement dollars to fund employees that can retire with pensions that pay 80-90-100% of their employment wages (yes, it is happening)? Is allowing people to retire at 50, or 55, something that taxpayers can really afford? If taxpayers can’t collect SS until 62, 65, or 67 should we be paying the additional cost to allow public employees to retire at 50, or 55, with three to six times the level of benefit (and Cadillac healthcare benefits at the same age)?
The pension system is out of control. The unfunded pension & healthcare liabilities are strangling state, county, and city budgets. Pleasanton is fortunate to have more per capita tax revenue than most cities so the revenue has papered over the severity of the taxpayer burden to some extent, but how long can that last? No other state in this country pays/provides the level of compensation and pension payouts that taxpayers pay California public employees, even when cost of living is factored in. It isn’t even close.
Most cities have already begun cutting youth and senior programs, as well as infrastructure improvements and pot hole/road repair.
Several experts have referred to the pension crisis as a train wreck in slow motion. The train is gaining speed! It’s time we get serious about this issue. It hasn’t happened yet. For those interested in learning more about pensions and how these costs will effect our lives, and the lives of our children, this is a good place to start: pensiontsunami.com
Arnold warns about unfunded liabilities of public worker wages salaries and pensions and how they are unsustainable and need to be reined in by accountable and responsible politicians. Problem is the politicians don’t have the guts. We need to eliminate Medicare and empower old people who like everyone are suffering tax exhaustion. We need to cut the youth and senior programs like others have done. No more Social Security benefits until you have worked at least 30-35 years in the private sector. No Social Security to public employees because they’ve already bled the system dry and have left us sucking on exhaust fumes in exhaustion. I drive a BMW but I’ve worked hard and its a pitiful sight seeing teachers driving themselves in Cadillacs while the whole tax system is overburdened with unfunded liabilities. Above all we need to roll back or eliminate all the unfunded laws that give protective cawdelling to the entitlement groups that keep the public employees in business. Because the entitlement crowd is draining the system dry, they have no cause to complain about the lazy and incompetent public employees. And the pubic employees don’t complain about the entitlement groups because where would there jobs be without them. And let’s not leave out the corrupt and unaccountable politicians out of the mix. Who puts them in office??? Take away the entitlements and the unsustainable school teachers and they don’t have a vote to stand on. Its a vicious cycle that promotes lethargy of the bright and talented who are encouraged to just sit around and suck the teat of corporate wealth. Change is coming. We need to stop the tsunami in its tracks. Start sand bagging everyone! If you are a young person and has a loved one on social disability or Medicare, do them a favor and take them off. It will help to relieve our tax exhaustion and make a better person of them.
To: tsunami warning (or any of your 1000 aliases)
What would your Alter-Ego, Psychologist, have to say about your latest attempt at deflection & avoidance? Seems like a lot of effort and keystrokes to say nothing – while making a fool of yourself – while saying nothing.
Are you aware that the pension contributions Pleasanton is required to pay CalPERS would be significantly higher if CalPERS weren’t playing with the funding formulas/payment terms?
Pension reform is only sitting at the tip of the tsunamic iceberg. We’re the titanic and like a runaway train we’re plunging into the cold waters of tax overburdened hell. Many experts tell us that most of the entitlement programs are socialistic. That’s reason enough to do away with them. Did anyone see the socialistic vote in Congress today? 55 Senators, including 5 Rinos, want to keep Medicare. Cowards. They don’t care about responsibility and accountability. That’s what is wrong with this country today. We’re awash in the tsunami of unfunded liabilities with tax revenues that are unfair and used to unsustainably support the nonworking entitlements (once called minorities but that is SO politically incorrect) and public employees who are working but not working. For example teachers in their Cadillacs. It all amounts to a staggering debt burden that leaves us exhausted and ready to be taken over by all the Chinese.
What? Arnold you are not a very nice man. There are many ways to say nothing. Instead of calling me names why don’t you see that we’re both riding the same train to overburdened tax oblivion. Are you saying you disagree with my point? Without the cawdelled entitlement groups and the public employees US taxpayers pay to keep them dependant where would the politicians be? What do you disagree with? We’re both fighting the biggest crisis to hit this country in its history. The taxes we pay have us sinking like a stone. I apologize if I’ve offended you.
@ Arnold,
A bit of what you’re saying is already old hat. There are more pressing issues facing us than pension benefits for the overpaid and underworked teachers. We all know this. But now the tsunami – to use your word – has brought in bigger fish to fry. That’s what I think Blossom and ts are getting at. They seem a bit more radical than you, but we’re all on the same page here. None of us wants to be paying taxes that aren’t deserved. No taxation without representation! We’re expected to contribute to the ranks of the irresponsibly unemployed and the greedy public employees but we don’t have any representation and frankly we don’t want it. It shouldn’t be. Same with Medicare. I don’t want it and I doubt if you do too. I voted for Obama because I thought he’d do something about health care like cut unaccountable VA hospital staffs and their unsustainable salaries. But he turned into a Marxist which shouldn’t have surprised anyone given his beer drinking days with Mark Ayers and Jeremy Wright. Now its time for the chickens to come home to roost and its important that we all stick together on these matters. We all belong to the same liferaft and brother we’re all going to need it with the coming tsunami.
Regards,
Maybe we should just let it collapse and start from scratch? I think we might be beyond repair. Maybe we are to large and diverse to be one state.
tsunami warning, I apologize. I don’t agree with cutting funding to seniors or youth programs, although efficiency is needed. And I certainly don’t agree with cutting those programs to support exorbinant benefit packages of public employees (pension/healthcare).
Sorry about that response.
Boner, Have you been hearing about Rick Perry? He wants Texas to leave the Union. If he becomes President maybe he’d let California do something like that and then we could do a Constitution Convention all over again.
We need to cut medicare by insisting seniors can only get back what they put into the system. The same with social security. The seniors are taking too much and the young are going to get nothing. I’d rather put my social security tax into a 401. At I would get something. These seniors that put 10 dollars in taxes are getting back 100 dollars in benefits.
They are even bigger freeloaders than the city worker freeloaders. Enough is enough.
Ted,
I guess my only point in all of this is that maybe the best way to fix this mess is to let it collapse and start over keeping only the value added activities and all the other social welfare programs need to just go by the wayside. My understanding is that the only way out of these union contracts is for the unions to renegotiate (which they will never do) or for us to default after which everything must be renegotiated from scratch.
That’s okay Arnold. I guess every body is a llittle grumpy after the recent drubbing in NY. (Blame the lamestream media and the lying Democrats for that.) But I accept your apology. Now go to the front of the room and write I Love Socialism 100 times before YAT releases you! (Just kidding :’).
I didn’t mean to say I wanted to cut youth and seniors programs like totally. I’m with you all the way. Only like when you say they “support exorbinant benefit packages of public employees (pension/healthcare).” The problem is is that they are all exorbinant. And the only way to get rid of the exorbinance is to cut, cut, cut until it hurts because otherwise everything is unsustainable and then we’re all left with overburdened tax fatique.
Boner,
I hear you. I think that’s what Rick Perry wants to do. BTW, I’ve never seen a government value-added activity have you? They’re all underfunded and protected by laws that stipulate no accountability. The entitlement groups live high off the hog and we’re left with the slop.
Ted,
The only value added activity I have seen out of the government is the military, other than that nothing at all just a lot of waste of money and peoples lives.
I saw value from George Bush military, but not Obama military. Can’t shoot straigt to save there life. Just like Jimmy Carter’s “rescue mission”. Now the government is good for nothing as long as Hussein Obama is president.
Boner,
I agree entirely about value-added activities being necessary, which means we need to eliminate wasteful programs like medicare and social security if we are to swim out of the huge flood of debt that is cascading over us.
My question is why do you think the military has managed to escape the wave? Why is the military so value-added while programs like Medicare and Medicaid are so value-subtracted? Is it possible for other of the current unsustainable programs to become more like the military? Why is a Marine Colonel so competent and a county susperviser so incompetent? Why does the Colonel earn a lesser pension than a mediocre teacher?
Or is it impossible? Do we just have to disband everything and start from scratch?
Ted/Amos,
Based on our successes globally I think the military has done a fine job and the men and women of the military for the most part risk everything for us. I do however believe that much cutting could be done to reduce defense spending as well. Consider for a moment how many military bases we have all of the world defending other countries and cost associated with those bases. We always add bases but very rarely close anything.
In terms of medicare and social security reform, before we do anything I would like to see tort reform. I believe if you drove down the top awards attorneys can get you would see the price of healthcare drop significantly. Just talk to you doctor and you will be blown away with how much of their cost is associated with malpractice insurance. After doing this we can see the “real” cost of the programs and develop plans accordingly.
The level of corruption in our elected officials is amazing, and I mean all parties, the reason we do not have tort reform is that they are the single largest contributors to the current administration. I am guessing, but if you looked up the background of most of our elected officials most of them were attorneys or had law degrees prior to being elected.
We’re all swimming against the tide of debt that is swelling each and every day and threatens to wash over us in a huge tsunami of unsustainable and unfunded liabilities. Its our children who are going to suffer most. I think of how Medicare has been like a giant necklace of stones that pull us down below the constantly rising waterline of debt, debt, debt and we get more and more tired because of the exorbinance of irresponsible and unaccountable public employees like the BART drivers and teachers who sit perched on top of the class with there inflatable pension life preservers just laughing at the mountainous tide of water that is crushing the ordinary taxpayer. The only logical course is to away with all entitlements. Start with Medicare which is the worst and then move on to Medicaid and Social Security. We’ll immediately see the flood levels begin to drop and businesses will ship in recruiter crews to create jobs.
“We need to cut medicare by insisting seniors can only get back what they put into the system. The same with social security. The seniors are taking too much and the young are going to get nothing. I’d rather put my social security tax into a 401. At I would get something. These seniors that put 10 dollars in taxes are getting back 100 dollars in benefits.”
I like this idea: for seniors to take out only what they put in. Because right now, the democrats and republicans are afraid to even discuss reform.
No one is saying seniors do not have the right to collect what they put in, but that is it, not a dime more.
Same for pensions: collect only what you put in.
If we do this, the rest of us can see less taxes and we can save more for retirement, put more money in our 401Ks
@ Mike and Resident
I support your proposal to “cut medicare by insisting seniors can only get back what they put into the system. The same with social security. The seniors are taking too much and the young are going to get nothing. I’d rather put my social security tax into a 401. At I would get something. These seniors that put 10 dollars in taxes are getting back 100 dollars in benefits.”
It is a travesty of accountability that seniors can expect to take out more then they put in.
The problem is that members of irresponsibly lazy entitlement groups won’t save because they won’t work and want the nanny state – me and you – to protect them. They won’t put any money in, but then they’ll get old and sick and expect to be taken care of. They get rare deseases — who are they kidding? — and then demand intrincate surguries. The whole scam is unustainable.
Thats why we’ll need to show some tough love. There’s a new consumer product on the market called a Justice Shed for whiney seniors and snickerdoodle kids. It’s sort of like a dog house but bigger. Instead of putting your rambuncteous kid into a unfunded state nanny center, just put them in the Justice Shed. Same with your obnoxious elders. They start complaining about ailments and wanting expensive tax-burdening hospital care just throw them into the Justice Shed. The sheds start at $300 dollars but it is a great investment. It brings responsibility and accountability back to families and helps to relieve the enormous flood of debt that is crushing all of us like a big wave.
Face it. We’re broke. Here it comes!
Gwyneth,
Do the Justice Sheds come with inflatable pontoons? I’d be willing to spend a bit more for the extra security if they did.
More cutting of middle-class pay and benefits, so that we can sustain the unfunded tax cuts for the wealthiest. A pathetic state of affairs.
It’ll be interesting to watch the recall efforts against the politicians in other states who are taking this tact. So far, it isn’t looking too good for them.
Huh? b should try using her own words instead of liberal union talking points.
b-,
I tried for hours to come up with an intellectual comeback to your lame remarks. Then I realized I couldn’t because there’s nothing intellectual in your remakrs. Just more union propaganda grist for the miller.
Hopefully Pleasanton management and the city council will handle the Police and Fire negotiations better than the previous one. We are paying over 40% of the salaries of Police and Fire towards their retirement benefits. They need to pay their full share (8%) of the costs. Even that will keep the city’s payroll costs over 75% of the budget which is unsustainable. California and its cities are still hutling towards bankruptcy.