May 20, 2013 By Katy Grimes During his press briefing last week while discussing the state’s lack of budgeting flexibility, Gov. Jerry Brown said, "Anyone who thinks there's spare change around here, they haven’t read the budget." Brown released his May Budget Revision l...
Pension ReformNo spare change under the domeMonday, May 20th, 2013Yes, govt. pensions can be completely canceledWednesday, May 15th, 2013May 15, 2013 By John Seiler We're constantly told that California governments have a "constitutional obligation" to pay for the pensions of public-sector employees. Except when there's no money left. If a city, county or even the state goes absolutely flat broke, then nothing will be paid. ... LAT’s Steve Lopez: Pension crisis real — not unions’ fault. Huh?Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 April 24, 2013 By Chris Reed The unsustainability of the public employee pension system in California has been obvious for at least six or seven years to anyone who understood two simple facts: the demographics of our aging government workforce and the irrationality of CalPERS' argument in 199... SEC charges Chicago-based investment adviser with defrauding CalPERSThursday, April 18th, 2013April 18, 2013 By Josephine Djuhana The SEC released a statement today, charging Chicago-based investment advisory firm Simran Capital Management with lying to CalPERS regarding the amount of money managed by the firm. The president and sole owner of the firm, Umesh Tandon, is alleged to have ... Bankruptcy judge rejects CalPERS’ claim to protected statusWednesday, April 3rd, 2013 April 3, 2013 By Chris Reed As John Seiler pointed out here Tuesday, Monday's court ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein isn't seen as definitive. Yes, the city of Stockton can proceed with its bankruptcy filing. No, Klein doesn't yet agree with the city's plan to only short bond... Steve Maviglio, pension sage: Why it’s a laughable spectacleTuesday, April 2nd, 2013 April 2, 2013 By Chris Reed Steve Maviglio, a leading consigliere to top Sacramento Democrats for more than a decade, now regularly pretends to a new role. Even though he's on Speaker John Perez's payroll, Maviglio offers himself up on Twitter in the quasi-journalistic role of reasoned, reas... Reuters bests state media at covering San Bernardino’s collapseMonday, April 1st, 2013 April 1, 2013 By Chris Reed If you had to fashion a nut graph to explain why so many local California governments are in deep fiscal trouble, here's my nominee for an honest generic overview: Over the past 20 years, the city/county/district's political leaders have often acceded to union de... Why CA is so screwed up, in a nutshellSunday, March 31st, 2013March 31, 2013 By Chris Reed So CalPERS' actuary, in a fit of unusual honesty, says the pension giant's finances are in bad shape in the long run and need to be firmed up. But Alan Milligan realizes that asking his labor-dominated board of directors to have public employees pay more toward pen... Stockton bankruptcy judge’s pedigree, history offer hopeWednesday, March 27th, 2013 March 27, 2013 By Chris Reed The stakes are immense in the four-day trial in Sacramento's federal bankruptcy court this week. The New York Times frames the issue well: "Wall Street is taking America’s biggest pension fund to court this week, for a long-awaited battle over who takes the loss... |