Tag "David Crane"
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CalSTRS at risk of disaster despite 2014 bailout
Four years after the state Legislature passed a bailout of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System that will nearly double annual direct contributions to the giant pension fund, a newly released internal report raises the prospect that the infusion of
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AB 32 revenue: Some for bullet train, some for pork, none for poor
Before and after AB 32’s passage in 2006, a whole lot of promises and guarantees were made. Some are remembered. Many aren’t. One of those was the pledge to use a portion of cap-and-trade funds to directly help poor people
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San Bernardino bankruptcy shows pensions crowding out services
In his novel “The Sun Also Rises,” California novelist Ernest Hemingway wrote, “How do you go bankrupt? Two ways: Gradually, then suddenly.” Case in point: the City of San Bernardino, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The pace of municipal bankruptcy
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Why is CalSTRS’ version of corporate skulduggery tolerated?
Beginning in the late 1990s and for about a decade afterward, corporate accounting scandals unfolded one after the other. Bipartisan outrage over CEOs and CFOs cooking the books gave way to mostly Democratic initiatives to impose much more sweeping rules
Read MoreNo, the recession is not to blame for the pension crisis
July 5, 2013 By Chris Reed Perhaps the single smartest guy in the Schwarzenegger administration, David Crane, continues to be a wrecking ball when it comes to the arguments offered by apologists for California’s ruinous state finances. In his latest
Read MoreDavid Crane’s budget ideas spark debate
Commentary May 22, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi David Crane has come up with a tax reform proposal, “Jerry Brown’s Last Chance to Save California.” A Democrat, he was an economic adviser to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, especially on pensions. Crane wants to
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As we predicted, pensions eating up Prop. 30 education funds
April 30, 2013 By John Seiler As Bill Clinton might put it, it’s in the math. In the lead up to the November 6 election last fall, CalWatchdog.com ran several articles on Proposition 30 and pensions. We warned that the $7
Read MorePension reform puts teacher take-home pay in cross hairs
Dec. 19, 2012 By Chris Reed The conventional wisdom about the 400,000 members of the California Teachers Association and the 120,000 members of the California Federation of Teachers is difficult to dispute: Their unions dominate Sacramento in a way no other
Read MoreCalPERS reveals its true colors
Steven Greenhut: When the California Public Employees’ Retirement System — the nation’s largest retirement system, albeit one plagued by scandal — was pushing for massive retroactive pension increases for California government employees in 1999, the system released a report that,
Read MoreThey just don’t get it…
May 16, 2012 By John Seiler “Humankind cannot bear very much reality,” said T.S. Eliot. Nowdays, of course, American university professors brand him a “sexist” because he didn’t say “peoplekind.” “Human” implies “man,” which excludes “woman,” and so is sexist.
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