Posted on 11/04/2010 8:21:03 AM PDT by SmithL
Some things to ponder now that Jerry Brown is governor-elect:
• On Monday, Local 1000 of Service Employees International Union will start counting ratification ballots for a new contract for 95,000 state workers.
The deal, already ratified by the Legislature, is laced with concessions in pay, benefits and pensions that are sweetened with a few protections and deferred raises. Depending on who's talking, it's the best bad deal the union could cut or complete capitulation to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Some union members held their ballots to see whether Democrat Brown or self-funded GOP candidate and self-professed state jobs chopper Meg Whitman would win on Tuesday.
Since Brown won, the holdouts are voting "no" on the deal negotiated with Schwarzenegger and hoping for a bargaining do-over with a more friendly Brown administration. Had Whitman won, they would have voted for the deal.
..."Gov. Brown is stuck with the same problems that Gov. Schwarzenegger had, especially balancing the budget,"
...So will he try to lift furloughs for the 63,000 state worker still on furloughs
..."He'd have to find other savings to do it,"
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I smell recall.
States are broke, local governments are even more broke. Many have enormous unfunded pension liabilities and out of control contracts with workers (SEIU and teachers being good examples). There is simply insufficient money to make it work.
By forcing asset prices higher (stocks), The Fed hopes to prevent the wholesale meltdown of the pension system. better to pay off in devalued dollars than not at all.
It is all a ponzi, kick the can down the road. At some point it will all come crashing down. However it ends we will all be poorer ...
schu
Yeah I have every confidence Moonbeam can pull that off.
Wait.. I know!!!
Kick out some more businesses, give free college to illegals and raise taxes!! That’ll fix it!
CA and Nevada for that matter aren’t going to make it to 2012 in any recognizable form.
Wish I could care, but I can’t.
Any conservatives in CA, move while you still can. TX, FL, or even OH and PA are going to be OK after Tuesday.
To the libs in CA and NV: You’ve made your beds. It’s time to lay in the filth you’ve created. Scumbags.
There. Fixed it.
“By forcing asset prices higher (stocks), The Fed hopes to prevent the wholesale meltdown of the pension system. better to pay off in devalued dollars than not at all.”
I agree. The extremely low interest rates on treasuries has propelled an asset bubble. The bubble is not just in stocks. Bond prices have soared although they have retracted a little in the last month or so.
Individuals living on retirement savings are in a difficult place. Rates on traditional safe investments are insulting. The asset bubble is frightening.
So the union thugs in California and Nevada believe that "tax and spend" Democrats will continue to bring in the bacon. I guess that the union folks and Democrats both have little understanding of basic Economics 101, supply and demand.
I suppose that the Dems can get money by raising taxes, from other states, the Federal government, and other countries to bail them out over and over again. Good luck to them and all those with disordered minds!
When Prop 13 is jettisoned, liberal property owners can KMA.
I don’t want to hear your whining!
It certainly has me concerned. With all the sharpies pushing gold, I can see no real safety there. In fact, I do not trust any of the “money” guys at the moment. I am sorely tempted to invest in real estate if the prices are about 1.5 times their 1995 level, i.e., a 3% p.a. increase since the last real estate asset bubble.
“To accomplish that balancing act, Brown will have to convince state workers that he can tell them “no” and still be their champ.”
LOL! Jerry is OWNED by the state employee unions he created.
Exactly. So we are in effect transferring wealth from the retirees by paying them a pittance on their savings and further devaluing their assets thru inflation to the speculators who borrow at extremely low Fed fund rates and invest in stocks and bonds.
And who is structured to leverage up and buy stocks on margin? The money center financial institutions of course.
Bernanke is a mad man, he continues to lead us on a path to ruin. They are soooo fearful of deflation that they act irrationally. My favorite quote from Von Mises:
There is no means of avoiding a final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.
An independent banker with no accountability to anyone really (especially so since Bam is no where to be found) is making decisions for us all. It is total insanity.
schu
As someone who has never lived in CA (and only visited occasionally years ago), I am not familiar with Prop 13. Can you explain it, please?
I knew that I’d missed a few...
The most significant portion of the act is the first paragraph, which capped the tax rate for real estate:
Section 1. (a) The maximum amount of any ad valorem tax on real property shall not exceed one percent (1%) of the full cash value of such property. The one percent (1%) tax to be collected by the counties and apportioned according to law to the districts within the counties.
More here:
http://www.wccusd.k12.ca.us/elcerrito/history/prop13.htm
Thanks! Why would he repeal it this time and not repeal it the last time he was in office?
There was an excellent discussion about this issue a month or so ago by Freepers.
Proposition 13 is a major factor driving the escalating price of California real estate.
This is an unintended consequence.
It works like this:
If you hold your property you keep the benefits of low property taxes. If you sell it and move somewhere else your new property is reassessed and you are clobbered.
As a result there is a huge economic incentive for Californians who want to move within the state to stay where they are and keep their home off the market.
Therefore as long as there is any significant net in-migration of potential homebuyers (or renters who move to buying—i.e. younger Californians) then the demand for housing will greatly exceed the supply. The result is wildly escalating housing prices.
There are other factors as well (environmentalist regulations preventing and related zoning restrictions preventing new units) but this is a major impact.
So, if proposition 13 is repealed the impact on California property values will be devastating. Combine that with the current unemployment situation and we could be talking major real estate meltdown here.
This is high stakes politics. I wonder if all the players understand the consequences.
21 posted on Saturday, February 01, 2003 4:27:21 PM by cgbg
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He fought hard until it passed. IIRC, he tried to take credit for it then.
Thanks for the info. It makes things a little more clear for those of us outside looking in.
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