Free Republic

A member of New York Gov. David Paterson's administration said the governor is putting together a plan that would lay off thousands of government workers at the beginning of next year to help balance the state budget. The administration official confirmed a report Tuesday in The New York Times that Paterson will direct state agencies to begin picking positions that could be eliminated starting Jan. 1. That date marks the expiration of the no-layoffs pledge Paterson gave public employee unions last year in exchange for an agreement to reduce pension costs. It would also be the day Paterson leaves office....

David Cameron Declares War On Public Sector Pay David Cameron has vowed to crack down on "crazy" bonuses paid to civil servants as the new Government seeks to reduce the costs of the bloated public sector. By Rosa Prince 16 May 2010 Out of control hand-outs, which this year will be paid to three-quarters of senior civil servants, are to be restricted to high performers. Under the terms of Whitehall contracts signed by Labour ministers at the height of the recession, bonus payments can not be cancelled by the incoming Government. In future, however, windfalls across the public sector will...

Greece's largest public-sector union is taking to the streets to wage a "social battle" against austerity measures. This is very unfortunate news for austerity, since it has never fought a battle -- social or otherwise -- with the unions in Greece that it hasn't lost in a rout. Although this time the stakes are much higher -- a debt crisis with global implications that The Economist has dubbed "Acropolis Now." The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have extended Greece a $145 billion bailout over three years in exchange for a budgetary clampdown so severe it would make even...

The bridge spanning the Delaware River connects New Jersey's capital with this town where the nation's most interesting governor occasionally eats lunch at Cafe Antonio. It also connects New Jersey's government with reality. The bridge is a tutorial on a subject this government has flunked -- economics, which is mostly about incentives. At the Pennsylvania end of the bridge, cigarette shops cluster: New Jersey's per-pack tax is double Pennsylvania's. In late afternoon, Gov. Chris Christie says, the bridge is congested with New Jersey government employees heading home to Pennsylvania, where the income tax rate is 3 percent, compared to New...

To think that Greece's troubles are an ocean and a sea away from where we stand in North America is to have your head in the Mediterranean sand. In Greece we have a near bankrupt, over-indebted, overspending nanny state, drowning in future liabilities; where civil servants are pampered and overpaid; in which unions are demanding a continuation of their inflated wages and entitlements; and productive individuals and businesses are leaving for more favorable climes. Where have we heard all this before? Ah yes: California. California is our Greece, and New York is our Italy.

Ed Lasky's exploration of the symbiotic relationship between public employee unions and government overspending at the federal, state and municipal levels sparked a few further thoughts. Total federal spending as a share of gross domestic product is now the highest in American history other than during a few years during World War 2, over 25%. Of course, the recession has limited government revenues (taxes), but the huge jump in the annual deficit has come primarily from an unprecedented spending binge, that has added over 4% to the federal share of total GDP in but 15 months. About 300,000 new non-military...

Are Union members to blame for for California's budget crisis or is the Union leadership?

State workers, you're the face of California government – and for many outside of it, you're also the hired help.What really ticks off the "boss" is that their money pays your wages, but they feel powerless to dictate what you do or what you earn doing it.The complaints surface on The State Worker blog, in phone calls and e-mails. Here are a few, with numbers: • State workers make more than the "boss." California state employees' average base pay in 2008 was $63,815, according to a Bee analysis of state wage data that excluded the university systems. The median, the...

Sacramento businesses brace for furloughed workers' absence By Dale Kasler dkasler@sacbee.com Published: Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009 | Page 18A (Excerpt) Calculating the economic impact is hard, in part because of workers exempt from the furloughs. But it's likely that over 18 months, the impact will come to around $3 billion statewide and $1 billion in greater Sacramento, according to a Bee analysis of figures provided by state officials. Cuts in Calif Govmt Spending Means Huge hit for "Economy"

GRANTS PASS, Or. -- Even though the raises are in the budget, a group of Grants Pass city employees says higher salaries would be unseemly. Members of the Grants Pass Employee Association have told city officials they'll forgo 2.5 percent cost of living adjustments due with the new year. Association leaders say the members looked at the overall economy and the layoffs among major local employers and decided they didn't want their friends and neighbors to see them as grabbing money. The decision is expected to save the city at least $87,000. Assistant City Manager Laurel Samson said nearly 100...

A pension fund covering 413,000 Colorado public employees and retirees has lost $10 billion in market value through mid-October. The drop in the assets of the Public Employee's Retirement Association raises the prospect of higher contribution rates or lower benefits if the market doesn't improve quickly. Colorado PERA had been hoping ...

Michael Shires, professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine scratches the itch of why government is so expensive in California; including local county and municipal governments. Shires argues that it is just not a matter of increased taxes v. cutting services; this is how Democrats and Republicans in the California legislature paint the picture. Rather, revenue declines are only a small part of the problem. While services and their cost actually do not increase, the annual increase of secretly negotiated salary, benefits, and cost-of-living increases benefitting unionized public employees is killing budgets, savings, and family finances statewide.Shires writes: “Most public employees...

Vallejo, Calif., took the extreme step of filing for bankruptcy to get out of generous obligations to public employees. Other cities and states are watchingThe jig is up. For years, politicians have been playing what amounts to a multi-trillion-dollar shell game with state and local pensions. They've doled out lush retiree benefits to their heavily unionized workforces, knowing that they could shove the cost for those benefits onto future generations of taxpayers. But a recent financial bombshell dropped by a San Francisco suburb shows why that shell game is now starting to unravel in a nasty way. And it's a...

The fallout from The Bee's decision to post a searchable-by-name database of state worker salaries at sacbee.com continued last week, dominating reader feedback for a second time.There were, however, a few new twists that weren't apparent in the initial days after the database and the accompanying story about state salaries were published March 4.While the overall tenor of response from state workers remains critical – though the number of complaints has significantly declined – an increasing number of state employees and just plain citizens say they support the paper's decision to create the database. And it's more clear than ever...

California taxpayers forked out $10.2 billion for public employee pensions in 2003-04 and are likely to face even greater liability in future years, according to a study released Monday. The study prepared for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association by the Center for Government Analysis at Newport Beach analyzed 130 public pension systems statewide and found taxpayer outlays doubled from 1997-98 to 2003-04. "State and local governments are going to have to put more money into these systems and that means less money for police, less money for teachers, less money for schools, less money for roads, less money for parks...

SAN FRANCISCO - The bill is coming due for years of generous benefits bestowed upon state, county, city and school employees, and it's a stunner: hundreds of billions of dollars over the next three decades, threatening some local governments with bankruptcy and all but guaranteeing cuts in education, public safety and other services. This staggering burden is coming to light because of new rules issued by the Government Accounting Standards Board. They require public agencies to disclose the future cost of health care and other benefits - such as dental, vision and life insurance - promised in addition to traditional...

OAKLAND -- A federal study now under way finds the cost of building the new Bay Bridge -- specifically the signature 525-foot suspension tower -- could explode again, this time by almost half a billion dollars. Almost ten years ago, Caltrans estimated it would cost $1.3 billion dollars to replace the eastern span of the Bay Bridge. Five years ago, the state said it would in fact cost almost twice that much -- $2.5 billion -- for a new bridge. Last year, Caltrans had still another projected cost: almost $5.3 billion dollars. Wednesday night, Caltrans spokesman Jeff Weiss acknowledged the...

...Mr. Schwarzenegger's goals as governor include shaking up Sacramento, where an intransigent legislature beholden to special interests had turned the state into an economic basket case. Arnold does have something to show for his efforts to date, insofar as the fiscal bleeding seems to have stopped. California's credit rating is out of the gutter, and the economy has created a quarter-million new jobs in the past year. Still, important reforms remain unaddressed, and the passage of Proposition 75, also known as "paycheck protection," would go a long way toward ending California politics-as-usual. By forcing public-sector unions to get written permission...

OAKLAND - Alameda County paid nearly 800 government employees more than $100,000 each in the fiscal year that ended in July 2004, according to records released to the Times on Friday. The records released by the office of Alameda County Counsel Richard Winnie mark a significant turnabout in the county's long resistance to making public the salaries of its highest-paid employees. The data shows that 115 employees with the title deputy sheriff made between $100,313 and $184,094 last year and that 74 with the title sergeant were paid between $100,203 and $170,165. The county employs roughly 10,000 workers.County lawyers, under...

<p>With the Davis administration long gone, and the reform-minded Schwarzenegger administration grappling with ways to make the budget balance, state legislators are looking closely at enormous pay and benefit hikes the former governor granted to the prison guards union.</p> <p>The union was one of Mr. Davis' biggest campaign contributors, and guards received an incredible 34 percent pay increase over four years in the midst of the government budget crunch. It certainly paid to be a friend, or at least a contributor, to Gray Davis.</p>