Bankruptcy Judge Hammers Unions by Allowing Stockton Pension Cut

Breitbart California ^ | October 4, 2014 | Chriss W. Street

[2ndDivisionVet]

In what will be a devastating blow to California public employee unions, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein ruled in the Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy of the City of Stockton that pensions managed by the California Public Employee Retirement System, known as CalPERS, can be cut in bankruptcy “like any other garden variety” unsecured debt. He rejected the unions’ argument that the world’s largest pension fund is an “arm of the state” and that public employee pensions are protected by federal and state laws.

Stockton city employees and city council members, who are all CalPERS pension beneficiaries, received retirement benefit enhancements shortly before filing for bankruptcy that many observers are calling pension spikes. The city’s position against cutting any CalPERS pension enhanced benefits is that the city will not be a competitive employer in retaining or hiring quality police and fire employees.

The city had reached what some are calling a crony deal with three bond insurers owed $265 million and all the labor unions, retirees, and other major creditors that would have retained the city pension enhancements....

[2ndDivisionVet]

So it begins.

[montag813]

What could have been with GM

[lee martell]

Ha-Ha! Put that in your union pipe and smoke or toke it!
Who’s still afraid of the BigBad Union? Not nearly as many as in the old days.

[MichaelCorleone]

When Cali goes into freefall, will the unions and liberals in general ever tie it into their own self-defeating policies?

Didn't think so.

[tumblindice]

Unions take one in the shorts ... it’s a ‘feel good’ story!

[boop]

What stupid person thought that a fixed benefit program would actually work?

The markets go up and down. There are not guaranteed 8% returns forever.

I'd love to have a pension, but if some politician said vote for me, and on your retirement at age 50 you will receive the equivalent of $10 million dollars. The amount to generate a pension for a police chief for the rest of his and his wife's lives.

Sure I'd LIKE such a "promise" but I would know it's just not realistic.

I have NO sympathy for these people.

Yes you can say it was "promised", but the promise was loaded with lies and crookedness.

[kingu]

Not quite yet... Couple more decisions and the stampede begins. Then it will be a race for all the school districts and counties and cites to shed the old dot com bust debt from CALPERs.

Detroit, you paying attention?

[logi_cal869]

The city’s position against cutting any CalPERS pension enhanced benefits is that the city will not be a competitive employer in retaining or hiring quality police and fire employees.

Does anyone know personally any comedians to which they could forward that line?

[gunsequalfreedom]

From the article is sounds like they bumped up their pensions just before filing bankruptcy.

It sounds like the judge undid that.

It is normal in a bankruptcy for the court to go back and look at the last nine months activity prior to filing for bankruptcy and reverse anything that significantly compromised creditors position once bankruptcy was filed.

The union might have lost this ruling but it does not appear to be a gutting of pensions as the headline implies.

Maybe a FReeper on her with bankruptcy expertise can verify my take.

[Cold Heat]

Yes it is...I am going to have a rum and coke..

[Cold Heat]

Franklin argued that an exit plan that provides full payment of the city’s “massive” pension liability, while paying Franklin a penny on the dollar, cannot be confirmed under the federal bankruptcy code requiring fair treatment of creditors.

The way I read it, is that the ruling is only that the pension can be adjusted...and not what the adjustment will be..

Not a atty, but I once stayed in a Holiday Inn Express...

[4Liberty]

[gunsequalfreedom]

I could go with that. Guess we need to wait for a FReeper Atty to chin in.

[Purdabo 248]

good

[Liz]

....... some vote-crazed politician said "vote for me, and at age 50 you will receive the equivalent of a $10 million lifetime pension".....

I've heard of prostitutes w/ a heart of gold.....but a politician with a heart of gold?

Lordy, what is the world coming to? (cackle)

[Liz]

California leads the race to be the Greece of America....hollowed out from within.

<><> In 2010, officials at the West Contra Costa School District, just east of San Francisco, were in a bind. The district needed $2.5 million to help secure a federally subsidized $25 million loan to build a badly needed elementary school.

Charles Ramsey, president of the school board, says he needed that $2.5 million upfront, but the district didn't have it. Why would you leave $25 million on the table? You would never leave $25 million on the table.

- Charles Ramsey, school board president, West Contra Costa School District. “We'd be foolish not to take advantage of getting $25 million” when the district had to spend just $2.5 million to get it, Ramsey says. “The only way we could do it was with a [capital appreciation bond].”

Those bonds, known as CABs, are unlike typical bonds, where a school district is required to make immediate and regular payments. Instead, CABs allow districts to defer payments well into the future — by which time lots of interest has accrued. In the West Contra Costa Schools’ case, that $2.5 million bond will cost the district a whopping $34 million to repay.”

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<><> An analysis by the Los Angeles Times found 84 percent of the roughly two-dozen Ventura County retirees with pensions in excess of $100,000 made more money in retirement than working.

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<><> A Labyrinth of California Govt Fraud----stories like this mean astonishingly easy, massive govt fraud.

REFERENCE Govt officials find 2nd off-the-books bank account / LAT / February 17, 2011

Montebello, Cali govt officials said they discovered yet a.n.o.t.h.e.r secret off-the-books bank account that once contained nearly $1 million in city govt funds. Officials do not know why the secret account was created, why it was never recorded on the city's general ledger or what happened to the govt money that was transferred out.

One signator on the secret account was former City Manager Richard Torres. City policy generally requires the treasurer to be a signator, not the city manager. The bank holding the secret account refused to disclose to the city who the other two signators are.

Revelations about a secret Union Bank account follow news of an off-the-books account at Banco Popular discovered earlier....That account contained about $240,000 govt monies; officials also discovered records that indicated tens of thousands of govt dollars had been transferred out. They do not know to whom or why.

City govt's official banker is Bank of the West. Officials have asked for bank statements and records and are hoping to reconstruct what happened. They have also queried every member of the govt finance department to ask if they know of any other off-the-books accounts. The Union Bank account came to light when an employee spontaneously alerted the finance director. Officials found out about the Banco Popular account when the bank contacted city govt because the account had been dormant for a while.

The news about the secret accounts comes as Montebello struggles to close a deficit that could force officials to make deep service cuts and lay off employees. Criminal probes have also begun in San Bernardino agencies for possible govt fraud.

[Liz]

BONDING IS ETERNAL TAXATION-- Pols and govt insiders LOVE issuing bonds b/c they get a piece of the billions taxpayers are forced to repay.......financial bombs are secretly planted in bonding contracts that pay pols and govt insiders til the end of time.. That's the way bonding companies say "thank you for the business."

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California School District Owes $1 Billion On $100 Million Loan
npr ^ | Dec 7, 2012 | Richard Gonzales / FR Posted by Biser

More than 200 school districts across California are taking a second look at the high price of the debt they've taken on using risky financial arrangements. Collectively, the districts have borrowed billions in loans that defer payments for years — leaving many districts owing far more than they borrowed. (Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...

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Taxpayers MUST sdemand to know the scope and dimension of multiple conspiracies by pension entites (like Calpers) to collude in sub rosa deals to personally profit and/or to facilitate money laundering, financial fraud and tax evasion.

OF INTEREST TO LAW ENFORCEMENT---Taxpayers should demand the FBI investigate evidence of multiple schemes to falsify public documents.......and whether illegal wire transfers were employed to deposit Calpers monies offshore.

Crimes might include---fraud, financial conspiracies, collusion, falsifying official public documents, ID theft, money laundering, illegal wire transfers, tax evasion, extorting taxpayers, theft of public monies, misuse of public office, misuse of public positions.

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“Falsifying Public Documents” involves altering, changing, or modifying a document for the purpose of deception.......can also involve forgery and/or passing copies of false documents. Falsifying documents is usually done in connection with broader criminal aims, such as extortion, financial fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, financing personal expenses.......

Types of documents commonly falsified may include:
◾Tax returns and income statements
◾Personal checks
◾Bank account records
◾Business record keeping books
◾Immigration documents (such as visas, passports, etc.)
◾Identification cards and birth certificates.

Many different types of acts can be considered as falsifying a public document, including:
◾Altering or misrepresenting factual information such as prices or monetary amounts
◾Stating false information when requested to provide truthful statements
◾Forging a signature
◾Using official letterheads without authorization
◾Concealing assets or property WRT obtaining federal/state monies
◾Knowingly using or distributing a fake document

A person can only be held criminally liable if they are deliberately acting with the intention of deceiving or defrauding another party.

Falsifying documents is a very serious offense and is generally classified as a felony. This means that a person charged with falsifying documents may be subject to the following legal penalties:
◾Having to pay a monetary fine
◾Incarceration in a prison facility

Depending on the gravity of the offense, as well as individual state laws, falsifying public documents can result in a prison sentence of 5-10 years. Also, if public documents or public agencies or authorities were involved, the legal penalties may be more severe. ..... legal penalties may increase with repeat offenses.

The penalty for falsifying public documents is outlined in the Crimes Act of 1958.

[joe fonebone]

this was already ruled on in detroit....

the unions lost, pensions were cut...

[Liz]

A unanimous May 2014 ruling by New York state’s highest court, held that the names of state and local government pensioners are subject to public disclosure under the state's FOIA.

The city Teachers Retirement System administers pensions for 80,300 members, mostly former employees of the Department of Education and some from City Univ--NY.

Retired Queens College history professor Edgar J. McManus, 90, salaried at $116.000, gets a city pension of $561,286 a year.....the the highest by far in both the city and state teachers retirement systems, according to data obtained by an Albany-based think tank.

The city’s second-biggest pension, $308,358, goes to Alvin Marty, a Baruch College economics professor who retired after 55 years in 2008.

Fifteen other retirees collect more than $200,000 a year — including double-dipping city Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, who gets $208,506 pwnsion and was also tapped for Chancellor by Big Spender Mayor "Diamond Jim De Blabio."

And 1,796 retired educators get more than $100,000 a year. The highest yearly payment to a DOE employee, $287,625, goes to James D. Rosen, a teacher who retired at his top salary, $100,049, in 2010. (NYPOST.COM REPORT--10/5/14)

[ogen hal]

It is truly amazing how many people have no sense of morality or ethics when it comes to stealing money from taxpayers. Disgusting parasitic criminals.