Posts Tagged ‘unions’
Wednesday, January 8th, 2014
Time for another look at the respective fortunes of the nation’s two biggest states:
Between 1992 and 2010, California lost $45.27 billion in income while Texas gained $24.94B. (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
That’s one of the many reasons Texas has a $2.6 billion budget surplus.
California’s Attorney General imposes some strange language choices on a proposed pension reform initiative.
California Governor Jerry Brown to shift money from a green “cap and trade” fund to the high speed rail boondoggle. “Brown, et al., apparently believe that diverting cap-and-trade fees into the bullet train may buy enough time to move some dirt and lay some track, with the hope that once construction begins, it will create a moral/political commitment to complete the project. But the proposed diversion is more likely to be dumping more money into a bottomless rathole.”
Remember: Spending money on green boondoggles means less is available for paying for luxuries like heating classrooms in winter.
Desert Hot Springs inches closer to bankruptcy. They’ve already eliminated their fire department, owe $4 million from last year, and are expected to run out of money in April.
How the California city of Pacific Grove broke the law and ignored voter wishes to accumulate massive pension debts. “Pacific Grove now has a new unfunded pension deficit of about $45 million, in addition to the $20 million in pension bonds. The deficit grows at 7.5% per year (about $3.2 million compounding).” A neat trick for a city whose entire budget is around $12 million a year. The first in what promises to be a 7 part series.
Orange County employees enjoy a whole bunch of plush benefits.
There’s a movement afoot in California to replace seniority with performance for determining teacher layoffs. Another group wants to make it easier to fire sex offenders. Naturally teacher’s unions are opposing both. (Hat tip: TPPF.)
California declares war on hot sauce maker Sriracha.
Is California’s 10 day gun waiting period unconstitutional? (Hat tip: Shall Not Be Questioned.)
Restaurant chain Mimi’s Cafe relocates their headquarters from California to Texas.
There’s a lot of talk (not yet confirmed) that Vista Equity Partners is planning to move Active Network, Websense, and Omnitracs to Texas.
Evidently Los Angeles can no longer support a WNBA team. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Allied Van Lines confirmed that Texas remained the number one destination for relocation in 2013.
14 things non-Texans don’t understand.
Tags:Budget, California, Democrats, Desert Hot Springs, Jerry Brown, Pacific Grove, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 6th, 2014
It’s in the 20s here in Austin, which for Texas does indeed count as cold. Here are a few links to keep you warm:
Another cheerleader for ObamaCare finds out she can’t afford it. (Hat tip: Moe Lane)
ObamaCare supporter unable to obtain ObamaCare after two days of trying.
Evidently Sarah Palin was too optimistic. The vast confusion over ObamaCare has essentially made every hospital its own death panel.
The Obama Administration has lost 53 of 60 rulings on the abortion drugs mandate. To put that in perspective, they’ve won a smaller percentage of victories than the 2013 Houston Texans…
Volunteer firefighters still trying to figure out whether they’re screwed by ObamaCare or not.
I’ll just leave this here (Hat tip: Economic Policy Journal):
Chinese bubble looking ever-more pop-able.
There are reports that Zimbabwe’s President-for-Life and socialist thug Robert Mugabe has collapsed, much like his country’s economy.
The civil war in Iraq Bush had largely won is flaring up again thanks to Syria. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
Actually residents of Prague would would like to see that Palestinian “embassy” disappear.
Brainwashed sheeple feed the poor.
Liberals make fun of black child because he’s Mitt Romney’s adopted grandson. Maybe they’d prefer adoption to be “separate but equal.”
It’s no wonder that MSNBC viewership is down 29% since 2012.
Ann Althouse: “The left I see isn’t critical of the fist [of government power]. It wants to be the fist.”
Paul Krugman’s SUPER-genius prediction about the Internet.
Obama enjoys what the New York Times describes as a “rare” vacation, in much the same way Charles Bukowski used to enjoy a “rare” drink. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
Former Republican congressman lives entirely off the gird.
Unions should have to undergo regular recertifications.
Popehat channels David Brooks channeling Hunter S. Thompson. It’s a match made in Purgatory.
Infographic on The Raid: Redemption‘s body count.
Tags:abortion, Ann Althouse, China, Czech Republic, Democrats, Economics, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Jihad, Mitt Romney, MSNBC, New York Times, Obama, ObamaCare, Palestinians, Paul Krugman, Robert Mugabe, Sarah Palin, Syria, unions, Zimbabwe
Posted in Democrats, Economics, Foreign Policy, Jihad, ObamaCare, unions | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 24th, 2013
Merry Christmas a day in advance!
Obamacare’s popularity hits new lows. If you want to save yourself some time, just save that phrase; you’ll be able to use it lots next year as well…
Even the uninsured hate ObamaCare.
ObamaCare is falling apart before our very eyes. Good.
The harsh truth is that the advertising machine behind the Obama administration seems not to really know what normal human beings are like.
Medicaid + ObamaCare + Estate Recovery = The feds get to seize your estate. (Warning: DailyKos) But think of the future! Medicaid + ObamaCare + Estate Recovery + Death Panel = Ka-Ching! State government need but speed up your shuffling off this mortal coil to help close those pesky budget deficits to pay for public employee union pensions! It’s a win-win-win! (Well, for everyone but the poor schmuck getting the state equivalent of a pillow over their face…)
Via Moe Lane comes the heartening news that ObamaCare stinks so badly that Democratic gubernatorial candidates in deep blue Maryland are trying to distance themselves from it.
ObamaCare, like Obama himself, is a miserable failure:
ObamaCare brand heroin. Well, they’re both being pushed by people who want to get you hooked and make you dependent for their benefit. But I’m given to understand that a junkie can tell whether the smack is good within seconds; we injected Obamacare into our body politic four years ago, feel horrific side effects, and we’re still waiting for the high…
Even Colorado college students are losing their jobs due to ObamaCare.
Liberals have a reality problem.
Senators Coburn and Feinstein introduce bill to eliminate corn biofuels mandate. It’s a start. They should eliminate all biofuels mandates and agribusiness subsidies.
Nancy Pelosi says that being an illegal alien is no cause for deportation. Evidently the purpose of the border patrol is to hand out free lemonade along with ObamaCare application forms and membership cards for the Democratic Party…
Job;less claims jump to the highest level since March. “Unexpectedly!”
“The country needs jobs, not more jobless benefits.”
Wisconsin Democrats conduct with your tax dollars.
Speaking of Wisconsin, 70 unions there deceertify. Funny how many union “members” will escape if given a chance.
Good: reheated turkey. Bad: Reheated Huckabee Presidential run, which would be the wrong kind of turkey…
“If there’s anything that makes women unequal to men, it’s the need to be treated like pieces of china.”
Mack Brown goes out with class. Asked his biggest regret, you’d think he’d say Colt McCoy getting injured in the national championship game against Alabama. Nope. “They’d be two things. I would want Cole Pittman back, and I would want the bonfire [tragedy] not to have happened at A&M.” It was time for Brown to retire, but he always conducted his program with class and respect.
Outed black supremacist finally out of federal government job. (Previously.)
Remake Gilligan’s Island? “Michael Cera as Gilligan.” Die in a fire.
Robbie Cooper is hanging up his blogging gloves at UrbanGrounds.
Tags:Border Controls, death panels, Economics, Illegal Aliens, LinkSwarm, Mack Brown, Maryland, ObamaCare, Texas, unemployment, unions, Wisconsin
Posted in Border Control, Economics, ObamaCare, Texas, unions | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 11th, 2013
Time for another roundup of Texas, Red State Champion, versus Blue State California:
Texas is the tenth best run state in the union, while California is the worst.
The vast gap between California’s haves and Have Nots.
The federal court Detroit bankruptcy ruling has made CalPERS nervous. As well it should.
Ditto public employee unions. “Government agencies should have the right to reduce future accruals, just as private-sector employers can — and they shouldn’t have to wait until they’re insolvent to do so…In California, prospective benefits are sacrosanct because of a series of poorly reasoned legal rulings…The system must be fixed before more municipalities reach bankruptcy. For state and local governments to climb out of their deep holes of pension debt, they must first stop digging.”
A succinct statement of the problem “California local governments cannot thrive if escalating retirement costs crowd out money for public service.” Plus: “Bargaining effectively occurs between unions and those elected largely because of money from unions.”
Today’s California city teetering on the edge of bankruptcy: Fresno. (“Fresno? No one goes to Fresno anymore!”)
18 LA County Sheriffs department deputies indicted for “beating jail inmates and visitors, trying to intimidate an FBI agent and other crimes.” (Hat tip: Dwight, who notes “They tried to intimidate an FBI agent? Does LACSD make it a practice to hire and promote deputies who are dumber than a bag of hair?”)
Speaking of police behaving badly, 28 Santa Monica cops took home more than $200,000 last year. For comparison, Austin’s chief of police earns $198,819 a year.
Even California isn’t wild about Obama anymore.
California lobbyist organizes a second junket to Cuba.
Charting the Texas oil bool.
Cognizant moves operations center from New Jersey to College Station.
Tags:bankruptcy, Budget, California, College Station, pension crisis, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Monday, November 11th, 2013
Time for another roundup of Texas vs. California:
California’s high tax, high regulation government, and its resultant high cost of living, has given the state the nation’s worst poverty rate. How’s that blue State model working out for you?
Fresno is completely broke. “Now the city doesn’t even have a day’s worth of cash in its general fund.”
Given the tough economy, CalPERS cuts back on staff bonuses. Ha, just kidding! They doubled them.
Desert Hot Springs is the next California city eyeing bankruptcy.
Stockton’s Lavish pensions contributed to it’s bankruptcy. But guess who doesn’t have to take a haircut?
The message Stockton’s bankruptcy has for other California cities is obvious: Just screw taxpayers.
Bankrupt San Bernardino throws the bums out. And the new team looks like they’re willing to take on CalPERS. A case of mixed messages.
Covered California, California’s ObamaCare agency, is hair plugs and fat camp.
There’s a magazine called Time that says that Texas is the nation’s future. (There’s a longter story, but I don’t feel compelled to obtain a login to read it.) I’m sure Texas has a much brighter future than Time…
Your tears, Lakers fans! Let me taste them! (Missing from that piece: Dwight Howard will no longer give 10.3% of his income to the state of California, and Texas has no state income tax.)
Tags:bankruptcy, basketball, Bell, California, Desert Hot Springs, fraud, Fresno, San Bernardino, Stockton, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Crime, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 8th, 2013
With budget issues occupying the nation, now’s time yet again to compare Texas’ successful Red State model with California’s failing Blue State model:
Like Detroit’s retirement fund (or Greek public servants), some retired Sacramento government employees were evidently used to receiving thirteen monthly checks a year. Now a federal judge has said enough.
People Stockton’s bankruptcy plan screws: creditors and taxpayers. And who won’t be required to take a haircut? CalPERS retirees.
Vallejo took much the same tack during their bankruptcy (higher taxes and no pension reform). Well, guess what? They’re broke again.
CalPERS isn’t the only underfunded California retirement system. There’s also CalSTRS, the teacher’s retirement system. “CalSTRS’ funding ratio falling to 67% in 2012 from 98% in 2001, well below the 80% considered fiscally sound.”
That might have something to do with the fact that 6,609 retirees receive more than $100,000 from CalSTARS annually.
CalPERS? 12,1999 receive more than $100,000 annually. Topped by Bruce Malkenhorst, of the corrupt city of Vernon, who pulled in more than a half-million annually, until the pension review board cut it back to a “mere” $115,000.
Big problems still loom for CalPERS.
“Regardless of what happens in bankruptcy court, California’s local governments, especially cities, are facing years, or even decades, of fiscal distress from rapidly rising pension costs.”
Marian County’s pension debt clocks in at a hefty $2.3 billion.
The California State Auditor’s own report can be read here:
We believe the State continues to face eight other significant high-risk issues: the state budget, funding for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, funding retiree health benefits for state employees, funding for deteriorating infrastructure, ensuring a stable supply of electricity, workforce and succession planning, strengthening emergency preparedness, and providing effective oversight of the State’s information technology.
California’s new feudalism. “Like medieval serfs, increasing numbers of Californians are downwardly mobile, and doing worse than their parents.”
The 10 year anniversary of the Gray Davis recall. “We learned that the problem wasn’t just Davis and that simply changing who is governor wasn’t enough to make California government work. Schwarzenegger wasn’t a bad governor, but he failed to solve the state’s basic budget problems.”
With a wave of people signing up for ObamaCare, what is California to do? Why, obviously, cut Medicaid payouts!
Attention illegal aliens: Go to California if you want a driver’s license.
Al Jazeera headline: Tea party makes California inroads. Actual story: “For the first time, the tea party’s California caucus has a table at the state’s Republican fall convention.” That’s less an “inroad” than an “in-driveway”…
Rick Perry to California: “We don’t judge success on the number of people we have on public assistance.”
“Texas’ unemployment rate has now been lower than the national average, and California’s, for 80 consecutive months.”
Texas now has the best credit rating in the world.
“The Rainy Day Funds of Texas and Alaska alone are now larger than the stabilization funds of all other states combined.”
USAA is expanding in Plano.
500 Republicans moving to Texas every day?
In non-political, Halloween-related California news, it’s tarantula mating season in California. Just in case you needed another reason to leave California…
Tags:Arnold Schwarzenegger, Budget, California, CalPERs, CalSTARS, Gray Davis, ObamaCare, pension crisis, Rick Perry, Texas, unions, welfare, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, ObamaCare, Texas, unions, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Friday, September 27th, 2013
Another Friday, another LinkSwarm:
When it comes to ObamaCare, it turns out that Democrats lied about, well, pretty much everything. “Millions of low-income Americans won’t receive coverage. Many workers at small businesses won’t get a choice of insurance plans right away. Large employers won’t need to provide insurance for another year. Far more states than expected won’t run their own insurance marketplaces. And a growing number of workers won’t get to keep their employer-provided coverage.”
ObamaCare is bending the cost curve. Upwards.
Even moderate and conservative Democrats dislike ObamaCare.
Green Eggs and ObamaCare.
Just starting, the ObamaCare Wars are.
Oh how Republican Senators hate Ted Cruz for expecting them to behave like Republicans.
Another Dead Goblin.
Given the chance, more Wisconsin teachers break their union fetters.
Thanks to high costs, mismanagement and union rules, New York City can no longer support two opera companies.
The DEA thinks Big Brother should have access to all your prescription records.
Is Texas DPS refusing to hold illegal aliens?
The Onion profiles an Obama voter.
Cosmo, RIP.
New York Yankees guaranteed to win as many post-season games as the Astros this year.
Tags:baseball, Border Controls, dogs, Guns, LinkSwarm, New York City, ObamaCare, Ted Cruz, unions, Wisconsin
Posted in Border Control, ObamaCare, unions | No Comments »
Monday, July 29th, 2013
The July grind is about to turn into the August grind. Enjoy the LinKSwarm while you can:
Mark Steyn on Detroit’s downfall.
America may not be Greece, but neither was Detroit.
Gun Owners are right to oppose all measures, because the goal of gun banners isn’t reducing crime, but the complete confiscation of all civilian firearms.
If Obama ever drew a crowd of 3 million people, the MSM would never stop proclaiming how awesome he is. But when the Pope does it? Meh.
When you shop at Costco, you’re buying ObamaCare.
Is it too much to ask that the director of the freaking 9/11 Museum not hate America?
I guess Anthony Weiner chose Carlos Danger as his sexing pseudonym because it sounds so much cooler than Prematuro Ejaculatoree.
Thanks to Slate, I now know that my twitter sexting pseudonym is “Pablo Kill”.
Maybe the MSM should stop doing fawning spreads on how elegant Huma Abedin is and start asking how she could earn $135,000 as a part-time government employee and still pull down $355,000 as a consultant.
That is, when she’s not playing footsie with Islamic radicals.
And now those Taiwanese animators on Anthony Weiner (possibly not safe for work):
Peaceful Treyvon protestors assault mother taking her 7-year old to the hospital.
A nifty neighborhood crime analysis tool for Austin. (Hat tip: Stuff From Hsoi.)
Given the chance to escape from unions, more than half of Wisconsin union members do just that.
Indonesia is banning bikinis for the Miss World contest. Well, Siberia isn’t having any of that foolishness.
Remembering World War II, Korean and Vietnam war vet and Congressional Medal of Honor winner Bud Day.
Tags:Anthony Weiner, Detroit, Guns, Huma Abedin, Jihad, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, Obituary, Pope, Russia, unions, Wisconsin
Posted in Democrats, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, unions | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 24th, 2013
Smart denizens of California must be eying Detroit’s bankruptcy warily. After all, 60 years ago Detroit was the wealthiest city in America. And California seems hellbent on following Detroit’s Blue State path to bankruptcy sooner rather than later…
Problem: California public employees union members getting outrageous retirement benefits on the taxpayer’s dime. Solution: Hide their pension figures from the public.
From Dwight comes this gem of a news story:
Bruce Malkenhorst took home more than $911,000 a year as city manager of the tiny city of Vernon. His reign ended shortly
before he was convicted of misappropriating public funds, and he walked away with an annual pension that eventually topped $500,000,
the largest in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.
But CalPERS last year decided to cut his pension to $115,000, concluding he’d derived some of his hefty salary improperly.
So now the 78-year-old Malkenhorst is suing Vernon to make up the difference.
And if you’re interested in California corruption, you should be following Dwight’s regular updates on Vernon and Bell.
Resignation Media, another California company, is moving to Austin. (Hat tip: Urban Grounds. )
Meanwhile, California e-discovery firm Daegis Inc. is also moving its headquarters to Texas.
Navarre Corporation relocates from Minnesota to Texas.
Houston edges out New York City as the nation’s largest goods exporter.
More on Dwight Howard and others fleeing California’s income tax burden.
Detroit won’t be the last city to declare bankruptcy.
California Latino supermarket chain Mi Pueblo declares bankruptcy. The article says that creditor Wells Fargo wanted to “change the terms” of loans, but something doesn’t add up. Turns out that profits dived when Mi Pueblo was forced to fire illegal aliens after an audit, and that put their profitability under the level dictated by the terms of the loan.
Parallels between Detroit and San Bernardino.
Tags:bankruptcy, California, fraud, San Bernardino, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Economics, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Thursday, July 11th, 2013
The hot days of summer are here. Texas is now into its usual 100° summer days. However, if it’s any consolation, Death Valley hit a record 129° in June.
Texas’ business climate is a lot like our summers: hot, hot, hot! California’s business climate is a lot like Death Valley: Still and oppressive.
On to the Texas vs. California roundup:
Unemployment claims are up in California.
You know all that talk of California having a small budget surplus? That doesn’t count the $10.3 billion California owes the federal government for unemployment compensation, an amount that is not expected to be paid off until 2020.
Between 2007/8 and 2013/14, “the officially reported unfunded pension liability for state workers through the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) grew from $31.7 billion to $57.2 billion, an 80.1% increase.”
He, remember that short-lived BART strike? How horribly were the employees “underpaid?” “BART employees — including management and nonunion workers — earn an average of about $83,000 annually in gross pay, contribute nothing toward their retirement and $92 monthly to health insurance. Their pay and total compensation are both the highest in the Bay Area among transit agencies.”
BART’s highest paid employee in 2012? Someone who earned $333,000 and never worked a day that year.
California’s coming health insurance death spiral.
California writer explains why he and his family relocated to Texas.
Did taxes help Dwight Howard decide to leave the Los Angeles Lakers for the Houston Rockets?
Rick Perry retiring means the Texas is losing on of its greatest pitchmen to the business community.
California, bluest of blue states, forcibly sterilized female prisoners. Well, liberal’s love of eugenics goes back at least as far as Margaret Sanger…
Tags:California, eugeneics, Margaret Sanger, ObamaCare, Texas, unemployment, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, ObamaCare, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »