Tag: Corbett

PENNSYLVANIA – KING OF UNFUNDED GOVERNMENT DRONE PENSION PLANS

The Wall Street shysters and their mouthpieces on CNBC have gleefully ripped Meredith Whitney and her prediction of thousands on municipal bankruptcies. Her timing was early. She didn’t realize that Bernanke would bow down to his masters and produce a 100% stock market gain by pumping $2.5 trillion of free money into the veins of the Wall Street addicts. His actions have solved nothing. Municipalities across the land have unfunded pension and health benefits in excess of $4.5 trillion. And this calculation is based upon annual investment gains of 8%. That’s hysterical when long term bonds yield 2.5% to 3.5% and stocks are priced to deliver 3% over the next ten years. Using a true investment rate of 3% to 4% reveals a true unfunded liability in excess of $6 trillion.

It seems Pennsylvania is ground zero for unfunded pensions and my Township is one of the worst examples of governmental incompetence in the state. How could one state account for 25% of ALL the public pension plans in the entire country? I guess we’ve cornered the market on dumbass public officials, greedy government union drones, and a delusional populace that can’t understand basic math. The Governor and the legislature know that government pension obligations are a looming fiscal disaster. What actions did they take when they passed the 2014 budget last week? NOTHING!!! There are elections coming up in November. You can’t get re-elected by telling voters the truth or getting government union employees mad. This is why we’re doomed. No politician has courage. Greedy government drones will never willingly give up what was promised them by slimy politicians. The average voter thinks money grows on trees. When the next financial crisis hits and wipes 30% to 40% out of these pension plans, accounting fraud and underfunding of these pensions will come home to roost. Meredith’s predictions will come true as municipalities declare bankruptcy and government workers end up with 20% of what they were promised.

My township of Towamencin is singled out in this article as an example of a municipality that has screwed its 17,600 residents by promising its police, firemen and other government workers more than they can ever deliver, without jacking up taxes significantly on the citizens. I pulled up the details of the Towamencin pension plan and annual budget at these links:

http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Reports/Pension/munTowamencinTwpPPP071012.pdf

http://www.towamencin.org/documents/finance/2013_Proposed%20Budget.pdf

According to these reports the Towamencin pension plan is only 61% funded. A township with a $16 million annual budget owes $9.5 million to its workers. It’s assets have an actuarial value of $5.8 million. Of course, all of these figures are complete bullshit because they are based on an 8% annual return on the invested assets. Using the 3% they will actually achieve, the plan is underfunded by $5 to $6 million. That is $800 per household in the township. What is it with politicians and promising public employees gold plated benefits that far exceed what people in the real world receive? In the early 2000’s the annual pension payments for Towamencin were in the $100k per year range. Then Tom “code red” Ridge and the idiots in Harrisburg passed the “No Government Drone Left Behind” law and set in motion a future fiscal disaster of epic proportions.

The population of Towamencin has not budged since 2000. The annual pension payment has gone from less than $100k per year to over $900k per year. It now accounts for 6% of the annual budget and 11.5% of the general fund budget. It is on automatic pilot and will exceed $1.2 million in three years. This is before the inevitable stock market implosion. After the 30% to 40% losses, the annual required contribution will ramp up to $1.5 million as their tax revenues contract. The politicians that run this township have a history of delusional fantasies. They borrowed millions and used eminent domain to build a $500,000 bridge to nowhere. They wiped out five baseball fields and a quaint antique mall with the delusion of a retail paradise. The bridge is beautiful. It leads from one massive vacant weed infested parcel to another vacant parcel. They did build a massive brand new municipal building for the government drones. They poured millions into a pool that losses patrons every year and operates at a loss. These brilliant financial moves have led to annual debt service of $1.7 million, or 11% of their budget. By 2015 the pension and debt service costs will account for over 20% of the annual budget.

Math is hard. Politicians are toadies. Government union employees are greedy. The taxpayers are on the hook for the promises made by toadies to greedy government drones. Reality will smack all of these delusional morons. The obligations cannot be honored because it’s mathematically impossible. Taxes would need to double in order to honor the unfunded liabilities. If the government drones don’t accept large cuts in their pension and health benefits, municipalities will go bankrupt and the drones will be screwed even worse. The parable of the scorpion and the frog will play out because unions NEVER accept reductions in their benefits. It’s their nature.

 

 

IT’S NOT FAIR – THEY CAN’T CHEAT ANYMORE

Another liberal Democrat, union supported, storyline obliterated by facts. It seems PA test scores plunged in math and reading. How could this happen? Obama has been in charge for four years. His Federal government solutions to making our kids smart should be working by now. Our fine batch of union teachers and their 4% per year salary increases and gold plated health and pension plans must surely be working their magic on our children and making them smarter. Right? Well, it seems a monkey wrench was thrown into the ever increasing test scores in PA. Once schools were prevented from cheating and faking test scores, the scores plummeted – Especially in the City of Philadelphia. More than 20% of Phila public schools were CAUGHT cheating. I’m sure there were others that were not caught.

The teachers union slimeballs blame the drop in scores on the draconian education “CUTS”. Here are a few inconvenient facts for the union bloodsuckers:

PA spends $26 billion per year on education, more than $14,000 per student – up 40% since 2000. Does this chart show draconian cuts? Private and charter schools without union teachers spend less than $12,000 per student and get far higher test scores.

 

PA Public School Revenue

Here are some more inconvenient facts:

Since 1995, when Pennsylvania doubled taxpayer spending on K-12 education from $13 billion to more than $26 billion, SAT scores have been flat and state results on the U.S. Department of Education’s Nation’s Report Card haven’t improved much since 2002. Today, Pennsylvania school districts spend more than $14,000 per student—with some as high as $25,000—and studies show absolutely no connection between district spending and student achievement. Moreover, the achievement gap in some of our most failing and violent public schools continues to widen, like the Harrisburg School District where taxpayers invested more than $18,000 per pupil but 9 out of 10 students couldn’t reach proficiency in math. Because these facts get in the way, the public school industry resorts to rickety rhetoric, citing “draconian funding cuts” over the past two years. But the truth is these cuts occurred with the end of the federal stimulus, which was always intended to be temporary aid. Excluding federal funds, Gov. Corbett’s proposed budget actually represents a two percent increase in spending on K-12 education since FY 2007-08, the year before the stimulus.

After decades of Federal government mandates, programs, and initiatives, along with doubling and tripling spending on education, our children are dumber than ever. But if we just throw another $2 billion at teachers unions, all will be well. The City of Philadelphia school district, in addition to being bankrupted by their union contracts, has achieved the fantastic result of having 13% of its 250 schools meeting the minimum standards for reading and math. They have certainly lived up to the promise of NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND – they have dumbed down every child in Philadelphia. And you wonder why this country is doomed.

Pennsylvania’s school test scores drop for the first time since 2002

September 23, 2012|By Dan Hardy, Dylan Purcell, and Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writers

The percentage of Pennsylvania students meeting state math and reading standards on the PSSAs – the annual academic accountability test – declined this year for the first time since the tests began in 2002.

Education Secretary Ron Tomalis on Friday attributed the drop to tight security procedures enforced during the spring testing, especially in 110 schools across the state still under investigation for possible cheating from 2009 to 2011.

This is the first year, Tomalis said, that the public can be confident that, overall, test scores are not tainted by adult interference. “We have hit the reset button on student performance,” and the 2012 scores provide a new baseline, he said.

Well over 100 educators will eventually face state disciplinary charges for cheating that could lead to the revocation of their professional certificates, Tomalis said. But that could take years, and the results of state disciplinary board hearings in Harrisburg would be disclosed only if educators were disciplined.

In Philadelphia, 53 district-run schools and three charter schools are still under investigation for allegations of cheating in past years.

Of those 53, all but two experienced declines in both subjects from the previous year. The Philadelphia Military Academy at Elverson had a 71 percent decline in math scores from 2011 to 2012, the biggest drop of any city school. The two other schools had a decline in either math or reading.

Statewide, the 110 schools that had been under investigation this year for cheating averaged a double-digit drop in math and reading scores. With those schools taken out of the mix, math and reading scores for students statewide would have declined about 0.5 percent. With the investigated schools included, they were down about 1.5 percent.

Last year, 77.1 percent of the state’s students scored at or above grade level on the math test; this year, 75.7 percent met the mark. In reading, student scores declined from 73.5 percent at grade level to 71.9 percent. Tomalis called those percentages “unacceptable for Pennsylvania,” adding that everyone needs “to redouble our efforts.”

In Philadelphia this year, 50 percent of students districtwide performed at grade level in math, 45 percent in reading. That is down from 59 percent in math and 52 percent in reading last year.

“These results are clearly disappointing, and they simply remind us of the work we have ahead in developing a strong system of schools in Philadelphia and in supporting our students’ learning,” School Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said.

The news was not all bad. The High School of the Future was one of the most improved schools in the district. It rose 27.2 percentage points in reading and 22.8 percentage points in math.

“I took a double take,” said longtime district principal Rosalind Chivis, who has been at the helm of the 425-student school since 2008. “I knew we would improve, but it blew me away when I saw the data. I was so very proud of the learners. They worked really, really hard, and a big part of it is motivating them to do well, to take the test seriously and do well.”

Along with the decline in test scores, the number of schools statewide meeting achievement benchmarks declined sharply from last year, in large part because Pennsylvania’s No Child Left Behind school accountability standards went up a sizable amount from 2011.

The state thresholds went up from 67 percent of students required to make the mark in 2011 to 78 percent this year. In reading, the benchmark went from 72 percent to 81 percent.

This year, 51 percent of schools statewide met state academic benchmarks by having the required percentage of students scoring at grade level or above. That was down from 75 percent in 2011.

In Philadelphia, only 33 – 13 percent – of the district’s 250 schools met state standards, down from 41 percent in 2011.

Among city charter schools, 54 percent met the benchmarks, down from 63 percent in 2011. In Philadelphia’s suburbs, 65 percent of schools made the mark, down from 81 percent.

Statewide, in addition to Philadelphia, five districts and three charter schools remain under investigation for cheating from 2009 to 2011, Tomalis said. They are the Harrisburg, Hazleton Area, Pittsburgh, Reading, and Scranton districts and the Imhotep Institute, Philadelphia Electrical and Technical, and Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partnership charter schools.

An additional five districts and one charter school that were under investigation this year will continue to be monitored and will have strict new test security measures. Though no one was identified as having cheated, there was no satisfactory explanation of the irregularities at those schools, Tomalis said.

Some educators and education advocates blamed the drop in student performance on reduced funding for schools.

“It defies logic that they could expect student performance to improve after cutting nearly $1 billion” in funding in 2010-11, said Wythe Keever, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.

Keever said cheating “is wrong. . . . Those individuals should be held accountable.” But he said Tomalis was using cheating revelations to “shift attention away from the real issue: adequately funding public education.”

Tomalis said the state’s Technical Advisory Committee found heightened test security the only factor in the drop. “I don’t buy the excuse the numbers went down because of budget cuts,” he said.

Union leaders were quick to criticize state officials for tying cheating to the statewide drop in test scores.

“Any cheating on tests is deplorable, but to use an incomplete investigation involving a handful of schools and educators statewide to discredit our public schools and the educators who have dedicated their careers to helping all children reach their full potential is nothing short of a political cheap shot,” Ted Kirsch, president of the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania, said in a statement.

Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, agreed. Cheating may have occurred, he said, but its impact is negligible.

“When resources are pulled from our schools, scores drop,” Jordan said.

By 2014, according to the federal No Child Left Behind law under which the state tests are mandated, 100 percent of students should be scoring proficient or advanced. Virtually all educators see that as unrealistic.

Last year, the Obama administration started allowing states to scrap the 2014 deadline if they would agree to adopt new rules that focus on the bottom 15 percent of schools, and make other changes.

Thirty-two states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have been granted the waivers.

Tomalis on Friday called it likely that Congress will pass a new version of No Child Left Behind in the next year or two and that the state did not want to keep changing accountability plans. He instead asked for federal permission to freeze test benchmarks for schools at 2012 levels, but was turned down.

Pennsylvania’s academic thresholds are set to increase to 89 percent in math and 91 percent in reading next year.

GOVERNMENT PENSION TAPEWORM WILL KILL US ALL

It sure is easy for politicians to make promises. It just ain’t easy to fullfill them. The story below is about the Pennsylvnia  state budget. It is the same story across all states. Politicians sign legislation giving out goodies to get re-elected. The time bomb doesn’t explode for a decade or more, after the slimy politician is running the Department of Homeland Security or being paid as an Obama shill on MSNBC. The lack of courage, fortitude, honesty and intelligence extends across both parties. Tom Ridge signed legislation in 2001 that provided gold plated pension benefits to government workers and the slimy politicians that voted for the legislation. Ed Rendell further extended and increased these benefit promises. You can see from this chart that PA is not even the worst offender.

A recent study estimated that the unfunded pension liabilities for state government workers exceeds $4 trillion. In classic government fashion, Governor Corbett of PA is being branded a scrooge for drastically cutting spending and impoverishing school districts across the state. That is humorous since this year’s budget is $27.3 billion and next year’s budget will be $27.7. Only in this land of delusions could a $400 million increase be described as horrific cutbacks in government spending. There is never a mention about the fact that every school district in the state went on a spending spree in the mid-2000s because the real estate taxes from the housing boom were rolling in like waves on the ocean. Well the waves have receded from the shore and a Tsunami of unfunded promises are about to wash over the delusional morons who spent all the money and made all the promises to government employees.

The wailing and grinding of teeth over this year’s budget is laughable when you consider what is coming. The taxpayers must foot a $1.2 pension expense for the government drones this year, or 4.3% of the state spending. These pension payments are on automatic pilot. In 2016, the taxpayers of PA will be on the hook for $6 billion of pension expense, or approximately 20% of the state spending. This is called math. Either the taxpayers of PA will have to pay a whole lot more in taxes or drastic spending cuts will need to occur in other parts of the budget. There are 5.2 million households in PA. Each would have to pay over $900 more per year in taxes to pay for the pension promises made to government union drones. We all know that the FSA in Philly and Pittsburgh don’t pay taxes, so the average hard working middle class schmuck would have to ante up over $1,200 more per year to satisfy the insatiable appetite of government union workers.

This tapeworm was introduced into the digestive system of Pennsylvania by a Republican governor in 2001. He’s rich. He earns money for speaking engagements. He started our beloved DHS. This brilliant guy even invented our color coded terrorist warning system. We are now at Shit Your Pants Yellow alert. By 2016 we’ll be at Commit Suicide Red.

Will any politicians have the guts to confront the government unions and kill this pension parasite before it kills us all? I doubt it. There are elections to be won and promises to be made. That tapeworm looks harmless.

Funding Pa. pensions is ‘tapeworm’ in budget talks

Wednesday, June 6,2012

It’s crunch time in Harrisburg. In other words, it’s budget time.

As school districts across the state reel from the effects of an austere spending plan put forth by Gov. Tom Corbett, Republicans in the state Senate have created their own budget and restored many of the cuts proposed by their fellow Republican governor. The state House is expected to vote on that version this week, possibly as early as today. Then both sides likely will hammer out a final version with the governor.

Here’s the good news: Some education funding is likely to be restored, in particular when it comes to higher education.

Here’s the bad news: It won’t necessarily solve the fiscal woes afflicting school districts.

Now here’s the really grim news: None of this even addresses the elephant in the room, the biggest budget crisis in the state.

That, of course, would be the ocean of red ink inundating the state’s two large public employee pensions, those covering the bulk of state government workers and public school teachers.

This year the state’s on the hook for $1.2 billion in pension payments. That increases to $1.6 billion next year and an astronomical $6 billion by fiscal year 2016-17.

Kaboom!
Perhaps that is why Corbett is reluctant to start restoring money to the budget. He refers to the pension crisis as “the tapeworm” in state budget talks.

The pension crisis has been exacerbated by several factors. First, while enjoying a bullish ride on Wall Street for years, the state and districts looked at more rosy predictions and cut their contributions to the fund. Then the market tanked.

Also crucial was a deal cut by former Gov. Tom Ridge back in 2001 that boosted the payouts for pols and teachers while cutting taxpayer contributions.

Now the bill is coming due, and it’s a whopper. It won’t solve the current dilemma, but some denizens of Harrisburg with an eye on the future are offering an important change.

State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-9 of Chester, is proposing legislation that would derail this gravy train for all future public employees. Instead of the defined benefit plan those workers now enjoy, they would instead join the rest of us in a defined-contribution plan, similar to a 401(k).

It’s a common-sense move that is long overdue. Sure, it would be easy to harpoon Pileggi and several other Republicans for cutting someone else’s retirement benefits while theirs remains intact. It won’t change the fact that the current system is unsustainable.

More importantly, it does not address how the state is going to fund its current pension woes.

What almost no one in Harrisburg is willing to say is the very real possibility of someone actually proclaiming what many are thinking – that as currently constructed the system, will not be able to pay out what was promised.

One possible solution would be to reconfigure pensions to their pre-2001 levels. That no doubt would be met with catcalls from those approaching retirement.

The move to get public employees out of defined-benefit plans is a start. But it must be accompanied by a solution to the more immediate problem — that $6 billion tab lurking in the distance.

One thing we’re sure of. This tapeworm is hungry. And it’s not going away.

— Journal Register News Service