http://governor.wa.gov/proclamations/pr_10-06.pdf

[JayB]

Grab your popcorn.

 

While you're waiting, take a look at the local budget:

 

http://www.thenewstribune.com/soundinfo/seattlesalaries/

 

Amuse yourself by guessing how many pages of police and fire rosters you have to scroll through before you hit gross pay that's less than $100K. That's not including the cost of current benefits, much less the cost of funding pensions and other retiree benefits.

 

"There's nothing left to cut."

 

LOL.

 

LOL.

 

LOL....

 

 

[olyclimber]

stop crying about it and snag one of those jobs.

[olyclimber]

LOL

[Hugh Conway]

got another note you can play?

[Phil K]

[prole]

Now, workers acting in their self-interest is bad, mmm-kay? Bond traders and bankers are fine.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Now, workers acting in their self-interest is bad, mmm-kay? Bond traders and bankers are fine.

 

right back at ya

[JayB]

got another note you can play?

 

Of course, but it's from the same tune that they're playing in Greece:

 

"America's strapped states and cities took another hit Wednesday, with California seeing tepid demand for its latest bond sale and other governments pulling about $700 million worth of borrowing deals this week as investors continued stepping away from the municipal bond market.

 

The normally staid market has grown volatile the past week, posting its sharpest selloff in nearly two years, as investors demand higher interest rates to buy paper issued by states, cities and counties to finance their operations...."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703688704575620912858864200.html

 

The only real question is - barring massive restructuring of public sector pay and benefits - whether or not Uncle Sugar will keep a lid on rates buy buying or guaranteeing state and local debt issues, which will simply transfer the pressure on yields to the Federal level. If Europe weren't actively imploding, that day would probably already be here.

[prole]

 

America definitely needs a massive restructuring.

 

[Jim]

Over 2,400 folks earned greater than $100k last year on the Seattle payroll. Just sayin'

[JayB]

Over 2,400 folks earned greater than $100k last year on the Seattle payroll. Just sayin'

 

Police and Fire account for at least ~1K of that or more.

 

Scrolling through the gross pay data on firefighters showed roughly 550 out of 1100 at 100K or higher. How about the value of the pension liabilities?

 

It takes roughly a million dollars to fund an inflation indexed payout of $50K per year for someone who retires at ~55 years of age, you're looking at at least two million dollars to fund the pension, without even factoring in the cost of health insurance, etc.

 

If the contributions are roughly 10% of gross salary per year, and you take 10K as an approximation of the average contribution, and plug in a ludicrous average annual return of exactly 10% per year, you get a value just shy of two million dollars. Plug in a more realistic value of 5%, and you get about 750K. At a minimum - I'd wager that each Seattle firefighter is on the receiving end of an extra million dollars worth of compensation in the form of pension payouts, and the actual difference between contributions + returns and total payouts and the number is likely to be dramatically higher.

 

Great for the firefighters - and if compensating firefighters at levels that attract thousands of applicants for every job opening is the highest public priority - great. If providing social services, public defenders, etc also constitute public priority then at a minimum maybe it's time to consider "draconian" steps like shifting the folks in police and fire to defined contribution plans, or at least move to a 50-50 plan.

[Jim]

Switching to the state side; I saw the latest budget predictions that put the coming two-year budget cycle at a stunning 18% over budget. That is pretty grim.

[prole]

Keep your chin up, it won't be as bad as adapting to global warming.

[Jim]

TGIF

[Choada_Boy]

The obvious FACT is that we should fire all public employees and hire private firms to do their work instead. Thanks JayB!!!

 

 

Here's a link to the best results from the changes you suggest we take instead of actually paying for public services: LINK

[Off_White]

The firefighter I know works an awful lot of overtime. How does that factor into gross pay?

 

Replace the pigs with cheap rent-a-cops though, we'll all be better off.

[Hugh Conway]

The firefighter I know works an awful lot of overtime. How does that factor into gross pay?

 

It's often the bulk of pay for Firefighters and Policemen. JayB's solution is going to be to hire more.... oh, no, he wants to cut the employment roles!

 

Shouldn't your schadenfreude be directed at Ireland who mortgaged their future to bail out those deserved bankers and now, rightfully, are getting rolled over the coals for their predatory corporate tax rates?

 

Oh, wait, they followed your little economic perscriptions off a cliff. Whoopsie!

[JayB]

The firefighter I know works an awful lot of overtime. How does that factor into gross pay?

 

It's often the bulk of pay for Firefighters and Policemen. JayB's solution is going to be to hire more.... oh, no, he wants to cut the employment roles!

 

Shouldn't your schadenfreude be directed at Ireland who mortgaged their future to bail out those deserved bankers and now, rightfully, are getting rolled over the coals for their predatory corporate tax rates?

 

Oh, wait, they followed your little economic perscriptions off a cliff. Whoopsie!

 

Austerity was coming to Ireland - the only question was whether it'd be in anticipation of or in response to prohibitive rates in the bond market.

 

Where they really screwed the pooch was putting the public on the hook for all of the banking losses - which thanks to the magnitude of the property bubble there - significantly exceed Ireland's capacity to repay them. Ever.

 

Not sure who made that call, but since debts that can't be repaid won't, the folks running Ireland should have told the retards in Germany, England, etc who lend hundreds of billions of dollars to retards in Ireland to pound sand and take whatever losses they had coming to them. The losses are simply too large for the Irish to repay, and at the end of the day, and the sooner that all concerned accept that the better.

 

There aren't enough real savings in the world to make all of the retards who speculated on property that with rental yields that could never cover the debt required to buy them. The losses are coming, and it'll be interesting to see who the biggest loser is in this game of musical chairs.

 

When and if the music starts in Spain and Italy things will get very interesting since the potential losses there exceed Europe's capacity to absorb them.

[prole]

In other words...

 

...they followed your little economic prescriptions off a cliff. Whoopsie!

[Fairweather]

Replace the pigs with cheap rent-a-cops though, we'll all be better off.

 

So nice to see that old familiar 1970's anti-establishment dialect burst forth every now and again from its few remaining practitioners. One can almost smell the tie-dye and Afro-sheen.

[Hugh Conway]

The firefighter I know works an awful lot of overtime. How does that factor into gross pay?

 

It's often the bulk of pay for Firefighters and Policemen. JayB's solution is going to be to hire more.... oh, no, he wants to cut the employment roles!

 

Shouldn't your schadenfreude be directed at Ireland who mortgaged their future to bail out those deserved bankers and now, rightfully, are getting rolled over the coals for their predatory corporate tax rates?

 

Oh, wait, they followed your little economic perscriptions off a cliff. Whoopsie!

 

Austerity was coming to Ireland - the only question was whether it'd be in anticipation of or in response to prohibitive rates in the bond market.

 

Where they really screwed the pooch was putting the public on the hook for all of the banking losses - which thanks to the magnitude of the property bubble there - significantly exceed Ireland's capacity to repay them. Ever.

 

Not sure who made that call, but since debts that can't be repaid won't, the folks running Ireland should have told the retards in Germany, England, etc who lend hundreds of billions of dollars to retards in Ireland to pound sand and take whatever losses they had coming to them. The losses are simply too large for the Irish to repay, and at the end of the day, and the sooner that all concerned accept that the better.

 

There aren't enough real savings in the world to make all of the retards who speculated on property that with rental yields that could never cover the debt required to buy them. The losses are coming, and it'll be interesting to see who the biggest loser is in this game of musical chairs.

 

When and if the music starts in Spain and Italy things will get very interesting since the potential losses there exceed Europe's capacity to absorb them.

 

So education, a service economy, low corporate tax rates and business friendly policies don't cure all ills? Oh dear.

 

[JayB]

The firefighter I know works an awful lot of overtime. How does that factor into gross pay?

 

It's often the bulk of pay for Firefighters and Policemen. JayB's solution is going to be to hire more.... oh, no, he wants to cut the employment roles!

 

Shouldn't your schadenfreude be directed at Ireland who mortgaged their future to bail out those deserved bankers and now, rightfully, are getting rolled over the coals for their predatory corporate tax rates?

 

Oh, wait, they followed your little economic perscriptions off a cliff. Whoopsie!

 

Austerity was coming to Ireland - the only question was whether it'd be in anticipation of or in response to prohibitive rates in the bond market.

 

Where they really screwed the pooch was putting the public on the hook for all of the banking losses - which thanks to the magnitude of the property bubble there - significantly exceed Ireland's capacity to repay them. Ever.

 

Not sure who made that call, but since debts that can't be repaid won't, the folks running Ireland should have told the retards in Germany, England, etc who lend hundreds of billions of dollars to retards in Ireland to pound sand and take whatever losses they had coming to them. The losses are simply too large for the Irish to repay, and at the end of the day, and the sooner that all concerned accept that the better.

 

There aren't enough real savings in the world to make all of the retards who speculated on property that with rental yields that could never cover the debt required to buy them. The losses are coming, and it'll be interesting to see who the biggest loser is in this game of musical chairs.

 

When and if the music starts in Spain and Italy things will get very interesting since the potential losses there exceed Europe's capacity to absorb them.

 

So education, a service economy, low corporate tax rates and business friendly policies don't cure all ills? Oh dear.

 

"State budget crisis is now a budget emergency

THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Last updated: November 23rd, 2010 12:23 AM (PST)

 

Lawmakers have often promised to bring a hard-nosed, results-oriented, “everything on the table” approach to writing the state budget.

 

Occasionally they’ve partially delivered. Mostly they’ve claimed they were delivering while leaving sacred cows untouched.

 

This time is different. As of last week’s revenue forecast, state government was short $900 million of what it needs to continue the state’s existing programs and services at existing levels. It is short a staggering $5.7 billion over the biennium that begins in July. And that’s after the 2010 Legislature made tough cuts in some programs.

 

The immediate challenge is to carve the $900 million out of the current biennial budget – close to a billion dollars worth of pain crammed into seven short months. Gov. Chris Gregoire has already covered $520 million of that, crudely, by imposing 6.3 percent across-the-board cuts.

 

That’s the worst possible way to cut a budget, but she was forced to do it because lawmakers refused to meet in special session to make adjustments last summer. Their foot-dragging made the problem considerably worse.

 

Gregoire’s now talking about a special session in early December to deal with the new, additional $385 million shortfall. That translates into another 4.6 percent the governor would otherwise have to impose – without reason, sense or priorities – in the absence of legislative guidance.

 

There shouldn’t even be an argument about the special session. Waiting until the regular session begins in January will likely result in the usual two months or more of dithering and dawdling before lawmakers cobble together a supplemental budget.

 

Do it fast. Do it now. It’s amazing what can be accomplished with the help of a short, hard deadline.

 

After some equivocation a year ago, Gregoire now appears thoroughly committed to a ruthlessly rigorous approach to spending priorities. She walks, talks and acts like the budget hawk Washington needs in the governor’s mansion right now.

 

On Thursday, she ordered the state unions to open their existing contracts for renegotiation. Her office has served notice that new contracts, negotiated but not yet finalized, cannot be included in the 2011-2013 budget – because the money’s just not there. When the state’s leading Democrat is facing down organized labor – the state’s leading Democratic constituency – you know things are grim.

 

The Legislature’s highest priorities ought to be preserving the safety net, as much as humanly possible, for the state’s most vulnerable citizens: the mentally ill, abused children, the disabled and others who cannot fend for themselves. And preserving higher education opportunities for Washingtonians whose talents are essential to the state’s economic future.

 

Everything’s got to be on the table this time. Really on the table"

 

Very much agree with the text in bold above but I'm not optimistic that their interests will prevail in the sausage machine.

[Fairweather]

On Thursday, she ordered the state unions to open their existing contracts for renegotiation. Her office has served notice that new contracts, negotiated but not yet finalized, cannot be included in the 2011-2013 budget – because the money’s just not there. When the state’s leading Democrat is facing down organized labor – the state’s leading Democratic constituency – you know things are grim.

 

 

...but not until she was forced to do so. We'll see. The beauty to behold here is how voters were able bend even the most corrupt politician to their will. This, as opposed to the libtard sheep among us.

[olyclimber]

On Thursday, she ordered the state unions to open their existing contracts for renegotiation. Her office has served notice that new contracts, negotiated but not yet finalized, cannot be included in the 2011-2013 budget – because the money’s just not there. When the state’s leading Democrat is facing down organized labor – the state’s leading Democratic constituency – you know things are grim.

 

 

...but not until she was forced to do so. We'll see. The beauty to behold here is how voters were able bend even the most corrupt politician to their will. This, as opposed to the libtard sheep among us.

 

 

you mean this guy? the voters certainly bent him!

 

 

 

[Fairweather]

Nope. The anti-tax initiatives that are now strangling your Olympia beast.

 

Edited November 24, 2010 by Fairweather