Today every Bay Area paper led with Gov. Brown's signing of not one, not seven, but 15 so-called "affordable housing" bills yesterday. Let's face it. We are governed by idiots. The state is broke. Anyone who can actually read a balance sheet and understands the basics of pension funding knows this. Any money for "affordable housing" comes from somewhere else in the budget. The "somewhere else in the budget" might easily be school funding--let's add huge numbers of new kids and not fully fund the schools. Couple that with the fact that housing 10's or 100's of thousands of new Californians without one iota of new water storage capacity is downright criminal. Like I said, "idiots".
We were also treated to the news that
The first stage of California’s costly high-speed rail project may be even more expensive — $3.6 billion more — than previously thought, according to a report prepared by the Federal Railroad Administration and reported by the Los Angeles Times. The analysis warned that the Central Valley track, 119 miles from Merced to Shafter, could be 50 percent over budget — and seven years behind schedule, according to the Times. The original budget was $6.4 billion, but costs could reach $10 billion, the Times reported.
You have to laugh at the verb: "maybe be more expensive". Dude, it will be more expensive--a lot more expensive. Remember, they are building in the Central Valley now. Forget Merced, wait til they get to an urban area.
Addition: My new favorite term: "functional insolvency". See the comments.
Spending money like this drives me crazy. Give money to Government and they will spend it – usually for more employees so you have to spend more money needing more citizens to pay more taxes. By the way: no new taxes in Burlingame, please. Fix our pensions and potholes and then see about a rec center, or let it be run by a for-profit company. The campaign mentions police and infrastructure but I bet the rec center gets just enough money to creak along...
Posted by: Cassandra | October 01, 2017 at 07:32 AM
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Severe-housing-shortage-for-Bay-Area-state-12235869.php
This UCLA study has some really eye-opening material in it:
"Jerry Nickelsburg, director of the UCLA forecast team, said it would take 20 percent more housing to achieve a 10 percent reduction in prices. Such a reduction throughout California would bring costs down roughly to 2014 levels, he said, citing figures provided by the Legislative Analyst’s Office."
Posted by: Jennifer | October 01, 2017 at 10:17 AM
And right on schedule the day after my post the Merc runs this story:
The city of Oroville may consider filing for bankruptcy because of its growing employee pension costs. The city’s finance director, Ruth Wright, told the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s finance and administration committee last month that the word “bankruptcy” was being thrown around City Hall over an expected $5.6 million in pension cost increases by 2023.
CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension fund, manages pensions and benefits for employees of Oroville and thousands of other local and state governments and agencies. With lower than expected return rates, the pension fundhas been asking state and local governments to make higher contributions.
And they are feeling the pinch. Also at the CalPERS committee meeting were officials from Chico, Santa Rosa, Laguna Hills, Lodi, West Sacramento, Vallejo, Yuba City, Hayward, Manteca and Concord, as well as a representative for the League of California Cities.
-----and the absolute best part----
Dane Hutchings, League of California Cities representative, said Oroville’s situation is more the rule than the exception, with regard to CalPERS.
“Other cities are operating (in) functional insolvency, meaning they are bankrupt — they just don’t know it yet,” Hutchings said.
_____________________________
"FUNCTIONAL INSOLVENCY", so what does the state do? Spend money on a fools errand like "affordable housing" (See Jennifer's comment directly above).
Posted by: Joe | October 01, 2017 at 04:40 PM
Gov Brown cannot get out of office quick enough. He's on a mission to destroy the Peninsula with his build, build and build some more mentality. I've been told that the recent bills just signed in Sacramento, takes the design control away from the Cities. If a developer meets HIS criteria to build, they can ignore Cities design codes and build what they want. Sacramento gets to decide what we can build in our City? Really? WE HAVE NO INFRASTRUCTURE to support any of this growth and no schools proposed. It's the destruction the Peninsula and our quality of life is disappearing.
Posted by: Laura | October 03, 2017 at 05:05 AM
the employees' pay into this fund during their employment.
This "CalPers" manages the employee contributions.
The same way a 401 does.
People have "Lost All" through 401's.
Mostly due to Greed, Hedge Funds, and lack of Federal/State oversight that may have prevented the loss that many of us suffered during the Dot Com Bomb, and the Real Estate debacle.
Real Estate, by the way, is going to "Hit the Fan" again due to the Natural Disasters in Nor Cal, Puerto Rico, Houston, and Florida.
The US is one 6.0 earthquake away from Bankruptcy.
Posted by: [email protected] | October 12, 2017 at 06:29 PM
Top Ten Worst States Run by Liberals and California is run by liberals. Does anyone see a trend here?
On the basis of its fiscal solvency in five separate categories, California ranks 43rd among the US states for its fiscal health. California’s performance across several categories is weak. The state has between 75 percent and 154 percent of the cash needed to cover short-term obligations; this is far lower than the average in the states. California’s budgetary solvency is much stronger. Revenues exceed spending by 6 percent, and net position improved by $403 per capita. On a long-run basis, California’s net asset ratio of −0.62 indicates the state is reliant on debt to finance its operations. Long-term liabilities are 93 percent of total assets. On a guaranteed-to-be-paid basis, unfunded pension obligations and OPEB are 48 percent of state personal income.
Posted by: Another Liberal Disaster | October 19, 2017 at 07:07 AM
To think that there is a secession movement in California where proponents think that a break-away California will unleash this shackled economic powerhouse where it will be so much better off than the rest of the US, is one of the most preposterous concepts that Bruce Dickinson has ever heard.
There is no fiscal discipline in this state, where the tax revenue sources of real estate and capital gains can be highly variable with a very high fixed cost base. Not to mention, a high cost place of doing businesses.
Let's face it, the tech industry succeeded in spite of California's policies, not because of them!
Posted by: Bruce Dickinson | October 19, 2017 at 05:01 PM
Amen
Posted by: resident | October 21, 2017 at 09:57 PM