And The Beat Goes On! (Our beating that is)

When you read the article below - don't be shocked! It's business as usual. I wrote about this very thing (http://teachersdontsuck.blogspot.com/2012/05/if-this-doesnt-piss-you-off-check-your.html) in 2012 and I guess nobody read it or nobody cared.
This was just after the much ballyhooed "Pension Reform Bill"(which "The Governor" reneged on and I think probably planned to right from the get go) was passed. Interestingly, not one word about the double dipping of cronies and the connected was in that bill. None of these inequities were even tangentially addressed.
During the time this bill was being discussed our "governor?" (I think he's still the governor in spite of the fact he's been out of the State over half of the time) was already campaigning for reelection. During this time he garnered support from numerous prominent New Jersey Democrats. If you would like to know who those Dems are and why they would jump ship and stand behind a loud mouthed, bullying oaf, the attached article and my post cited above may help to provide some of the answer.
Additionally, in 2011 there were 420,000 public employees in New Jersey. In the 2012 election Christie received 1,278,932 votes against Buono's 809,978. It's hard to understand how Buono could receive only 810K with 420K public workers with their friends and families voting with them for her?
The only conclusions that can be drawn is that few public employees actually voted or that they were actually stupid enough to vote against their own best interests and voted for Governor Porkchop. Either one of these explanations is disheartening to say the least. 

"Performance Bonuses"?

I don’t know if you will consider me to be lacking self-control, call me a liar or call me a fool but I’m back!

I can’t continue my rants at the newspaper and the television. Certainly my wife won’t listen to me so I've decided that my only recourse is to resume writing this feckless blog.

The article below is really what sent me back over the edge. It describes the fees paid to hedge funds by New Jersey pension funds. The first article shows that the contract with the hedge funds provides not only for fees but also for “performance bonuses”. Twenty percent of investment returns exceeding six percent will be paid to the hedge fund as a “performance bonus”.

Upon reading this I immediately looked up the overall average returns on the Dow, the NASDAQ and S&P for the past year. They were 7.52%, 13.4% and 11.39% respectively!

What this means is that a monkey with a dart and the Wall Street Journal would definitely earn a "performance bonus" and it would only cost the pension fund an extra banana or two not the hundreds of millions of dollars which the hedge funds received.

What competent financial manager would agree to some arbitrary number to set as a goal to obtain a “performance bonus”? Shouldn't the goal have been set to exceed the overall yearly market averages?

And why was there not a disincentive in the contract if returns fell significantly below average market returns?

These are all obviously rhetorical questions because I think I know the answers and I am quite sure you do too!

A Deal Okay - A Raw Deal

The man is a cheat and a sneak. I am sure that he knew when he signed the bill in 2012 that he would not come up with the money to fund the pension when the time came in spite of his promises. 
By not honoring the agreement which he touted, he created another opportunity to demonstrate to all his conservative buds how tough he is on unions and how willing he is to piss on public workers. He could  show how firmly he stands behind the wealthy and his donor interests. He could clearly show how his outreached hand was really there to give a slap in the face to hard working, middle class public employees rather than it being an indication of cooperation and honesty.

A Little Good News - Finally!

At least there is a little good news interspersed amongst all the bad (the recent Supreme Court decisions).

It's As Plain As The Nose on His Face

The Best and the Brightest ?????

"We want the 'Best and the Brightest' teachers in our classrooms!"
"Teachers Matter!"
"We are reaffirming our commitment to advancing teacher talent."
"I think teacher quality is really important."
The BS runs wide and deep.
I have some questions for those who continually spew this hollow rhetoric and phony accolades.
How bright can a person be who would willingly enter a profession which is constantly degraded and demeaned by politicians and the media throughout the land? 

How bright can a person be who would willingly enter a profession which has seen its seniority rights eliminated?

How bright can a person be who would willingly enter a profession which has seen a hundred year old tenure law stripped away in the blink of an eye?

How bright can a person be who would willingly enter a profession which has seen the retirement age increased by ten years over night?

How bright can a person be who would willingly enter a profession which reads daily about the inevitable collapse of the pension fund to which he must contribute throughout his entire working life?

 How bright can a person be who would willingly enter a profession which sees its bargaining rights threatened or eliminated?

How bright can a person be who would willingly enter a profession which sees a Governor break a promise and the law which he instituted and praised by refusing to properly fund the pension?

How bright can a person be who would willingly enter a profession which sees the C.O.L.A stripped from the pension of current retirees by a wave of the hand?

How bright can a person be who will willingly enter a profession which in the defined benefit pension will soon be replaced by a defined contribution plan (401K plan)?

Considering all the aforementioned, anyone entering teaching today can't possibly be that bright! 

**************************************************************************************************

Christie "celebrates" teachers - What a hypocrite!

Defined Benefits - Going, going, gone !

New Jersey has already eliminated tenure - 

They just use Orwellian Newspeak and call it "Reformed"

Seniority goes next - 

Even if you've taught your heart out for 25 years if someone's niece needs a job or you're just too expensive - 

As Ray Charles used to say - 'Hit the road Jack!" 

Just because the voters want fairness that doesn't mean it's going to happen!

Kiss DB Pensions Goodbye!

Christie has two major objectives. 

(1) privatize public education to benefit his well connected cronies and friends and 

(2) privatize the pension system to benefit his well connected cronies and friends.

And it's beginning to look like both may work!

BTW -

This 'Hybrid' Pension Plan is just a foot in the door!

Pre Election Current Events Quiz

                 Who said this and when did he said it ?

Just Another Stop on the Union Busting / Privatization Tour

*  "an American original" bully and loud mouth - is this a person that we should teach children to emulate ?
 

** "with children fidgeting in their seats" - evidently he didn't "engage" the children in the lesson very well !

*** "who he said cares more about pensions" - so no one should care when the State fails to make good on the decades old promise of a reliable pension ?

**** "consistently good grades" - as assigned by whom and on what basis ?? 

PS

Having been educated by such a poor public system how did our Governor rise to his current station ? Does he think it was all accomplished exclusively by his own efforts and his public school education played little if any part? 

How Many Lies Does It Take to Make a Man a Liar ?

New Jersey Pension "Deform"!

Republican Christine Todd Whitman, running on a tax-cutting platform, defeated Florio in the 1993 governor's race. To help pay for her promised tax cuts, Whitman, like her predecessor, turned to the pension fund. In 1994, at her urging, the legislature adopted another pension "reform" act that allowed her to reduce state and local contributions to the plan by nearly $1.5 billion in 1994 and 1995, according to the task force report. Florio's and Whitman's accounting changes were "the one-two punch from which the retirement system has never recovered," says Douglas Forrester, who was the assistant state treasurer under Kean.

For all the miscues, New Jersey's pension woes can't be blamed on particularly poor investment results. An examination of state reports shows that the fund's returns have more or less tracked the broad stock market's. The real problem has been the underfunding.

If union concessions, cost cutting, and higher taxes are not enough, then what? Inevitably, New Jersey and other states would turn to Uncle Sam for help. The pressure on Congress would be great. "How will they say no to state workers when they've said yes to bankers?"

(*Congress is very good at funding foreign wars, occupations and "rebuilding" - Maybe it's time to "rebuild" the good old USA!)

"The pension obligations could spark a huge problem for New Jersey," says Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor. "They must be paid because they are absolutely an obligation of the state, but as it is, the budget is balanced with chewing gum and sealing wax"

(*"must be paid" because they are an "absolute obligation" - How then can the COLA be eliminated and call the pension obligation being paid?)

Sources -

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/12/news/economy/benner_pension.fortune/index.htm
Star Ledger - January 2013