Fran Tarkenton: What if the NFL Played by Teachers' Rules? - WSJ.com

By FRAN TARKENTON

Imagine the National Football League in an alternate reality. Each player's salary is based on how long he's been in the league. It's about tenure, not talent. The same scale is used for every player, no matter whether he's an All-Pro quarterback or the last man on the roster. For every year a player's been in this NFL, he gets a bump in pay. The only difference between Tom Brady and the worst player in the league is a few years of step increases. And if a player makes it through his third season, he can never be cut from the roster until he chooses to retire, except in the most extreme cases of misconduct.

Let's face the truth about this alternate reality: The on-field product would steadily decline. Why bother playing harder or better and risk getting hurt? 

No matter how much money was poured into the league, it wouldn't get better. In fact, in many ways the disincentive to play harder or to try to stand out would be even stronger with more money. 

Of course, a few wild-eyed reformers might suggest the whole system was broken and needed revamping to reward better results, but the players union would refuse to budge and then demonize the reform advocates: "They hate football. They hate the players. They hate the fans." The only thing that might get done would be building bigger, more expensive stadiums and installing more state-of-the-art technology. But that just wouldn't help.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the NFL in this alternate reality is the real -life American public education system. Teachers' salaries have no relation to whether teachers are actually good at their job—excellence isn't rewarded, and neither is extra effort. Pay is almost solely determined by how many years they've been teaching. That's it. After a teacher earns tenure, which is often essentially automatic, firing him or her becomes almost impossible, no matter how bad the performance might be. And if you criticize the system, you're demonized for hating teachers and not believing in our nation's children.

Inflation-adjusted spending per student in the United States has nearly tripled since 1970. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, we spend more per student than any nation except Switzerland, with only middling results to show for it.

Read more here: Fran Tarkenton: What if the NFL Played by Teachers' Rules? - WSJ.com

Riot police respond to renewed union clash at Longview terminal

I haven't seen a lot of coverage about this on the East Coast. The Longshoremen's Union has defied numerous court orders and the National Labor Relations Board by blocking access to the grain terminal. So who are the scabs working at the terminal? Another union. That's right its not some illegal alien stealing their jobs but rather another union that came in with a better offer for the owners of the terminal. So what did the longshoremen do in protest? Well they only destroyed private property and took hostages.

LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) - Longshoremen returned to the railroad tracks near a Columbia River grain terminal with union members' wives and mothers Wednesday, blocking a shipment and facing more arrests in their battle for jobs.

Two union officers and about 10 of the women were detained, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21 President Dan Coffman said in a statement. Coffman was among those involved despite a judge's repeated orders that the union not block entrance to the site.

Law enforcement officers brought a massive force to various parts of the railroad tracks, including two tactical vehicles, canine units and about a dozen personnel in full riot gear. At least two protesters were treated after being hit with pepper spray, and the train eventually made its way into the EGT Development facility.

Union leaders decried the law enforcement activity, saying it amount to a private security force paid for by taxpayers.

"Longview Longshoremen stood down from their jobs for 30 minutes in silence as a unit train rolled into EGT under the escort of police paid for by the very workers in the community of Cowlitz County that the company is undermining and exploiting," Leal Sundet, ILWU Coast Committeeman, said in a statement.

The actions appeared to defy the National Labor Relations Board and the orders of a federal judge who has already held the union in contempt and is considering fines for previous actions.

The ILWU believes its members have the right to work at the new $200 million terminal. EGT has hired another firm that is staffing with workers from a different union, Oregon-based Operating Engineers Local 701.

EGT hopes to establish the terminal on the Columbia River as a top West Coast location for shipping grain to growing markets in Asia.

"This grain delivery is an important step toward completing the facility's testing phase and bringing it online. Nevertheless, the ILWU's actions are in direct defiance of the law and the ruling of a federal judge," EGT CEO Larry Clarke said in a statement.

About 200 people have been arrested in demonstrations this summer at the terminal. In the largest a couple weeks ago, several hundred blocked a train shipment in Vancouver and Longview. That demonstration also led to a clash with authorities, and an attempt by police to arrest the union's leader was blocked when the huge crowd surged forward.

Authorities say hundreds returned to the site overnight, stormed the terminal, held security guards and damaged rail cars.

"We appreciate the continuing efforts of local law enforcement to ensure the safety of workers and businesses at the port and allow commerce to proceed," Clarke said.

Wednesday's train hauled 107 cars of wheat from Cheney, Wash., Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway said. It was escorted by BNSF security, said spokesman Gus Melonas.

Two groups totaling about 50 people blocked the tracks temporarily at Longview, Melonas said. After the train arrived, its crew was escorted by authorities for their safety.

N.J. municipalities face $825M in liability for workers' accumulated sick and vacation days | NJ.com

TRENTON — Raymond Carnevale, the former finance chief in Hackensack didn’t wait for Gov. Chris Christie to end payouts for unused sick time and vacation. He cashed in 402 accrued days for $267,573 and retired last May with an annual pension of $39,868.

“To say it’s getting out while the getting’s good is too harsh: it’s more like getting out while it’s safe,” Carnevale, 64, who spent 24 years on Hackensack’s payroll and 41 total in municipal government, said in an interview.

Hackensack, a city of about 43,000 people, paid $4.6 million of sick and vacation time to 36 retiring workers including Carnevale this budget year. Eight older workers not subject to a city cap on the payments received checks exceeding $200,000. The rush to retire is attributable to Christie’s proposed clampdown on workers’ benefits, City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said.

New Jersey municipalities including Hackensack and the two most populous, Newark and Jersey City, had to borrow to make the sick-leave payments after cutting jobs to balance their budgets. The higher costs are swamping local governments from New Jersey to California as states grapple with pension-funding deficits of as much as $479.5 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

In the past year, New Jersey communities from Newark to Camden paid workers at least $43 million for unused sick and vacation time. Statewide, 428 municipalities face liabilities of more than $825 million for accumulated sick and vacation days, which would cost an additional $250 for every property taxpayer in the state, according to Christie’s office.

‘Only in Government’

Christie, a first-term Republican, wants to end the payouts, while Democrats, who control the Legislature, seek to cap them. The governor’s proposal would bar workers from accumulating additional sick and vacation days, and force current employees to use banked days for sick time or vacation. In December, he vetoed Democratic legislation capping the payments for all workers at $15,000.

“There’s no way to justify paying cash to people for not being sick,” Christie, 48, said at a May 18 town-hall meeting in Monroe. “Only in government would we do something like this.”

Christie calls the payments "boat checks" to explain where some of the money may be going. The $43 million in payouts included $306,000 paid to the West New York mayor’s chief of staff and $80,000 to the Somerville school superintendent, according to a list from Christie’s office. Camden, one of the nation’s poorest cities, paid out $3.5 million after eliminating 25 percent of its workforce.

Municipal Aid

Christie cut aid to municipalities and schools by $1.3 billion to help balance the current state budget. In September, he proposed rolling back a 9 percent benefits increase enacted in 2001, freezing cost-of-living raises and increasing the minimum retirement age to help reduce a $53.9 billion deficit in the state pension system.

The governor also wants workers to pay 30 percent of the cost of health-insurance premiums, up from the current 8.5 percent.

Christie and unions for government workers have clashed since he took office in January 2010. The New Jersey Education Association spent $6.6 million last year, more than any other lobbying organization, on ads criticizing Christie’s proposals.

Leaving Workforce

Public-employee retirements jumped by 60 percent in 2010 to more than 20,000 as Christie pushed his proposals. Through the beginning of June, 17,997 workers have submitted retirement papers this year, according to state records. If applications continue at the current pace, at least 23,000 police, teachers and other public workers will retire this year, a 14 percent jump from last year.

New Jersey isn’t alone in allowing towns to pay employees lump sums for unused sick and vacation days. In California, Anne Montgomery was paid $315,531 in 2009 as city manager of Mill Valley, a San Francisco suburb of 14,000 people. That included $124,000 for unused leave, according to data provided by the League of California Cities and the controller’s office.

When Ken Hampian retired as city manager of San Luis Obispo, California, in 2009, he augmented his $194,168 base salary with $52,144 by cashing out unused vacation and administrative leave, according to figures listed in a 2010 survey of city manager pay conducted by the League.

Unused Time

California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has said he will support legislation that would forbid municipal employees from including unused vacation and sick time in their pension calculations. That practice isn’t allowed in New Jersey.

Carnevale, the Hackensack official, said the payouts were among the biggest expenses he had to cover each year when preparing budgets. While previous labor agreements in the city allowed workers to retain the payments, he said he supports either capping or getting rid of them for new hires.

Hackensack Mayor Karen Sasso, a Democrat elected to the nonpartisan office, called the increase in sick-leave payouts the “other shoe” to Christie’s efforts to cut pension costs.

“They were afraid of what they might lose,” Sasso, 60, said of the retirements. “We couldn’t budget for that kind of mass exodus.”

Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt, a Camden Democrat, has offered Christie a compromise that would cap sick-leave payouts at $7,500. Based on 434,017 current state and local employees, that bill would cost taxpayers $3.25 billion, said Christie, who rejected the offer.

Firefighters Retire

Newark, the state’s largest city, borrowed $7 million in December to cover the cost of retiree payments, Business Administrator Julien Neals said. The fire department, which had 100 of 700 members retire last year, accounted for more than $6 million of that total, fire director Fateen Ziyad said.

“The governor has made us out to be the new Wall Street fat cats,” Ziyad said in an interview. “The fact is that all of these things were negotiated.”

Jersey City has incurred $19.6 million in payouts since July 2009 as 180 police officers and firefighters retired ahead of planned pension changes and payout limits. Six recipients got more than $200,000 last fiscal year, including $252,000 paid to Deputy Fire Chief Robert Flora. In December, the city issued $9.3 million in one-year notes to cover part of the total and avert a 4 percent tax increase.

“They are a huge burden and may ultimately be proven unsustainable,” Mayor Jerramiah Healy said of the payments in an e-mail. “As it goes forward into the future, the burden is only going to be that much more difficult.”

 

N.J. municipalities face $825M in liability for workers' accumulated sick and vacation days | NJ.com

Public Unions Vs. The Unorganized Taxpayers: There Will Be Blood

Unemployment Actually 10.2 Percent, 1 in 5 Workers Can’t Find Full-Time Job, Says Gallup | CNSnews.com

More bad news on the employment front.

(CNSNews.com) - One out of five American workers who wants a full-time job cannot find one, according to a Gallup survey released today.

This news comes 25 months after President Barack Obama signed a stimulus law designed to keep the U.S. unemployment rate under 8 percent.

Gallup derives what it calls the “underemployment” rate by combining the percentage of unemployed workers with the percentage of workers who are employed only part-time but want a full-time job.

As of mid-March, Gallup reported in its new survey, 10.2 percent of American workers were unemployed and 9.7 percent were working part-time but wanted a full-time job. That equals an underemployment rate of 19.9 percent—or approximately one out of every five workers.

According to Gallup, the employment picture in the United States is virtually unchanged from a year ago.

In mid-March 2010, 10.3 percent of American workers were unemployed and 9.7 percent were working part-time but wanted a full-time job--yielding an underemployment rate of 20.0 percent. That compares to today’s 19.9 percent underemployment rate.

Read more here: Unemployment Actually 10.2 Percent, 1 in 5 Workers Can’t Find Full-Time Job, Says Gallup

By now everyone has a friend or relative that is either collecting unemployment or has taken any job just to keep food on the table. Is it any wonder that the Wisconsin government workers get so little sympathy from the average Joe, who would love that guys job who called out sick so he gets paid by the state and gets to hurl insults at the Governor. Unionized government workers are bad news for taxpayers.

Andrew Klavan: Behold! Your Public Sector Unions at Work.

Pensions: Anger Brews Over Government Workers' Benefits - CNBC

When Erin McFarlane looks at public workers, she sees lucrative pension benefits she doesn't ever expect to get. And it makes her mad.

"I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well," said the Slinger, Wis., woman. She's been working a couple of bartending jobs since January, when she was laid off from her job at a Harley Davidson plant after almost a decade. 

She's not alone in seeing public servants as public enemies in some ways. 

It's a case of pension envy. 

For McFarlane, 36, it's part of a ubiquitous discussion, at the bars where she works and on Facebook. And it's the center of some of the biggest political battles playing out in state capitals across the country as governors say their states can no longer afford the benefits that public employees have been promised. 

Government workers in McFarlane's state have rallied for weeks against Gov. Scott Walker's efforts to take away many collective bargaining rights, saying that would amount to killing the middle class. 

A USA Today/Gallup poll last month found show that Americans largely side with the employees, though about two in five that want government pay and benefits reined in. 

Barbara Davis, a retiree from Cherry Hill, N.J., has been watching public workers in rallies in Madison, Wis., as well as Trenton. She says the protesters are wrong about tightening benefits hurting the middle class. 

"I'm sorry, but what they're doing is telling off the middle class," said Davis, 76, and a co-chairwoman of the Cherry Hill Area Tea Party. "The middle-class people don't get all the goodies that they do." 

At its heart, the issue is this: Some public workers get a sweet deal compared to other workers. And it's taxpayers who pay for it.

Read more here: Pensions: Anger Brews Over Government Workers' Benefits - CNBC

Are We Broke Yet? Michael Moore Says No, Reality Begs to Differ

A Path Is Sought for States to Escape Debt Burdens

MARY WILLIAMS WALSH,
On Thursday January 20, 2011, 8:56 pm EST

Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.

Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.

But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.

Beyond their short-term budget gaps, some states have deep structural problems, like insolvent pension funds, that are diverting money from essential public services like education and health care. Some members of Congress fear that it is just a matter of time before a state seeks a bailout, say bankruptcy lawyers who have been consulted by Congressional aides.

Bankruptcy could permit a state to alter its contractual promises to retirees, which are often protected by state constitutions, and it could provide an alternative to a no-strings bailout. Along with retirees, however, investors in a state’s bonds could suffer, possibly ending up at the back of the line as unsecured creditors.

“All of a sudden, there’s a whole new risk factor,” said Paul S. Maco, a partner at the firm Vinson & Elkins who was head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Municipal Securities during the Clinton administration.

For now, the fear of destabilizing the municipal bond market with the words “state bankruptcy” has proponents in Congress going about their work on tiptoe. No draft bill is in circulation yet, and no member of Congress has come forward as a sponsor, although Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, asked the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, about the possiblity in a hearing this month.

House Republicans, and Senators from both parties, have taken an interest in the issue, with nudging from bankruptcy lawyers and a former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, who could be a Republican presidential candidate. It would be difficult to get a bill through Congress, not only because of the constitutional questions and the complexities of bankruptcy law, but also because of fears that even talk of such a law could make the states’ problems worse.

You can read the rest of the article here.

FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy - Illinois considers corporate tax rate hike

FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy - Illinois considers corporate tax rate hike

Illinois is considering hiking corporate taxes to the highest level of any US state as part of a financial reform package that political leaders in the cash-strapped state are rushing to complete ahead of the swearing-in of a new legislature on Wednesday.

The state’s finances are in crisis. It faces a $15bn budget deficit, an unfunded pension liability of at least $80bn, and more than $8bn of unpaid bills to schools, universities and social welfare organizations.

Read the rest of the article here.

Chris Christie mocks NJEA reform preposal

Once again the Governor tells it like it is....thanks Chris.

BBC- French strikes force petrol stations to shut

Let's remember that the French, unlike us Americans, primarily rely upon public transportation to get to work or the grocery store, yet after only one week more than 10% of the gas stations are out of fuel.

What do you think would happen here in the United States if all the Unions organized a general strike? Now the US is not known for these types of strikes because we aren't socialists (at least not fully yet) but if a large Union such as the Teamsters were to organize a nationwide strike the result to our economy and general well being would be devastating.

Without Union longshoremen no ships would be unloaded from China, so Wally World's shelves would be empty within a week. But even the few things we produce here in the US, like food, require union labor to transport it from the farms to our grocery shelves.

Now imagine if just the Teamsters decided to organize a strike. You might ask yourself why they would strike in the first place especially since union workers generally, but not always, get higher pay and better benefits than non union laborers well what if the United States government refused to bailout the Union's underfunded pension plans? This type of situation could become a reality in the not so distant future as many private and public pension funds are woefully underfunded and one of the solutions to that problem will be to decrease the payouts to retirees.

So now is the time to prepare for the future. Extra gas for the car just means you have a couple of gas cans filled in the garage and if this type of situation never happened here in the US then you would have the gas for the lawnmower or some cheap gas (gas prices only seem to go up) for the car when you swap out the gas so it doesn't go stale. The same goes for food. If you put away an extra couple of weeks of food, which you will eventually eat anyways, all you really are doing is saving money because just like gas, food prices always seem to go up.

So you have two choices as a freedom loving American either prepare for the worst and hope for the best or be unprepared and hope it doesn't get any worse. I chose the former rather than the latter.

BBC- French strikes force petrol stations to shut

About 1,500 petrol stations in France have run dry or are about to close as fuel supplies are hit by strikes over government pension reforms, officials say.

A blockade of oil refineries has lasted a week and the body that supplies most supermarkets says one in four petrol stations is affected.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has called a crisis cabinet to protect supplies.

He told reporters that the reforms were "essential" and would be carried out.

The exact number of France's 12,000 petrol stations affected by the strikes is unclear, but oil company Exxon Mobil has described the situation as "critical".

A spokeswoman said that anyone looking for diesel around Paris or in the western area of Nantes would face problems.

Severe shortages have been reported in Brittany in north-west France and the International Energy Agency says that France has begun tapping into its emergency oil reserves.

Workers at France's 12 oil refineries have been on strike for a week and entrances to many of the country's fuel distribution depots have been blocked.

Panic-buying was blamed for a 50% increase in fuel sales last week.

The head of the Leclerc chain of supermarkets, Michel Edouard Leclerc, warned that at the current rate his company's petrol stations would be empty within two to three days if the blockade of refineries remained and fuel imports were paralysed.

Go-slow

 Strike action against the government's reform plans is being ramped up, with lorry drivers starting the week by staging a go-slow on motorways around several major cities including Paris, Lille and Lyon.

A further day of strikes is scheduled for Tuesday, on the eve of a key Senate vote on the pensions bill.

Half of all flights to and from Paris's Orly airport and one in three flights at other airports are being cancelled, according to aviation officials.

Airport operator ADP said there were already some delays at the capital's largest airport, Charles De Gaulle, on Monday because of strikes by oil workers.

Street protests have been planned in a number of cities and disruption is also expected on public transport and in schools.

The government wants to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and the full state pension age from 65 to 67.

Burning cars

There were already demonstrations outside 261 schools on Monday, which the education ministry said had been blockaded.

In the western suburb of Nanterre in Paris, dozens of students clashed with riot police who fired rubber bullets.

Shop windows were reported broken in the Saint-Denis suburb, where education officials said more than half the areas secondary schools had been blockaded.

In Lyon, several cars were burned and one teacher whose car was badly damaged by fire complained: "They want to fight [against the pension reform]. OK, but they have to understand the meaning of what they are doing".

In other developments:

Outside the Grandpuits refinery, east of Paris, strikers burned tyres in defiance of a government order that the facility should be reopened.

In some cities, such as Toulouse (south-west) or Saint-Etienne (centre), public transport depots were blocked on Monday morning, preventing buses and tramways from operating for several hours.

Rail traffic was being disrupted with one in two fast TGV trains running, and one in three normal-speed trains running.

Although the Eurostar train service between Paris and London is normal, there is no Eurostar service between Brussels and London on Monday due to a strike in Belgium.

A key fuel pipeline that supplies the two airports in Paris has been restored, but the civil aviation authority is warning airlines operating at Charles de Gaulle to arrive with enough fuel to make the return journeys.

Crisis cabinet

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered key ministers to form a crisis cabinet with the role of ensuring the continuity of fuel supplies.

Three departments are being charged with coordinating the state's services to maintain the supply: the interior and economy ministries as well as the energy and environment department.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon has insisted he will not allow the refinery strikes to hit the French economy.

Several other figures have said the country is not at risk of fuel shortages.

"The government is in control," Industry Minister Christian Estrosi told French radio on Monday.

"There will be no blockade for companies, no blockade for transport and no blockade for road users."

The head of the French Petrol Industries Association, Jean-Louis Schilansky, has said fuel shortages are not yet at crisis point.

"If the lorry drivers go on strike, if people block the refineries, then we will have a very big problem. But we're not at that stage yet," he said.

France has a strategic fuel reserve which holds up to three months of supplies, the government says.

Public support

According to the latest opinion polls, more than 70% of French people continue to support strike action.

 

On Saturday, a fifth day of protests brought 825,000 people on to the streets, police said, although unions put the figure at 2.5 million to three million.

The pension reforms have already been approved by the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament.

The upper house, the Senate, has endorsed the key articles on raising the retirement age, and is due to vote on the full text on Wednesday.

States Are Poised to Be Next Credit Crisis for US: Whitney

Here comes the next $ Trillion bailout Ladies and Gentlemen.



States Are Poised to Be Next Credit Crisis for US: Whitney

Crippling debts and deficits are about to make individual states the next casualty of the credit crisis, analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC.

 

Speaking as her firm, Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, just released a lengthy report on the state of the states, the noted financial analyst compared the looming explosion to the collapse of the financial system in 2008 and 2009.

"The similarities between the states and the banks are extreme to the extent that states have been spending dramatically and are leveraged dramatically," she said. "Municipal debt has doubled since 2000, spending has grown way faster than revenues."

Whitney also offered another warning about banks, saying a sharp dropoff in trading revenue and a double-dip in housing would hammer at fourth-quarter earnings.

But she reserved her harshest words for the states. She said the paper released Tuesday was the culmination of two years' work by her firm and was made even more difficult by the lack of reliable data on state spending and debt.

"It reminded me so much of the banks pre-crisis that we just kept working at it," she said. "We couldn't find anything that gave us a clear story, we couldn't find any information that was transparent. So we did it ourselves."

There were some bright spots: Texas, Virginia and Nebraska were among states that have done a good job of controlling their finances over the years and aren't threatened as much.

But other states, such as California and Michigan, will burden the entire country should the federal government decide to step in with a bailout. States are required to balance their budgets, but massive debt-service payments could prevent that from happening in many states and necessitate the federal government to step in.

"You have to look at the states and the risk that the states pose, because the crisis with the states will result in an attempt at least for the third near-trillion-dollar bailout," Whitney said. "That has consequences on the dollar, that has consequences on just about everything. It certainly has consequences on the US recovery."

"Imagine you're conservative, fiscally sound Nebraska and you have to bail out California, or you're fiscally conservative Texas and now you have to bail out Michigan," she added.

On the banks, Whitney reiterated her call that some 80,000 financial services jobs will be lost this year, based on an expected 25 percent sequential decline in equity trading and "low single-digit" returns on equity.

On top of that, she said housing numbers will begin to worsen. The monthly Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller housing report earlier in the day signaled that home prices were flattening but stabilizing; Whitney said that reading is going to get progressively worse.

"This quarter is going to be unique for the banks because this will be the last quarter when they can dodge the credit bullet," she said. "We think October, after the banks report, you'll see a really ugly Case-Shiller number, which means the fourth quarter is going to be very tough for banks."