For Once, Good News on Pension Front - SignOnSanDiego.com

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By Union-Tribune Editorial Board

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s opinion this week holding that a highly promising pension reform is legal is great news for San Diego’s besieged taxpayers.

Goldsmith concluded that the city is not required to count pay sweeteners providing extra compensation when calculating pension formulas. If coupled with a freeze on base salaries, this means city employee pensions could be effectively capped. Councilman Carl DeMaio deserves credit for coming up with this proposal, which he estimates could save nearly $300 million over the next five years if it is fully implemented
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H. Res. 23: Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Government Should not Bai Out State or Local Government Pension Plans

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Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Government should not bail out State and local government employee pension plans or other plans that provide post-employment benefits to State and local government retirees.

Sponsor: Rep. Jason Chaffetz [R-UT3) Cosponsors: Jeff Flake [R-AZ6, Doug Lamborn [R-CO5],Cathy McMorris Rodgers [R-WA5]Devin Nunes [R-CA21]

This resolution is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills and resolutions first go to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills and resolutions never make it out of committee.

[Last Updated: Jan 7, 2011 12:00PM] Last Action:Jan 6, 2011: Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

H. Res. 23: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Government should not bail... (GovTrack.us)

STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS’ FISCAL OUTLOOK

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What GAO Found
The state and local government sector continues to face near- and long-term fiscal challenges which grow over time. Although the sector’s near-term operating balance remains negative, increases in federal grants-in-aid—largely from the Recovery Act—alleviated some near-term pressure. As shown in the insert to the figure below, the March 2010 operating balance measure (including 2009 Recovery Act funds) shows an improvement compared to the January 2009 simulation. In the near-term, the sector’s fiscal position can be attributed to several factors, including steep revenue declines.

GAO projects that the sector’s long-term fiscal position will steadily decline through 2060 absent any policy changes, as shown in figure 1. The decline in the sector’s operating balance is primarily driven by rising health care costs. The fiscal challenges confronting the state and local sector add to the nation’s overall fiscal difficulties. Because most state and local governments are required to balance their operating budgets, the declining fiscal conditions shown in GAO’s simulations suggest the fiscal pressures the sector faces and the extent to which these governments will need to make substantial policy changes to avoid growing imbalances.
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Stop citing spending ratios! - The Hill's Pundits Blog

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By Terence Kane

There is a lot to like about David Brooks’s column today in The New York Times. I do want to respond briefly to his point about spending on children and seniors. Brooks cites a recent study by Julia Isaacs at the Brookings Institution that lists the ratio of federal spending between seniors and children at 7:1. Various other columnists have picked up this headline-generating ratio. Notice, pundits rarely use the 2.4:1 ratio for all government spending — most government spending on children is at the local and state level — since it plays less into their selected narrative. More broadly, it does not matter what ratio they cite; they are both deeply flawed.

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Opinion of State Governments Drops With the Economy, Budget Gaps - Pew Research Center

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New Administration Changes Partisan Views of Federal Government With the economy wreaking havoc on state budgets, the favorability ratings of state governments have declined from a year ago. Overall, 50% of the public now holds a favorable opinion of their state government, down from 59% in April 2008. The falloff in positive views has been greater in states with large and moderate budget shortfalls than in states with smaller budget gaps. As positive ratings of state governments have declined, people's ratings of their local governments have remained relatively stable. By nearly a two-to-one margin, Americans express a favorable opinion of their local governments (60% favorable, 32% unfavorable), which is largely unchanged from April 2008 (63% favorable). The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted July 22-26, 2009 finds that favorability ratings of the federal government have rebounded somewhat since last year. Currently, 50% have an unfavorable opinion of the federal government while 42% express a favorable view. By comparison, in April 2008 views of the federal government were the lowest they have been in a decade (58% unfavorable, 37% favorable). Read More