[quote] Spiking Pension Costs Squeeze San Diego Budget
January 10, 2017
The city of San Diego’s projected budget shortfall for the next fiscal year has ballooned by nearly $10 million because of new data from the municipal employees’ pension system, financial management staff reported Tuesday.
The looming deficit could force spending cuts or delays in implementing new projects and initiatives.
In a report issued two months ago, city officials estimated that they would have to close a $37 million gap between revenues and expenses when budgeting for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Because the pension system’s investments didn’t perform up to expectations, and changes to actuarial assumptions by the SDCERS board, that figure was expected to rise by around $36 million for the next fiscal year, to nearly $228 million.
[quote] Financial Outlook Shows San Diego’s Revenue Will Grow
NOVEMBER 18, 2015
The anticipated surpluses begin at $200,000 for the next fiscal year, and grow in subsequent years to $7.9 million, $25.1 million, $46.4 million, and $73.7 million.
The surplus predictions include a baseline — reflecting projected revenues along with the cost of maintaining current service levels — plus what the authors call “priority initiatives,” which include infrastructure projects and public safety.
The projections don’t include factors that occasionally pop up, like increases in contributions to the employee pension system.
perhaps its not yet time for a financial post-mortem, but why did TPTB deliberately exclude a three decade SOP in the financial projections?
[quote] ‘13th check’ bonus for retired city employees hits record
December 2, 2016
The holiday season bonus for retired city workers is back — beating out last year’s total and setting a new record for the “13th check” program.
The payments, which go beyond San Diego retirees’ usual 12 monthly payments, were distributed earlier this week and cost the pension fund more than $6.4 million.
That’s a 4 percent increase from 2015, making it the largest payout in the history of the three-decade-old practice.
You can fool all the people some of the time,
and some of the people all the time,
but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
in other “local” news… credible news sources report
[quote] Apple sues Qualcomm for $1 billion
January 20, 2017
Apple Inc. is suing Qualcomm Inc., alleging the smartphone-chip supplier demanded onerous terms for its technology and that it sought to punish Apple for cooperating in a Korean regulatory probe into Qualcomm’s licensing practices.
The suit, which Apple said it filed Friday in federal district court in the Southern District of California, claims that Qualcomm leveraged its position as a manufacturer of a critical chip used in cellphones to seek “onerous, unreasonable and costly” terms for patents and blocked Apple’s ability to choose another supplier for chipsets.
