Home › Forums › Financial Markets/Economics › More public pension loony tunes – now Providence RI is in trouble
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CA renter.
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May 12, 2012 at 4:55 AM #743661May 12, 2012 at 8:39 AM #743662
CDMA ENG
Participant[quote=bearishgurl][quote=CDMA ENG]…And for the latest (sic) time… Everyone is fed up with “try it for yourself” argument … I know I can do 99 percent of government jobs… I don’t need to tryi (sic) it. I’m a smart guy… Maybe not a traffic (sic) writer or speller because I am too lazy to put this in word (sic) first… But I could do police work, fire, administrator, planner, or whatever but I can say this… Most of those people couldn’t do my job.[/quote] (emphasis added)
LOL …..
[quote=CDMA ENG][quote=CA renter]Wrong. The reason all these rules are put into place is because of the liability. Public agencies are viewed as “deep pockets” and are major targets of scammers who are looking for a lawsuit. These rules are put into place to protect taxpayers from these HUGE liabilities that, unlike in the private sector, cannot easily be discharged.
This is also why they cannot hire $10/hr rent-a-cops or other flunkies. They need to hire the most competent employees because of the liabilty.
BTW, have you ever tried out for police or fire? Before you make claims, why don’t you go through the process and see if you get any job offers. There are many exceptionally smart people in public service, too. You’re not any more “special” than they are.[/quote]
Liability… Most of the rules above apply to productivity not to liability… Again the rules were created because people were taking advantage of the system. The management without the ability to fire someone for performance issue (sic) had to created (sic) rules in which to base performance so that they could get rid of the deadbeats… I dont have these rules because they can fire me if it suits there (sic) needs. They dont have to build a huge case file against me to let me go… But a public union memember (sic) …And lastly…
Your (sic) fucking kidding me right… About the Police and Fire? I passed engineering school I think I can pass an AA program at the local CC… I am not a nerd… I am a 200 plus pound ex jock. I can pass the physical as well… and I I’ll say it… I am more special than most of them… Why? Because I pursued more than the avergage (sic) person…[/quote] (emphasis added; sans punctuation and sentence structure)
CE, are you familiar with the “POST Academy” and the different skill sets required to pass it as the first prerequisite to getting on the list for hire in CA police/fire agencies?
…Students are required to have the all of the equipment listed below on the first day of attending the academy. All recruits will report by 0645 hours to a class, in the A-200 building (classroom number will be posted), wearing their Academy class ‘B’ uniform…
****************************************
Additional purchases:
Recruits should be prepared to purchase, on the first day of the Academy, approximately $5.00 worth of Scantron Test Forms (30 F-166).
Prior to the first day of the academy, each recruit is required to have in their possession POST Student Workbooks for the following testable Learning Domains: 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40 and 43. P.O.S.T. Student Workbooks can be purchased from the Miramar College Book Store or through POST at https://docstore.kinkos.com/post_ca.
The “Basic Spanish for Law Enforcement” and “Defensive Tactics” workbooks are also required. The workbooks MUST be purchased at the College Bookstore, at a cost of approximately $200.00. Student Workbooks for all other Learning Domains are optional
Students will be required to purchase a current California Vehicle Code. This reference can be purchased at a DMV field office for $6.00 each.http://www.sdmiramar.edu/academics/policeacademy/studentinfo
Do you think you might be “smart enough” or “special enough” to get through it in one piece??
Just remember, you can’t go too far astray if your uniform is on correctly and you just answer everything with, “Sir!”
Uhhh, CE, on second thought, I think you’d best get some kneepads before enrolling. Looks like you’ll be doing a lot of “crawling around” out there. (And they’ll come in handy later, down at the station if you should finally get hired and are in desperate need of a “mentor” for report-writing.) :=D[/quote]
Yawn… Again… Light action.
CE
May 12, 2012 at 10:06 AM #743666no_such_reality
Participant[quote=CA renter]FWIW, we paid over $18,000 in taxes last year, and will be paying ~$650/month in property taxes every month on top of that (which is the primary revenue source for those wretched public pensions).
[/quote]As much as it often seems we are not, we actually are quite similar. I too pay roughly $650/month in property tax. I don’t recall if your house was transfered from your parents or if it’s a outright buy. From a tax roll perspective, we live in houses of roughly equivalent value. Probably similar socio-economic neighborhoods.
We aspire to the same things for our families. We want similar opportunities for our State and it’s people. We have differing views on how to accomplish that.
I have another 15 years or so to go (on top of the 25 ish already working) before ‘retiring’. At that time, I’ll be able to generate a sustained income from my ‘investments’ that will provide in income, that will roughly equivalent to the income today that would generate a $18K tax bill.
There is one major difference, our income tax, it is several mulitples of yours. That doesn’t include the FICA taxes or others, just income.
In the need for more taxes discussions, all the proposals are about increasing my taxes.
Doesn’t that seem incongruent?
May 12, 2012 at 10:26 AM #743671
CoronitaParticipantHmmm. what would ron paul do?
May 12, 2012 at 11:27 AM #743676bearishgurl
Participant[quote=jstoesz]anvil sisters…perfect…
You all will probably yawn at this, but I need to rant about my tax situation. I claim zero deductions for my wife and I, in fact we get a couple hundred taken out each month. We were saddled with huge graduate degree debt from my wife in excess of 6 figures, so we live pretty modest. Should be gone by years end…Rent is 1000k per month and we rarely go out to eat…I drive a 12 year old 205k mile car and my wife’s is 10 years old. So we are putting money towards loans. I got hit with a 9k tax bill last year, and 7k last year. Not sure what I need to do besides pop out some babies, buy a house, and put my wife back to part time/no time.[/quote]
jstoesz, I recommend you and your spouse stay the course. You have cheap rent right now. Your spouse’s very large student loan will likely follow her to her grave if she (and as a byproduct, you) take a deferment for any reason. You will also be able to qualify for a much larger mortgage (if the rest of your credit is good) IF her student loan is retired. If you put some of your paychecks in IRA’s or 401K Plans now, this will shelter it from income taxes but her student loan is likely at a higher rate than you could make from safe retirement investments. This is another reason I feel that ALL your discretionary income should be deployed towards her student loan in order to retire it ASAP.
As you get older, life happens which always costs money. The last thing she (and you) need is a voluminous student loan hanging over your heads, IMHO.
May 12, 2012 at 9:07 PM #743693jstoesz
Participant[quote=bearishgurl][quote=jstoesz]anvil sisters…perfect…
You all will probably yawn at this, but I need to rant about my tax situation. I claim zero deductions for my wife and I, in fact we get a couple hundred taken out each month. We were saddled with huge graduate degree debt from my wife in excess of 6 figures, so we live pretty modest. Should be gone by years end…Rent is 1000k per month and we rarely go out to eat…I drive a 12 year old 205k mile car and my wife’s is 10 years old. So we are putting money towards loans. I got hit with a 9k tax bill last year, and 7k last year. Not sure what I need to do besides pop out some babies, buy a house, and put my wife back to part time/no time.[/quote]
jstoesz, I recommend you and your spouse stay the course. You have cheap rent right now. Your spouse’s very large student loan will likely follow her to her grave if she (and as a byproduct, you) take a deferment for any reason. You will also be able to qualify for a much larger mortgage (if the rest of your credit is good) IF her student loan is retired. If you put some of your paychecks in IRA’s or 401K Plans now, this will shelter it from income taxes but her student loan is likely at a higher rate than you could make from safe retirement investments. This is another reason I feel that ALL your discretionary income should be deployed towards her student loan in order to retire it ASAP.
As you get older, life happens which always costs money. The last thing she (and you) need is a voluminous student loan hanging over your heads, IMHO.[/quote]
Totally agree and that’s what we have been doing for the last couple years, but you can’t help feeling like you got a target on your back earning w2 money paying down debt. 0 deductions…how screwed up is that. Hell even with giving, we couldn’t make it over the standard deduction.
May 12, 2012 at 9:07 PM #743694Participant[quote=bearishgurl][quote=jstoesz]anvil sisters…perfect…
You all will probably yawn at this, but I need to rant about my tax situation. I claim zero deductions for my wife and I, in fact we get a couple hundred taken out each month. We were saddled with huge graduate degree debt from my wife in excess of 6 figures, so we live pretty modest. Should be gone by years end…Rent is 1000k per month and we rarely go out to eat…I drive a 12 year old 205k mile car and my wife’s is 10 years old. So we are putting money towards loans. I got hit with a 9k tax bill last year, and 7k last year. Not sure what I need to do besides pop out some babies, buy a house, and put my wife back to part time/no time.[/quote]
jstoesz, I recommend you and your spouse stay the course. You have cheap rent right now. Your spouse’s very large student loan will likely follow her to her grave if she (and as a byproduct, you) take a deferment for any reason. You will also be able to qualify for a much larger mortgage (if the rest of your credit is good) IF her student loan is retired. If you put some of your paychecks in IRA’s or 401K Plans now, this will shelter it from income taxes but her student loan is likely at a higher rate than you could make from safe retirement investments. This is another reason I feel that ALL your discretionary income should be deployed towards her student loan in order to retire it ASAP.
As you get older, life happens which always costs money. The last thing she (and you) need is a voluminous student loan hanging over your heads, IMHO.[/quote]
Totally agree and that’s what we have been doing for the last couple years, but you can’t help feeling like you got a target on your back earning w2 money paying down debt. 0 deductions…how screwed up is that. Hell even with giving, we couldn’t make it over the standard deduction.
May 12, 2012 at 9:07 PM #743695Participant[quote=bearishgurl][quote=jstoesz]anvil sisters…perfect…
You all will probably yawn at this, but I need to rant about my tax situation. I claim zero deductions for my wife and I, in fact we get a couple hundred taken out each month. We were saddled with huge graduate degree debt from my wife in excess of 6 figures, so we live pretty modest. Should be gone by years end…Rent is 1000k per month and we rarely go out to eat…I drive a 12 year old 205k mile car and my wife’s is 10 years old. So we are putting money towards loans. I got hit with a 9k tax bill last year, and 7k last year. Not sure what I need to do besides pop out some babies, buy a house, and put my wife back to part time/no time.[/quote]
jstoesz, I recommend you and your spouse stay the course. You have cheap rent right now. Your spouse’s very large student loan will likely follow her to her grave if she (and as a byproduct, you) take a deferment for any reason. You will also be able to qualify for a much larger mortgage (if the rest of your credit is good) IF her student loan is retired. If you put some of your paychecks in IRA’s or 401K Plans now, this will shelter it from income taxes but her student loan is likely at a higher rate than you could make from safe retirement investments. This is another reason I feel that ALL your discretionary income should be deployed towards her student loan in order to retire it ASAP.
As you get older, life happens which always costs money. The last thing she (and you) need is a voluminous student loan hanging over your heads, IMHO.[/quote]
Totally agree and that’s what we have been doing for the last couple years, but you can’t help feeling like you got a target on your back earning w2 money paying down debt. 0 deductions…how screwed up is that. Hell even with giving, we couldn’t make it over the standard deduction.
May 12, 2012 at 9:07 PM #743696Participant[quote=bearishgurl][quote=jstoesz]anvil sisters…perfect…
You all will probably yawn at this, but I need to rant about my tax situation. I claim zero deductions for my wife and I, in fact we get a couple hundred taken out each month. We were saddled with huge graduate degree debt from my wife in excess of 6 figures, so we live pretty modest. Should be gone by years end…Rent is 1000k per month and we rarely go out to eat…I drive a 12 year old 205k mile car and my wife’s is 10 years old. So we are putting money towards loans. I got hit with a 9k tax bill last year, and 7k last year. Not sure what I need to do besides pop out some babies, buy a house, and put my wife back to part time/no time.[/quote]
jstoesz, I recommend you and your spouse stay the course. You have cheap rent right now. Your spouse’s very large student loan will likely follow her to her grave if she (and as a byproduct, you) take a deferment for any reason. You will also be able to qualify for a much larger mortgage (if the rest of your credit is good) IF her student loan is retired. If you put some of your paychecks in IRA’s or 401K Plans now, this will shelter it from income taxes but her student loan is likely at a higher rate than you could make from safe retirement investments. This is another reason I feel that ALL your discretionary income should be deployed towards her student loan in order to retire it ASAP.
As you get older, life happens which always costs money. The last thing she (and you) need is a voluminous student loan hanging over your heads, IMHO.[/quote]
Totally agree and that’s what we have been doing for the last couple years, but you can’t help feeling like you got a target on your back earning w2 money paying down debt. 0 deductions…how screwed up is that. Hell even with giving, we couldn’t make it over the standard deduction.
May 12, 2012 at 9:07 PM #743697Participant[quote=bearishgurl][quote=jstoesz]anvil sisters…perfect…
You all will probably yawn at this, but I need to rant about my tax situation. I claim zero deductions for my wife and I, in fact we get a couple hundred taken out each month. We were saddled with huge graduate degree debt from my wife in excess of 6 figures, so we live pretty modest. Should be gone by years end…Rent is 1000k per month and we rarely go out to eat…I drive a 12 year old 205k mile car and my wife’s is 10 years old. So we are putting money towards loans. I got hit with a 9k tax bill last year, and 7k last year. Not sure what I need to do besides pop out some babies, buy a house, and put my wife back to part time/no time.[/quote]
jstoesz, I recommend you and your spouse stay the course. You have cheap rent right now. Your spouse’s very large student loan will likely follow her to her grave if she (and as a byproduct, you) take a deferment for any reason. You will also be able to qualify for a much larger mortgage (if the rest of your credit is good) IF her student loan is retired. If you put some of your paychecks in IRA’s or 401K Plans now, this will shelter it from income taxes but her student loan is likely at a higher rate than you could make from safe retirement investments. This is another reason I feel that ALL your discretionary income should be deployed towards her student loan in order to retire it ASAP.
As you get older, life happens which always costs money. The last thing she (and you) need is a voluminous student loan hanging over your heads, IMHO.[/quote]
Totally agree and that’s what we have been doing for the last couple years, but you can’t help feeling like you got a target on your back earning w2 money paying down debt. 0 deductions…how screwed up is that. Hell even with giving, we couldn’t make it over the standard deduction.
May 12, 2012 at 10:24 PM #743699CA renter
Participant[quote=no_such_reality][quote=CA renter]FWIW, we paid over $18,000 in taxes last year, and will be paying ~$650/month in property taxes every month on top of that (which is the primary revenue source for those wretched public pensions).
[/quote]As much as it often seems we are not, we actually are quite similar. I too pay roughly $650/month in property tax. I don’t recall if your house was transfered from your parents or if it’s a outright buy. From a tax roll perspective, we live in houses of roughly equivalent value. Probably similar socio-economic neighborhoods.
We aspire to the same things for our families. We want similar opportunities for our State and it’s people. We have differing views on how to accomplish that.
I have another 15 years or so to go (on top of the 25 ish already working) before ‘retiring’. At that time, I’ll be able to generate a sustained income from my ‘investments’ that will provide in income, that will roughly equivalent to the income today that would generate a $18K tax bill.
There is one major difference, our income tax, it is several mulitples of yours. That doesn’t include the FICA taxes or others, just income.
In the need for more taxes discussions, all the proposals are about increasing my taxes.
Doesn’t that seem incongruent?[/quote]
If your income tax is that high, you should get down on your knees and thank God that you are one of the most fortunate people on this planet, by far.
http://piggington.com/ot_the_selfmade_myth
Part of our income (the part that I earn — in some years, it’s much more than half) is investment income, so our taxes would go up as well. I have no problem having “unearned income” taxed at the same rate as earned income. As a matter of fact, I think that unearned income should be taxed at a higher rate, but I know that will never happen because capital writes the rules, especially now.
May 13, 2012 at 7:21 PM #743732ctr70
ParticipantI think we missed the point with “occupy Wall Street”. We should have been “occupying” the pension management offices at city halls and state capitals across America, and in Wash DC.
End of story…everyone in the public sector should get a standard 401k just like the rest of us private sector schmucks (especially elected officials!). Any taxpayer backstopped pensions going forward should be gone forever, PERIOD.
May 14, 2012 at 11:06 AM #743757Anonymous
Guest[quote=CA renter]I think that unearned income should be taxed at a higher rate, but I know that will never happen because capital writes the rules, especially now.[/quote]
Does that “unearned income” include the investment gains that accumulate in the coffers at CalPERS and CalSTRS?
Tell us again, who are these folks you call “capital?”
May 14, 2012 at 11:12 AM #743760Guest[quote=ctr70]End of story…everyone in the public sector should get a standard 401k just like the rest of us private sector schmucks (especially elected officials!). Any taxpayer backstopped pensions going forward should be gone forever, PERIOD.[/quote]
Absolutely.
There are few issues in our world today with such a simple, straightforward solution.
Now if only the public could hear the message.
But it’s hard to hear anything when the Anvil Sisters have their amplifiers cranked to the max, as they play their not-so-catchy tune entitled “Obfuscation.”
May 14, 2012 at 3:35 PM #743789Participant[quote=harvey][quote=ctr70]End of story…everyone in the public sector should get a standard 401k just like the rest of us private sector schmucks (especially elected officials!). Any taxpayer backstopped pensions going forward should be gone forever, PERIOD.[/quote]
Absolutely.
There are few issues in our world today with such a simple, straightforward solution.
Now if only the public could hear the message.
But it’s hard to hear anything when the Anvil Sisters have their amplifiers cranked to the max, as they play their not-so-catchy tune entitled “Obfuscation.”[/quote]
pri, have you sharpened your pencil to begin gutting and pasting that pesky voluminous old legislation into a *new* redraft to eventually find its way in front of the “public” as I suggested to you and others here on a least two occasions??
You’ve repeated your vitriolic posts about this issue for much longer than the time if would have taken you to work closely with your legislator to drum up some votes among his/her brethren to get these issues on the ballot this year!!
I’ll get you started:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=03167410629+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=03183811816+1+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=03189212211+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=03434829811+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=034388113+9+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
etc.
If you want CHANGE, you need to be part of the solution! Instead, it seems “easier” to just post away into the blogosphere lamenting about how “unfair” it all is, lol …..
This isn’t something that be fixed by turning down one’s “amplifier.”
Time’s a wastin’ ……. So GET BUSY!! :=]
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