…a $23,000 “limited-edition fountain pen in 18-carat solid gold… engraved with Gandhi’s image and tricked out with a saffron-colored mandarin garnet on the clip and a rhodium-plated nib” from Montblanc?

Just got back from the last meeting of the Pension Reform Commission, where they declined to decide which of their proposals (now complete with cost estimates) to recommend to the Legislature. It’s a pretty unsatisfying outcome to a process that promised, at one point, to provide a cost-neutral set of recommendations to the Legislature. However, a close reading of their enabling statute shows that their were entitled to conduct a study and not make recommendations. An interesting subtext to this discussion is the primary public source of conflict on the commission — between PERAC and the Board chair (previously mentioned here). I encourage you to give PERAC’s costing analysis a close read. To paraphrase a colleague, there are plenty of […]

Or so says the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission. I read with interest the most recent memo from PERAC’s Actuarial Advisory Committee which had the following citation: We believe that maintaining a funding target of 100% is the desired goal. If the plan sponsor sets a goal of 100% funded and attains a funded ratio of 80%, that is not a bad result. In fact, the 2009 State of the Pension System published by PERAC stated: “ . . . public sector experts, union officials, and advocates believe, according to the GAO, that 80% is a responsible funded ratio for public pension systems”. Working backwards, the 2009 State of the Pension System document states the following: In this context, perspective […]

Re: Use of Email Tip #1: Don’t use it to try and engineer the installation of a lightly-qualified supporter into a plum job. Tip #2: Don’t repeat #1 a few months later with an even higher press profile. Tip #3: Don’t dispose of an authority head and blame them for something that your and their emails clearly contradict. Bonus Sub-Tip: Go easy on the WWII references. Tip #4: Don’t use email to lay out the political calculus for highly controversial decisions that are supposed to be made based on objective criteria. Thus ends today’s session at the Lomasney Center for Political Communications at Pioneer Institute.

– Boston should take a lot of pride in the quality, depth, and diversity of its at-large city council candidates. Top-to-bottom, this is a serious group, all worthy of consideration, and all seem to have run hard — marching in parades, doorknocking, leafleting. – Had the pleasure of walking down Centre Street in high-voting Ward 20 this morning at rush hour. There was a literal swarm of city employees — a BTD command center, DPW workers painting lampposts and powerwashing (!?) the sidewalks, street sweepers, construction workers rebuilding the library, and, of course, supervisors for everyone. Must be election season in Boston. – The Herald threw a curveball into the at-large race. First, they endorsed five candidates (and you can […]

secretary of transportation in Massachusetts or drummer in Spinal Tap? Good luck and g*dspeed, Jeffrey Mullan.

I’ve blogged in the past about the comments of several members of the Pension Reform Commission who have talked about possibly raising the amount spent on pensions for public employees. Now that the Commission has submitted their initial list of potential proposals to PERAC’s actuary for costing, several members have reinforced my initial opinion: “The whole idea of cost neutrality, I don’t know how you balance that when it gets to the legislature,” said state Sen. Kenneth Donnelly, a former commissioner with the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission. “I think the chairman (Munnell) believed it would be good to have a cost-neutral proposal. I don’t know if that’s really possible,” the Arlington Democrat said. and “Reform does not mean ‘take […]

The above statistic was used in both our press release for our Questions for Boston’s 2009 Mayoral Candidates Project and by moderator Jon Keller in the last debate (see transcript here, I don’t know the site and cannot vouch for overall accuracy). That number is based on information provided on the state’s Division of Unemployment Assistance website (see here) that utilizes information from the federal Local Area Unemployment Statistics Project. I used that website to get a monthly number for the number of employed Boston residents from 1990 to 2009. (see the raw data here) Taking the low water mark of 1990 – September — and subtracting that from May 2009 (which was the most current available at the time […]

You know that feeling you get when you are watching a particular genre of murder mystery and everyone in the audience sees the criminal lurking but the clueless protagonist has no idea? That’s the feeling you get when you read the SEC’s Inspector General’s report on their decade-long, multi-office, multi-inquiry bungling of the Madoff investigation. All throughout the document, you read about how close they came to revealing his fraud but always fell short. The problems seem to fall into three main categories — 1) inexperienced staffers who did not understand investment operations and strategy (a bad thing if you are an enforcement officer at the SEC), 2) a remarkable lack of follow-through on basic inconsistencies or easily verifiable assertions […]

…use colonoscopy metaphors (third para, first sentence) about someone with Crohn’s Disease. Really, it isn’t.

Monday’s Pension Reform Commission had a couple of recommendations that deserve follow-up and discussion. They appear headed to a full commission recommendation of extending the funding schedule by another 10 years and to allow any future expansion of liabilities to be amortized over 20 years. To put it in perspective, Massachusetts figured out in the late ’80s that a pay-as-you-go pension system was not sustainable and started to sock money away in pension funds. Of course, a huge liability had been accrued that couldn’t be paid all at once. So, it was decided that we would pay that liability off over 40 years, culminating in fully funded pension plans in the 2020s. However, for a variety of reasons — expanded […]

(Ed. Note — Pioneer Institute urges compliance with all local, state, and federal laws.) I used to be one of those people who crept through the Fast Lane readers, believing that it needed time to read my transponder. Then a gentleman who made part of the transponder’s insides informed me that they can read at very high speeds. Meanwhile, State Auditor Joe DeNucci has found that a number of folks are being overcharged by the FastLane system. Peter Samuel of Toll Road News looks into the issue and finds that, at low speeds in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the system can’t distinguish between the break between vehicles. What that means is that the person in the first car is getting charged for […]

This morning’s Globe reports that Massachusetts will lose a Congressional seat based on the expected results of the 2010 census, which would require redistricting before the 2012 elections. My preference would be for an independent commission to handle redistricting, but I know that is not likely. (Look here for our current districts.) But how about some guidelines for the Legislature as it thinks about redistricting: – Eliminate the Fourth District — This is currently Barney Frank’s district (N.B. — I’m not saying get rid of the Congressman, I’m saying change his district.) and it stretches from Newton (his hometown) down to Fall River and New Bedford. In a few spots, it appears to be about a mile wide. The district […]

Today’s Globe letters to the editor section contains a number of responses to David Segal’s op-ed on charter schools — where he states that the growth of charters (and their entrance lotteries specifically) was creating a divide between those students with active, engaged parents and those without. He calls for an opt-out (versus opt-in) lottery for each charter school. I’m a bit curious why the op-ed (as printed in the Boston, emphasis on Boston, Globe) doesn’t engage the fact that the basis for school assignment across the entire Boston Public School system is…….a lottery. (my previous thoughts on that system are here)

The Special Commission on Pension Reform met again on Monday. I was struck by the Commission’s eagerness to raise the COLA base and their reluctance to seriously consider much meaningful cost-savings. The approach they are taking is like going to McDonalds and ordering five Big Macs but making a special point to get a Diet Coke. The changes that are being considered will result in savings for new employees only (to be realized in 20+ years) but enhanced benefits will apply to current employees and retirees (adding costs now). I’m not opposed to an increase in the COLA base in principle but I think we need to have a sustainable means for funding in place, or we just exacerbate the […]