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Tracking the Union-Tribune Deal: Five parcels sold for a total of $51.2 million
@SurfPuppy -- Let me explain what I mean by "established" and "connected". By 'established' I mean you've owned your present home for more than 10 years. How many folks under 40 can say that? (I'm sure the data exists, but lets agree that it's just about nobody in CA.) So property owners under 40 subsidize those over 40. I don't think there's much disputing that. There's a similar dynamic for folks who move to CA and those who have simply taken longer to earn their way up to homeownership -- for many many years they pay roughly market-rate property taxes, subsidizing those who have been established much longer. Save for one exception, the "connected". Here I'm on less solid ground, but my understanding is that the wealthy and well-connected find loopholes to transfer property without invoking a reassessment for property tax purposes. All of this is a lot of collateral damage for something that was supposed to be about helping the elderly stay in their homes. And I suspect the authors knew that.— May 9, 2009 4:39 p.m.
Tracking the Union-Tribune Deal: Five parcels sold for a total of $51.2 million
On Prop13: There are ways to protect the elderly that don't involve massive subsidy of the established, the connected, and corporations by the rest of us. Prop13 desperately needs to be fixed.— May 8, 2009 9:54 a.m.
Pension Deficit $2 Billion, Funded Ratio 66.3 Percent
> the PD and FD, and those are not skilled or professional The PD and FD aren't skilled? God, I hope that's not true.— February 12, 2009 7:59 p.m.
Pension Deficit $2 Billion, Funded Ratio 66.3 Percent
@ #9/Jvegas -- Again, I'm not really trying to justify municipal high pay by referencing absurdly higher corporate high pay. But I am trying to add perspective. We should recognize that $165,870 represents the very top of City retirement pay. That's why I referenced the corporate heights. What we really should look at are medians -- in municipal and private. But even there, some caution is advised. Most City jobs are skilled or professional. Comparing those with a private pool that includes a very large entry-level base isn't apples to apples either. The other point I was making, and that I think is uncontroversial, is that chief administrators in the municipal world are qualified for jobs in the corporate world that pay much better. Turning around and slagging those folks for their "high pay" when they really could earn much better seems misguided.— February 12, 2009 3:32 p.m.
Pension Deficit $2 Billion, Funded Ratio 66.3 Percent
But to be fair, 86 high ticket retirees out of how many City retirees altogether? And, while I know you make no excuses for Wall Street either, at the tip top of $165,870 that's what... a Wall Street per diem? I'm not trying to make excuses myself, truly. But if that's the municipal equivalent to a CEO paycheck, then sure, them that can tie their shoes in the corporate world will.— February 11, 2009 10:40 p.m.