Arising in the morning in Marysville means a routine. Check for trash out front from diners disposing of their Taco Bell wrappers or from adult beverage containers discarded by transients. Look for unconscious vagrants. Dead or alive, call 911, then hose off the vomit and body fluids. Oh, and watch for deposits of human feces. Let’s see, which tote, green, blue or gray?
Then it’s off to see what tax or assessment is being pitched to us now. It appears that there is no turning back from full-on socialism. Politicians and the public will go off the cliff together ala Calezuela. Lifetime government pensions at nearly full pay are politically sacred and even the spouse of a dead worker can cash-in under certain CalPERS (Calif Public Employee Retirement System) programs.
All the while CalPERS is more interested in social engineering than making money on investments. They rarely hit their target investment return of 7% which is odd when a local financial advisor can get those returns regularly.
CalPERS lost $3.581 billion in investment gains by divesting from tobacco stocks, which amounts to about 1% of current assets, during a 17-plus-year period ending June 30, 2018, according to Wilshire Associates, the pension system’s general investment consultant. CalPERS board members say tobacco made people sick and is dirty, bad, nasty.
The CalPERS board is proud and ‘politically correct.’ Members, who are chosen for their sexual proclivity and what politician they’re screwing or funding, believe divesting of offensive stocks is a good deal, even though it’s a loser financially.
Additional divestures from firearms, (formerly) apartheid South Africa, Iran and others cost the fund another $8 billion. The fund grew only from about $170 billion to just over $300 billion during the same period that the Dow erupted from about 6,400 to just over 21,000. If CalPERS had followed the same path as the Dow Industrials, the fund would be valued at or near $540 billion rather than just over $300 billion.
While CalPERS enjoys the luxury of choosing investments that promote its ‘social justice’ values, the meager returns are made-up by the member municipalities and counties. ‘Social justice’ also includes investing to promote carbon footprint reduction, gender diversity, wage equality, anti-fossil fuels etc.
South Yuba residents feel like they are getting hustled once again to fund spiking CalPERS payroll costs with threats of higher flood insurance rates and flood risks and no more development unless they double the amount in assessments for Reclamation District 784 (RD784). PR fliers sent to residents were neither informative nor transparent.
Residents looking at Three River Levee Improvement Agency (TRLIA), RD784 and Yuba Water Agency (YWA) budgets see huge increase in salary and benefits at RD784 and millions of dollars available in TRLIA and YWA. So, why take more money from the taxpayer when TRLIA and YWA already have taxpayers’ money for levees and flood control?
As for RD784, one citizen’s budget analysis for 2019-2020 concluded that overall Expenditures have increased by 59% from $1.8M (million) to $2.9M. Primary increases in expenditures show Salaries & Benefits up by 87% from $0.49M to $0.9M. Maintenance costs have jumped by 62% from $0.53M to $0.84M. And Services and Supplies have increased by 145% from $0.17M to $0.41M.
Aside from CalPERS ripping-off the taxpayer in pension and benefits costs let’s assume that all other RD784 increased expenses represent a bare-bones lean-and-mean budget. Then, why does the county have to triple-gouge the citizens?
YWA keeps saying their primary mission is flood control, water management, hydropower etc. and they only need a nexus to their mission to spend money. They amazingly found a nexus with flood control to pave North Beale Rd and Olivehurst Ave. and clean-up homeless camps. So, why doesn’t the YWA mission with $100 million in the bank include the Gold Fields levee construction and helping backfill RD784’s budget shortfall?