Had a helicopter buzz me at the beach one day, just hovering and staring for about 10 min. Like what, I'm some crack smuggler pretending to sun bathe? Another friend of mine spent 9 grand on his "life flight" journey to a hospital. What the hell do those things cost to fly and maintain anyway? And what's all the joy riding for? Heard one buzzing Neptune last night for a long time. Was this the one in the pic?
This "pilot" was on a job interview, cut engine for typical cut engine landing where need to start engine up again, like in an emergency, but engine just couldn't start and had to crash land just two feet above his non landing area. Who directed Mr. Job Interview to try this on our beach? Don't think the job applicant pilot did this on his own.
Who gives a Shit about a helicopter crash landing when our City Council is CRASHING OUR CITY'S FUTURE.
Apparently, the public is once again clueless.....
First, you beleive a high school barely grad Realtor to tell you that prices will only go up.
Secondly, you borrow money against your home to buy that oh so sweet Audi....
Than, you have to remodel and put all those fancy trim all around your house, while depleting your savings.
Don't worry. YOur LOCAL government has been spending more and getting more into DEBT every day than you could ever dream.
Locally in Encinitas- A $20 million dollar library that today could be built for $10 million dollars. Then, a $5 million dollar fire McMansion that should have cost about $1 million. Next, lets build a $100,000,000 million dollar Regional Sport Complex all on the dime of our small local town.
Wow. Are our local politicians clueless.
The biggest expense that our City Council needs to address is the HUGE 50% increase in every City Emloyees Pension for life. Just approved last year.
Jerome Stocks and all are a sell out and bankrupting our City's future.
See the below article.
REGION: Huge pension fund losses could require reforms Stock market hammers county employees retirement program
By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer | Thursday, February 19, 2009 8:39 PM PST ∞
SAN DIEGO ---- Drastic changes to the county's employee pension plan could be coming as a result of huge losses in the pension fund on Wall Street in recent months, officials say.
The pension fund, estimated at $8.4 billion last year, has lost about $2.5 billion of its value in the last six months as a result of a downturn in the market, said Supervisor Dianne Jacob. She is also a member of the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association's Board of Retirement, which oversees the fund.
"There are going to have to be some changes in the pension," Jacob said Thursday.
While the staggering losses are not directly linked to a 2002 benefit increase that resulted in a gap of more than $1 billion in the pension fund, some critics say the raise compounded the county's pension problems.
The pension fund provides an average of $28,284 a year to nearly 13,000 retired county employees.
Jacob sounded the alarm on the pension losses during her State of the County address last week, calling the losses "jaw-dropping." She said that even if the markets bounce back, the required annual contribution by the county could grow to about $700 million over the next five years to make up for the losses.
If that happened, the county's share of the payments would be larger than what it spends on public safety, including the Sheriff's department and the District Attorney's office, which was about $500 million in 2008.
The increased payments also would worsen an already ailing county budget. The Board of Supervisors recently eliminated 27 positions as a result of falling revenues, including building permit fees, state funding for health programs and lower than expected sales and property taxes.
Other members of the retirement board expressed concern Thursday over the pension fund.
"We're in new, uncharted territory," said Dan McAllister, a member of the board and the county's treasurer-tax collector.
Pension fund managers said they are making adjustments to their investments to try to minimize future losses. But adjustments alone will not fix the problem.
To make up for the pension fund losses, Jacob said the county may have to raise the retirement age, reduce benefits, and ask its employees to shoulder a larger share of the costs. All of those ideas should be on the table, she said.
The county's annual contributions to the pension fund have grown over the past 10 years from $36 million in 1999 to $329 million last year. That doesn't include the employees' contributions, which were $45.5 million in 2008.
Some of the increase in the county's share of the burden is because of a raise in the benefits approved by the County Board of Supervisors in 2002.
In order to recruit and retain better employees, the supervisors approved a new formula for calculating retirement benefits that increased retirees' annual payments by about 50 percent, according to minutes of board meetings at the time.
Under the old formula, county employees could expect to get 2 percent of their highest salary, multiplied by the number of years they worked for the county. The new formula increased the benefit to 3 percent of their highest salary, multiplied by the number of years they worked for the county.
That means that a 30-year employee who earned $60,000 could expect to receive $36,000 a year at retirement under the old formula, compared with $54,000 under the new formula.
The new benefit was made available retroactively to all county workers, which increased the pension fund's liability by over $1 billion. To make up the difference, the county borrowed the money to fill the gap.
Jacob said the current problem has nothing to do with the 2002 decision to increase the benefits. She blamed the $2.5 million loss entirely on Wall Street.
"The pension enhancements that the Board of Supervisors put in place in 2002 is not the reason for the projected increase in the county's contribution," Jacob said. "It is strictly the losses in the market. If we had not experienced the losses in the market, we would not be facing this situation that we're facing today."
While the country's pension problem can't be blamed entirely on the benefit increase, it does contribute, said Lani Lutar, president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.
"A significant portion for that was the increase in benefits," Lutar said.
The broken tail happened during the rough beach landing. I didn't think helicopters could fly with that sort of damage.
ReplyDeleteYour powers of observation are fucking stellar.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else think the low flying helicopters are a nuisance and a hazard?
ReplyDeleteHad a helicopter buzz me at the beach one day, just hovering and staring for about 10 min. Like what, I'm some crack smuggler pretending to sun bathe? Another friend of mine spent 9 grand on his "life flight" journey to a hospital. What the hell do those things cost to fly and maintain anyway? And what's all the joy riding for? Heard one buzzing Neptune last night for a long time. Was this the one in the pic?
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned, they oughta practice their auto-rotation manuvers in Hillcrest.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna catch me a few with a kite this weekend!
ReplyDeleteRetards fucking retards.
ReplyDeleteThis "pilot" was on a job interview, cut engine for typical cut engine landing where need to start engine up again, like in an emergency, but engine just couldn't start and had to crash land just two feet above his non landing area. Who directed Mr. Job Interview to try this on our beach? Don't think the job applicant pilot did this on his own.
ReplyDeleteWho gives a Shit about a helicopter crash landing when our City Council is CRASHING OUR CITY'S FUTURE.
ReplyDeleteApparently, the public is once again clueless.....
First, you beleive a high school barely grad Realtor to tell you that prices will only go up.
Secondly, you borrow money against your home to buy that oh so sweet Audi....
Than, you have to remodel and put all those fancy trim all around your house, while depleting your savings.
Don't worry. YOur LOCAL government has been spending more and getting more into DEBT every day than you could ever dream.
Locally in Encinitas- A $20 million dollar library that today could be built for $10 million dollars. Then, a $5 million dollar fire McMansion that should have cost about $1 million. Next, lets build a $100,000,000 million dollar Regional Sport Complex all on the dime of our small local town.
Wow. Are our local politicians clueless.
The biggest expense that our City Council needs to address is the HUGE 50% increase in every City Emloyees Pension for life. Just approved last year.
Jerome Stocks and all are a sell out and bankrupting our City's future.
See the below article.
REGION: Huge pension fund losses could require reforms
Stock market hammers county employees retirement program
By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer | Thursday, February 19, 2009 8:39 PM PST ∞
SAN DIEGO ---- Drastic changes to the county's employee pension plan could be coming as a result of huge losses in the pension fund on Wall Street in recent months, officials say.
The pension fund, estimated at $8.4 billion last year, has lost about $2.5 billion of its value in the last six months as a result of a downturn in the market, said Supervisor Dianne Jacob. She is also a member of the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association's Board of Retirement, which oversees the fund.
"There are going to have to be some changes in the pension," Jacob said Thursday.
While the staggering losses are not directly linked to a 2002 benefit increase that resulted in a gap of more than $1 billion in the pension fund, some critics say the raise compounded the county's pension problems.
The pension fund provides an average of $28,284 a year to nearly 13,000 retired county employees.
Jacob sounded the alarm on the pension losses during her State of the County address last week, calling the losses "jaw-dropping." She said that even if the markets bounce back, the required annual contribution by the county could grow to about $700 million over the next five years to make up for the losses.
If that happened, the county's share of the payments would be larger than what it spends on public safety, including the Sheriff's department and the District Attorney's office, which was about $500 million in 2008.
The increased payments also would worsen an already ailing county budget. The Board of Supervisors recently eliminated 27 positions as a result of falling revenues, including building permit fees, state funding for health programs and lower than expected sales and property taxes.
Other members of the retirement board expressed concern Thursday over the pension fund.
"We're in new, uncharted territory," said Dan McAllister, a member of the board and the county's treasurer-tax collector.
Pension fund managers said they are making adjustments to their investments to try to minimize future losses. But adjustments alone will not fix the problem.
To make up for the pension fund losses, Jacob said the county may have to raise the retirement age, reduce benefits, and ask its employees to shoulder a larger share of the costs. All of those ideas should be on the table, she said.
The county's annual contributions to the pension fund have grown over the past 10 years from $36 million in 1999 to $329 million last year. That doesn't include the employees' contributions, which were $45.5 million in 2008.
Some of the increase in the county's share of the burden is because of a raise in the benefits approved by the County Board of Supervisors in 2002.
In order to recruit and retain better employees, the supervisors approved a new formula for calculating retirement benefits that increased retirees' annual payments by about 50 percent, according to minutes of board meetings at the time.
Under the old formula, county employees could expect to get 2 percent of their highest salary, multiplied by the number of years they worked for the county. The new formula increased the benefit to 3 percent of their highest salary, multiplied by the number of years they worked for the county.
That means that a 30-year employee who earned $60,000 could expect to receive $36,000 a year at retirement under the old formula, compared with $54,000 under the new formula.
The new benefit was made available retroactively to all county workers, which increased the pension fund's liability by over $1 billion. To make up the difference, the county borrowed the money to fill the gap.
Jacob said the current problem has nothing to do with the 2002 decision to increase the benefits. She blamed the $2.5 million loss entirely on Wall Street.
"The pension enhancements that the Board of Supervisors put in place in 2002 is not the reason for the projected increase in the county's contribution," Jacob said. "It is strictly the losses in the market. If we had not experienced the losses in the market, we would not be facing this situation that we're facing today."
While the country's pension problem can't be blamed entirely on the benefit increase, it does contribute, said Lani Lutar, president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.
"A significant portion for that was the increase in benefits," Lutar said.
ITS TIME FOR THE TAX PAYER TO WAKE UP!!!!
VOTE OUT THE INCUMBENTS!!!!
ITS TIME FOR TERM LIMITS!!!!!!!!!!!