QUOTE OF THE DAY
Pension Funds Eye Reducing Hedge-Fund Investments
Pension-fund managers across the U.S. are rethinking their investments in hedge funds in the wake of a retreat by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.
In San Francisco, the chairman of that city’s pension fund has put on hold a vote to invest 15% of its assets in hedge funds. In Austin, Texas, officers responsible for the retirement savings of city police officers are discussing whether to withdraw all of their hedge-fund investments. In Harrisburg, Pa., a prominent state official asked the systems that manage money for teachers and other public workers to reconsider the $7.6 billion parked in such investments.
Wire Points: Illinois’ Most Pernicious Pension Lie
In the October 9 gubernatorial debate Governor Quinn said repeatedly that his administration has been making all appropriate payments into the state pensions. “I paid the proper amount in order to be actuarially sound,” Governor Quinn said.
Here is what the state’s own actuary said about that. It’s in the State’s Actuary Report (the “Report”) released in December 2013 by the Illinois Auditor General which incorporates materials from the state’s actuary, Cheiron. On the first one or two pages of each particular section of the Report for all five of the state’s pensions, in bold face, the actuary says,
CNBC: The depressing truth behind the jobs ‘recovery’
Unemployment is below 6 percent for the first time since 2008, but it’s not quite time to uncork the champagne when it comes to the jobs picture.
Wage growth in the U.S. has been flat for decades, providing an ugly counterweight to an ostensibly improving part of the economy.
September’s positive jobs report, which saw the unemployment rate fall to 5.9 percent, was celebrated on Wall Street, but a growing chorus of experts suggests that the jobless number alone may not be enough to measure the health of the labor markets. New research suggests there should be more attention paid to income trends.
Daily Herald: School districts host forum on Senate Bill 16
The public is invited to a forum hosted by Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54, Palatine Township Elementary District 15 and Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 to share information about Senate Bill 16 at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, at Schaumburg High School, 1100 W. Schaumburg Road in Schaumburg.
Officials from the three districts say Senate Bill 16 would dramatically reduce their state funding by redistributing general state aid they now receive to districts in other communities.
ChicagoNow: Yikes! Illinois financial crisis worsens
Didn’t think that it could get any worse? Fair warning Illinois voters, the state’s financial crisis is worse that what a lot of us thought. The Civic Federation of Chicago has done an eye-opening analysis of the state’s budget and came to some dire conclusions.
Despite claims (from the Democrat state candidates and leadership) that Illinois is catching up on its billions of unpaid bills, the tab actually is growing. Revenues are down, despite the huge “temporary” increase in income taxes. Already paying junk bond rates, the state will commit to even more borrowing. State pension payments will gobble up $1 of every $4 the state spends, further squeezing out social services, education and other pressing needs. There’s plenty more bad news (summarized below), but I can’t leave yet without mentioning that Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who deserves a lot of blame for the state’s financial mess, is getting $35 million out of the state’s general funds (the same funds that are supposed to pay for operating expenses, not for capital improvements) for a new school in his district. That will further ensure more benefits for his district and more votes for him, at your expense.
California’s School Reform Insurgency
California’s Democratic Party has long been a wholly owned subsidiary of public unions, but cracks are emerging in a crucial election for state schools superintendent. Charter-school leader Marshall Tuck is taking on incumbent Tom Torlakson in a race that will determine who controls the politics of education in the state.
Mr. Tuck, a former president of the Los Angeles-based Green Dot charter network, finished second to Mr. Torlakson in the state’s nonpartisan primary, and the reform Democrat is making his campaign a referendum on the failing status quo.
Teachers unions have spent hundreds of millions squashing legislation and citizen initiatives that would subvert their political monopoly such as private school vouchers (1993), tenure reform (2005) and bans on automatic paycheck dues deductions (1998, 2005 and 2012). They bankrolled Gov. Jerry Brown’s campaign to raise taxes in 2012, which has yielded an additional $10 billion in annual spending for K-12 education.
Chicago Sun Times: Is indicted ex-suburban official running for school board?
Chicago-area school board elections aren’t until April 7, but one potential candidate is already making waves in the northwest suburbs: Roy McCampbell.
He’s a Schiller Park School District 81 parent who, by some accounts, is gearing up to run for the District 81 school board in the spring.
And he’s a former comptroller and chief financial officer for the Village of Bellwood who was indicted in 2012 on eight counts of felony theft and four counts of official misconduct. He has been accused of, among other things, inflating his employment contracts and stealing more than $500,000 from municipal coffers in the western suburb, court records show.
Chicago Tribune: Ice arena operator who donated $165K to Bolingbrook mayor gets break on rent
At a Bolingbrook Village Board meeting in May, longtime Mayor Roger Claar lamented the high cost of hockey, not only for those who play it but for those who run ice arenas.
The Village Board, a group that has supported Claar virtually without dissent for years, promptly cut a break for Edward Schroeder, a businessman who runs an ice arena out of a village-owned property. Under a past deal, the rent paid by Schroeder was supposed to triple.
But Claar bemoaned the high costs of Schroeder’s Rocket Ice Arena, and with no discussion, the board kept Schroeder’s rent at 1 percent of the rink’s annual gross revenue for the next decade.
Chicago Tribune: State school districts relying more on substitute teachers
Illinois schoolchildren are greeted by substitute teachers far more often than their parents were, and while there may be valid reasons for calling in these subs, some experts express concerns about students being shortchanged, a Tribune analysis has found.
Nearly 40,000 substitutes headed classes in suburban and downstate districts in the 2012-13 school year, filling in for teachers who were on leave, in training, out sick or even walking picket lines.
These part-timers worked 1.3 million full or partial school days, roughly 50 percent more days than about two decades ago, according to data obtained by the Tribune.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
