Public Pensions Problem: Paying for time not actually served
Bill Zettler at Champion News looks at one of the little-known issues with public pensions -- the service time used to calculate the benefit is not the time actually worked.
As he notes, there are two ways this happens in the Illinois Teachers plan:
Why is that? Well teachers get pensions paid on “Service Credit” not actually on the years worked in Illinois. “Service Credit” is a concept that boosts pensionable years worked in IL with giveaways that have been added over the years to increase teachers’ pensions for no reason other than they are teachers.
I know of no private sector system where the workers receive pensions based upon more years than they have actually worked.
Service Credit scam 1: pensions paid on 75,000 years of sick leave never worked.
The major way to get Service Credit is via sick days. Every teachers’ contract contains an allowance for “sick days” averaging about 12 days per year. If the teacher doesn’t take the days off as sick leave (most of the suburban schools have 2-3 personal days on top of sick days so they can use those for real sick days) they can accrue them for up to 2 years Service Credit when they retire.
....
Service Credit scam 2: “Optional Service Purchase”: Pay $63,000 get $1.2 million.Teachers may also “purchase” Service Credit, at an extreme discount, for teaching previously in other states.
Retirees have paid nominal amounts for 82,700 out-of-state work that by definition is not Illinois work. If it’s not Illinois work why do Illinois taxpayers have to pay pensions for it?
....
Why do Illinois taxpayers have to pay pensions for work not done at all or done in another state?
Very good questions.
These features are not necessarily restricted to Illinois. "Air time" (buying "Service Time" in a new job based on a job worked elsewhere) is something all over the place, and it can be abused in a big way. The amount "charged" for air time is usually well below what it will actually cost (esp. given the low retirement ages).
With regards to sick time being accrued for pension benefits, in many private companies there is a maximum number of sick days allowed to be rolled over from one year to next...and if you don't use them, they're gone.
Zettler also has some more questions related to the TRS plan.
With benefits like is, even with generous assumptions and smoothing to dampen effects, is it any wonder the funding ratio is below 50%?
Central Falls is fallin’ down, fallin’ down…
To follow up on my prior post, John Bury takes his own look at the state of Central Falls, RI. And the bottomline is that the law doesn't really matter when there's no money left.
Central Falls, Rhode Island will have to default on its pension promises. They threw in the towel in their May, 2010 Petition for Receivership claiming:
8. Because of its dire fiscal situation, the City has sold off much of its chief pension fund assets to satisfy annual pension obligations. Its actuarial accrued liability exceeds $35 million dollars and its assets are approximately $4 million. The City audit reports that for fiscal year 2009, its “required” contribution was over $2.7 million and the City’s actual contribution was $0. For fiscal year 2010, there are no funds available to contribute and over $1.5 million in assets would have to be sold to meet present obligations.
....
In poker a ‘tell’ is a clue that a player gives about the strength of their hand. Central Falls is a ‘tell’ to anyone who believes that governments are funding their retirement benefit promises adequately. They’re not and you may not find out that cold hard fact until assets are depleted and you get ‘asked’ to take less…….or ‘told’ to take nothing.
The thing is that no number of lawsuits can will money into being. This is why these sorts of promises need to be pre-funded -- if they're not, chances are pretty good that they won't be fulfilled.
Something like this doesn't develop overnight. Usually it takes years of larding up pay and benefits... starting out at a supportable amount, but then, as various groups accrue more power to themselves, they get too piggy. A point gets passed at which the excess can no longer be supported.
One can cry about fairness. Or legality. But once you've eaten up all the cake, crying won't make more appear.
“Uncharted legal territory”: No, it ain’t
I'm getting a bit tired of the abuse of language. "Unexpected!" "Unprecedented!"
To quote a drunk, fictional Spaniard: I do not think that means what you think it means.
A Rhode Island town finds itself in trouble... and the rhetoric is silly:
Central Falls receiver seeks 'significant' retiree concessions
1:52 PM Fri, Jul 08, 2011 | Permalink
Katherine Gregg EmailPROVIDENCE, R.I. -- With a legal fight still raging over the state's attempts to rein in the cost of its retiree health and pension benefits, Central Falls receiver Robert Flanders is seeking "significant voluntary concessions'' from retirees in the battered city he is trying to pull back from the brink of bankruptcy.
In a letter that went out Friday to retired members of the Central Falls police and fire departments, he requested a meeting on Tuesday, July 19, to discuss the potential for a cost-saving compromise that could help avert a bankruptcy that could jettison the city -- and it retirees -- into unchartered legal territory. [sic]
Go to the original story if you want details on the specific concessions, the legal threats, yadda yadda. I want to address the "uncharted legal territory" ...
Oh come now. This isn't uncharted legal territory. Prichard, Alabama already blazed this trail. The pensioners of Prichard were SOL when the town and pension fund went bankrupt in 2009. For almost 2 years the pensioners did not get paid. At all.
Here are several posts (some by me, some by someone else) on Prichard's plight:
- Prichard, Alabama and the Public Pension Endgame
- Public Pensions: When the Money Runs Out
- Pension Woes of Alabama Town a Warning to Others
The rest of the article is stuff we've seen elsewhere ... "Changing our benefits is unconstitutional!" yadda yadda. Well, municipal bankruptcy is constitutional, and then when the money runs out of the pension fund.... try to sue your pensions into existence. I'm sure that will work.
I can't find the link right now, but the last I heard of the Prichard pensioners, they got some sort of lump sum settlement of their pensions, but much less than they were owed if you went by the original promises.
If you want to take this court, public employees, you do have recourse to that venue, but you need to realize that you may get far less via that route than negotiating up front right now. You need to figure out what is actually supportable. Hire your own, independent actuaries. Project cash flows under a variety of scenarios.
Because yelling that the original promises must be fulfilled doesn't mean that they will be fulfilled. You need to figure out the likelihood that they will actually be paid.
Public Finance, Unions, and Pensions Roundup 27June2011
GREECE? ISN'T THAT THING OVER YET?
No, it's not. Various parties are having fits over having to deal with reality, and I'm not just talking about the Greek populace.
A vote is being taken on Wednesday (or at least, that's the current schedule) in Greece on their latest austerity package....and this is just to get the short-term cash flows promised in various bailout plans previously.... it doesn't take care of their long-term debt problem.
A Bank of England official warns of bank exposure to PIIGS debt, though my understanding is that French and German banks have it much worse. I like the timing of the stress test results release - I'm thinking it will be coming out right about the time the credit agencies will say Greece is actually in default.
Other eurozone countries aren't looking too hot, either.
Leo Kolivakis writes about many things, some personal, but you should scroll down to item 4, where he talks about Greece. An excerpt:
Let me share with you the ugly reality on Greece's woeful tax collection system. Everyone in Greece knows this, but let me give it to you straight. A close buddy of mine, a radiologist, is now vacationing in Greece with his family. His aunt recently had to replace a heart valve and she slipped an enveloppe of 12,000 euros to the cardiovascular surgeon so he would do it. In Greece, this enveloppe is called "fakelaki" and if you don't have the money, you're dead. Specialist surgeons working at public hospitals are typically the worst offenders, but there are others notorious for accepting huge sums and they declare nothing. And most of them pay off Greek tax collectors who are equally corrupt and greedy.
The U.S. has a long way before getting that corrupt, but those officials deliberately trying to weasel themselves around the rule of law (see the PUBLIC FINANCE section) had best beware and be aware... what you may think is a show of power may be what ultimately undermines it.
GENERIC PENSION ISSUES
Joshua Ruah, the Northwestern prof who has been slicing and dicing public pension obligations in all sorts of ways, has put out a new paper: the revenue demands of public employee pension promises....and he's asked for responses. Here's some of the responses he's gotten so far. And another response (from governmental pension plan administrators) in the NYT.
Stronger pensions disclosures during muni issues? Sounds like a good idea to me. I wonder why he thinks it helps only bondholders -- ask the pensioners of Prichard whether they would've been well-served by better disclosures earlier. Good info protects not only bondholders but also public employees and taxpayers.
PUBLIC UNION INFLUENCE: MELTING! MELTING! OH, WHAT A WORLD!
Our first story comes from across the pond: UK looks to rein in their public unions. This should be fun. I think various U.S. states should take notes, including the bit about not paying union leaders who don't actually work for the state.
Striking Canada Post workers discover that the government has a lot more power than they do. Huh. How did that happen?
(note: Crown Corporations are just government-run and -owned entities. I recently found out that in some provinces, you get regular car insurance through a Crown Corp. Interesting)
What will the unions in Wisconsin do now? I'm thinking whining is a continuing strategy.
Some take the "defeat" in NJ as a harbinger of tough times for public unions across the U.S....meh. Were they all fired? Their pensions repudiated? No. It was hardly a defeat.
Yet.
Buck up, unions - you've got at least one guy on your side.
PUBLIC FINANCE
Laws? Limits? Ceilings? Pfft. Like that could stop a latter-day messiah who has stuff to get done. I'm curious what the legal status of such debt issues would be.... and I bet institutional investors that suck up these issues would like to know this as well.
Though the bondholders are probably a bit more concerned with the CBO cashflow projections.
VDH points out that Thatcher's inevitabilism is coming due: i.e., other people's money is running out. Bribing people with their own money has always been a difficult balancing act to keep up, and the problem has been in the West is that they've not been producing enough people to keep that going. Oh, tant pis.
Ex-mayor of L.A. warns about the coming bankruptcy of cities, agreeing with Meredith Whitney...with you-know-what playing a major role. Some cities think that they see the light at the end of the tunnel...right before they get hit by a train, I'm thinking.
CALIFORNIA
Public employees in Costa Mesa take on "big" boss to win big pensions.... well, if they can hang onto them. These are chickens I wouldn't count on hatching if the nest eggs aren't even there. I guess they'll learn what "municipal bankruptcy" means soon enough. It doesn't mean that pensions get paid, if the plan is underfunded.
California school admins living large in retirement. I am not fond of the "100K PENSIONS!!!" stories, because it's not individual pensions like this that are necessarily breaking the back of plans. You can have a whole bunch of relatively small amounts killing you, if paid to enough people, for long enough. But these things grab headlines, and stir up envy... and it's always amusing to see the politics of envy redound upon those who love to use it themselves (which is often the way.)
FLORIDA
Having to contribute to your benefits to the tune of 3 percentage points? A crippling tax. Oh baybee. Can we use that when the feds want to increase our taxes to pay for the gravy train they want to continue? If that's such a hardship, of course, the workers are always free to quit.
HAWAII
Pension reform bill signed requiring higher retirement ages and service levels.
NEW JERSEY
After the NJ pension reform passes, the lawsuits begin. Huzzah! Let us not forget the tough times lawyers have fallen upon with their loss in the Walmart case.
The unions also promise to hit back in votes. Good for y'all! That means you're going to stop voting for Democrats, right? Or are you just going to admit that you're stuck? (see article for answer - like with the open borders crowd, reparations extortionists, and gay rights activists, they know they're stuck with the Dems. So.... )
Christie taking his victory lap.
John Bury pricks everybody's balloons in this quarrel.
NEW YORK
The legislature continues to debate letting districts borrow money and pretend they're real contributions to the pension plans.
The NYT whines that it was bullying in NJ but it's bargaining in NY. I don't know - sounds like some of the NY unions don't see Cuomo's actions in quite so benign a light.
OHIO
Employees run for the exits, trying to get theirs while they can.
RHODE ISLAND
Yet another group to look at the state's pension mess and give suggestions for a fix. They've been given a task that's well-nigh impossible:
In tackling a subject that ultimately may mean breaking promises, Raimondo has said that any solutions need to ensure fairness among the new employees, veteran workers and retirees. Newer state employees and teachers bear a greater burden now, she says, because most of their contributions to the retirement system pay for their predecessors’ benefits.
Raimondo stresses that solutions must be fair to taxpayers, as well.
What happened to the last set of suggestions? Let's see... raising the minimum retirement age from 59 to 65 (drastic!), and offering up a DC/DB hybrid akin to what federal employees get... shot down even before it got to a legislative committee.
What I'm saying is I'm adding this group to my list of intentions for St. Jude.
UK
Isn't this cute - an "industrial action" from public employees over their pensions being changed. Yes, those schoolteachers are working hard in the mines and the clerks are grinding away with their wrenches. Supposedly, the Tories are asking parents to sub for teachers (yes, I suppose if you've seen it on a Simpsons episode, it's a gimmick).
Some angst over making the women's retirement age the same as men. I always wondered about this -- in the developed countries, women have always lived longer. Why were they given younger retirement ages?
NIU Pres: Illinois Pols, keep the pension promises… pretty please?
An Illinois University President begs the Illinois legislature to pretty pretty please make sure original pension promises are kept:
Northern Illinois University President John Peters on Tuesday warned current and retired state university workers to brace for possible changes to their pension benefits in the fall.
....
"In my opinion, leaders in public higher education in Illinois must suggest viable alternatives that will address the very real financial distress confronting our pension systems," he said.Illinois' five taxpayer supported pension systems, including pensions for university workers, are underfunded by $130 billion. To control that debt, lawmakers passed pension reforms this past year that trim costs for future workers.
Kelly Kraft, Gov. Pat Quinn's budget spokeswoman, said this past year's reforms will save $200 billion over the coming decades for future employees, but they do little to address costs associated with current workers and current retirees.
This past spring, leaders in the Illinois House proposed to change current benefits by having current employees pay more for their benefits, see reductions, or have retirees pay for some of their health-care costs. State lawmakers are expected to revisit reforming pensions for current employees in the fall veto session.
But Peters said workers who made their contributions deserve full retirement benefits, and the state hasn't lived up to its promises. He pointed to state lawmakers history for skipping or making partial pension payments to the Illinois pension systems.
"Many individuals on our state Legislature didn't learn that lesson, or maybe they forgot that lesson: Once you make a deal with somebody, you keep it," Peters said.
BWA HA HA HA
Dude, you're in Illinois.
You can try the moral suasion, but I don't think it will find much purchase. Not in Illinois. How much noise were you guys making all those years of contribution vacations? No, if you had made noise, the pols would have rightly pointed out the expense of those benefits and that they would be cut if they really wanted the pensions to be fully funded.
So they kept their traps shut.
They try the legal gambit as well:
Leo Welch, president of State University Annuitants Association, said the Illinois Constitution guarantees that once staff and faculty join the system, their pensions cannot diminished nor impaired.
"We fully support the constitutional provisions that protect current employees, as well as current annuitants," Welch said.
Let me know how well that works in creating money. Oh, it doesn't?
So now you are learning that government promises mean nothing. You cannot make a law that binds future generations, because future generations can say: "Nope. We weren't the people who promised you. We're going to use our money for something else." You can sue all you want, but Constitutions can be amended, and laws and "promises" changed.
Of course, Mr. Prez of NIU has to make these noises, because, like Illinois politicians, he can lose his job. When you have a big employee base that is unfireable (aka tenured), and they get pissed off, you can be run out of the university.
Workers of Illinois, you need to wake up to the fact your power has been pissed away as the money has run out. New York workers have come alive to this. New Jersey workers are still having issues with reality.
So good luck, but Illinois has had trouble meeting its regular operating expenses. When it's current services vs. past services, current will win. What are you going to do, Illinois retirees - strike? Vote for Republicans?
Adjust to your new reality.
Cross-posted to the Commune
Public Union (and other) Quickies 22Jun2011 – and my communal debut
Well, I have been test-driving this new communistic (what?) thingie Dan pointed out, and it has one major plus over POWIP: I can get to it from work. So I can post quick-n-dirty at lunch. Yay!
I'm a bit behind-hand cross-posting here due to other publication deadlines I have, but worry not -- my long form pension posts (which require a bit more link harvesting on my part) will still occur about once a week here at POWIP.
So here's what I've been posting about over there:
You didn't quit your state job? Here's some money! - Oklahoma has been shoveling out "longevity bonuses" to the tune of $42 million in 2010, that are given just for sticking around, with no tie to actual performance. People who got subsequently fired also got these bonuses. OK has a budget deficit to the tune of $500 million. Hmmm.
Unions: Why can't we buy pols like we used to?. A NY union finds that the once-sure bet of a Democratic politician lying to get elected (about cutting state jobs and benefits) is no longer so sure once the money runs dry. And that their political endorsement really means little. What, you were going to endorse a Republican? Ha ha ha.
Walmart lawsuit: not a class action - not much comment other than glad that statistics can't be used to "prove" a class or discrimination. I link to my favorite "discrimination" example, involving graduate school admissions at Berkeley.
My inaugural post: 5 Questions on Public Pensions really just 1 Question - which I will reproduce in its entirety below.
But these questions will work very well for the U.S., too:
1. How much should the taxpayer have to contribute to public sector pensions?
....
2. What will the accrual rate for the career average scheme be?
....
3. Will all public sector schemes face the same contribution hikes?
....
4. Will the government introduce primary legislation to put the new framework in place?
....
5. Which price index will the government use to uprate post-retirement pensions?
Putting these into U.S. English, the bottom line is how much should public employees cost?
How much of various risks should the taxpayers pay to take away from public employees? Longevity risk? (pensions paid as a life annuity as opposed to lump sum in cash) Inflation risk? (that's question 5 - relating to cost-of-living adjustments post-retirement) Investment risk? (A guaranteed payment amount at retirement, no matter what the underlying investments do)
There are insurance products that exist in the private market that are there to hedge these risks, either in combination or separately. And the government accounting standards used to value these guarantees put the values at much less than what private insurance companies have to hold in risk capital plus reserves for covering the exact same guarantees.
Because the government doesn't go out of business, supposedly.
Think on that.
Public Finance, Pensions, and Unions News Roundup 16June2011
No preface. Just jumping right into it.
GREECE IS THE WORD
Dammit, will they just default already? I guess the German banks (and others) don't want to take the hit, but they're going to have to eventually.
I'm sorry, but the Greek populace doesn't seem to have digested the concept that they can't have hairdressers retiring at age 50 on someone else's dime. What are the supposed austerity measures the Greeks are up in arms about? Let's see: cutting down the public workforce, a slew of increased taxes, selling off state-owned properties/companies. I'd be curious what companies Greece still owns -- and for all I'm ragging on Greece, they had better be careful in selling off their stuff, because there's a prime opportunity for corruption and graft right there. And I would be cheesed off as a Greek citizen if the country didn't get the best possible price for those properties.
Interesting that it's Socialist parties in Europe having to do this.
And by "interesting", I mean "inevitable".
VDH, as someone familiar with both locales, makes the connections between Greece and California.
PROMISES, PROMISES
U.S. digs itself deeper into a hole with regards to financial promises for the future. I tell everybody not to worry about it: those promises will not be fulfilled. Don't you feel better already?
Iceland gives a counterexample to what might be a better way to go compared to Greece (and the U.S.).
HI HO HI HO IT'S OFF TO WORK WE GO
Get used to the idea of working til you die or are totally disabled.
Somebody else putting a positive spin on the whole matter of increasing lifespans. My own attitude is that it's easy for me who enjoys the work I do, but that many people do have difficulty finding fulfillment in their work and would rather just get it over with ASAP. To those people I say: save up.
For good reason, the main financial worry for Americans is their retirement funds, though, you know, if you were really concerned, you could save more. Just a thought.
Also, annuitize, dammit. But that's a story for a different day.
GENERAL PENSION ISSUES
Hey! Lookie here! A report from NCPERS (National Conference on Public Employee Retirement) saying everything is A-OKAY! If you think 76%-ish fundedness (under the current iffy methods of measuring fundedness) is A-OKAY.
But wait -- look at that "response rate": 17% of the plans that responded were state plans out of 215 respondents - which is about 36 or 37 plans . Now that may sound pretty good to you, but given that some states have more than one plan, this may be not that great a response rate. I rather bet none of the Illinois plans (there are 5 of them) responded.
Let's think of the selection bias here. What is the incentive for poorly-performing pension plans to participate in this survey? Hmm? Right.
And then look at what's reported - they talk about the percentage of active employees and annuitants - but there's a bunch of info missing: how many are close to retirement? And look how popular the 8% asset return assumption is (and given accounting standard, this is what they're using to discount their liability cash flows...)
Anyway, some public employees and retirees really don't have much to worry about. And some local governments really do have good fiscal governance. Way to go, guys! I'm not sarcastic there. Good governance should be recognized. But I can't tell it from this survey, sorry. Too many things can hide bad news...
Boo hoo: public employees have to contribute more to their pensions. Of course, all the money is really coming from the taxpayers, but the issue is that they're getting their total compensation cut.
The space program may be over, but the pensions just go on and on.
UNIONS
From Mish: Illinois unions consolidating power.
Wisconsin teachers unions ready to raise hell. Phrase that rubs me the wrong way: "devout Catholic Democrat". You know, I don't have any trouble with devout Catholics who are Democrats, but ugh on the phrasing. I'm not going to even start to unpack that one.
Considering the Wisconsin law re: public employee unions currently is upheld, could NJ follow Wisconsin's example in taking down the public unions? Hey, if that happens, maybe it's even possible in Illinois! What's St. Jude's direct line, again?
CALIFORNIA
Grand jury in San Rafael cheesed off by backdating of benefits. I find this whole "civil grand jury investigating city council behavior" type of oversight intriguing. This is the fourth such investigation - specifically on pension benefits in California - in the past 6 years.
While corrupt elected officials might get their pensions yanked, that's not necessarily true of non-elected officials.
News flash: people get pissed when money and power gets taken away from them.
Lesson from the California lifeguard story: public employees, stay out of the media if you can help it. Trying to keep your salaries under wraps is a lost cause for the most part, so your best bet is to try to have no one notice you at all. It helps not to have ridiculous-sounding work rules, pay, and benefits, by the way.
So there's this big ballot battle going on in San Fran, and all sorts of things have been popping up along the way. One: Social Security costs not necessarily factored in comparisons between proposals. Two: some rich guys are throwing shitloads of money at this.
GEORGIA
Atlanta pension reform, a kind of hybrid plan, gets out of finance committee. This has been a long slog.
ILLINOIS
When last we checked in with Illinois, they punted on reforming their pension system in favor of considering casinos as a revenue-booster. Now they're considering pimping out space on license plates. My, aren't they getting creative in avoiding dealing with their core issues.
Easiest pension reform proposal ever: no pensions for people who can vote on their own pensions. Obviously, one would need to make it a state constitutional amendment to keep the inevitable from occurring. Or have an electorate that's paying attention.
Of course, there's local tax money being used to lobby the state government to try to suck off state funds. This is an interesting parasitic situation.
Not exactly news: Cook County and Chicago pensions are in a sucky fundedness state.
A two-part analysis by Bill Zettler -- looking at what is "fair" to pay to part-time employees with partial careers - i.e., teachers, who work fewer hours than your usual full-time employee and then the other participants of the Illinois state pensions, who really don't do all that much work, either. Especially the politicians.
I'm still sitting around for a verdict in the Blagojevich trial, but in the meantime, Mark Kirk thinks Blago shouldn't get a pension, and a new law that would yank pensions from corrupt pols is being considered in Illinois.... and would do bupkis about Blago.
MICHIGAN
This is what you get for writing a complicated tax law. In trying to tax pension benefits, they tried to keep it "fair", in realizing that many of the pensions were of people who do not get Social Security benefits, and then they tried this complicated thing of carving out non-taxable bits, yadda yadda.... so now there's a constitutionality question on the table for Michigan's pension tax.
I've got a very modest proposal to fix the whole deal: dump all your tax code right now, Michigan, and implement something extremely simple. You're a state, so just implement some flat tax scheme. Don't worry about fairness. Just make the damn thing easy to figure out. And cut your frigging spending.
You're welcome.
Remember that active employee/retiree pie chart from the NCPERS report earlier? And why it's crap? Because it doesn't give info about the near-retired population:
Yeah, that's a hella scary graph, eh? [sorry to mix the regionalisms....] That's just general census figures, not public employees, btw. But that makes it scarier with the pension tax - that potential tax base may just up and move away to avoid said pension tax.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Because of what has happened in NH, I've been thinking of not posting all these "so-and-so proposed this!", "reform gets out of committee!", etc. stories: NH gov vetoed pension reform bill. I've been reading stories for weeks about the negotiations going on, and =pfft= nixed.
Of course, there was that huge Illinois tease, but that was pretty much a foregone conclusion.
NEW JERSEY
John Bury has been carving apart the most recent proposed NJ pension changes. He notes that what's been put out there will do not much at all in keeping the money from running out, then he takes apart a local editorial which had some credulous authors.
Something may or may not be going on in NJ re: pension reform, but no matter what, the public employee unions there are pissed. John Bury grades the proposals in the bill -- and disaster still looms.
NEW MEXICO
Double-dipping law in NM teaches teachers that all is fair game when the state needs revenue.
NEW YORK
Cuomo proposes pension reform: for new hires. Dude, you're a couple years behind other states at this point. That's the easy step.
Pointing out that it may not be good optics to fire asset managers just because their politics differ from the politicians hiring them.
OHIO
Disgraced officials getting disability pension payouts. Hey, they had no shame when in office, you think they're going to have any compunction once they're being booted out? People tend to be rather consistent in their behavior as adults.
PENNSYLVANIA
Talk about slow on the uptake: Philly is just now getting around to considering altering their DROP benefit....by making it a skosh less generous. Wake me up when you actually consider dropping the damn thing.
A LITTLE WEINER
Others may have dropped the Weiner, but POWIP has no shame -- and there's a public pension connection. Though lil Tony has been in Congress since only 1999, he'd be eligible for a federal pension. The earliest he could get that is in 10 years -- so he'd still need to figure out something to do til then...good luck with that. And he'd better hope for no hyperinflation between now and then.
D-Day Public Pensions, Finance, and Unions 6June2011
We're not all about dick jokes and bitching about pretty people around here.
Well, not only.
WHERE ARE THE GOONS OF YESTERYEAR
Glenn Reynolds notes that public union clerks don't make for the most intimidating union muscle. Ah, instead of good old-fashioned thuggery, they have to go to the more lawyerly fashion of unaccountable judges... until all of a sudden they are accountable. Funny how that happens.
But let's not let it go at that - Althouse asks if Reynolds is calling the Wisconsin public employees a bunch of sissies, and a commenter points out that he's contrasting the old image of union workers as blue-collar workers with little leverage versus cubicle warriors with huge political war chests.
PUBLIC FINANCE
Muni bond issuance down half compared to last year. And it's not because they don't need the money. I like this: "Restricting bond issuance, though, limits a government's ability to spend." "Though"?! That's the whole point, dude. The credit rating dropping, the interest rates increasing, this is a signal to drop the spending, doofus. Yes, I understand the concern about infrastruture, but I bet there's quite a bit of wiggle room in the operational budget from which cash can be wrestled.
"Fun" interactive graphic: sovereign debt contagion. I recommend putting your cursor on the U.S. first and seeing who's exposed to our debt... and see that the risk isn't reciprocated. Bwa ha ha ha. Suckers.
Ireland has lessons for Obama? Silly Richard Wolf. Obama learn something from an entity outside himself? Surely you joke.
By the way, the euro zone hasn't really had its crisis yet.
CALIFORNIA
Liberal-vs-liberal in pension smackdown of the year! San Francisco treat. I call it just deserts.
A councilman who has cutting pensions as a top priority announces his run for San Diego mayor. Oddly, this is a game of Name That Party! It's odd, because pretty much every other politician has his party named in the article. Why not this guy? By the way, he's a Republican.
Special asst to governor (no, not the one dealing with women issues): you know what really helps prevent pension crises? Actually putting adequate money in the pension funds. It works wonders.
COLORADO
Denver could raise retirement age to 60 for city workers. Oh, the humanity!
More on the same.... and scroll to the bottom for a lovely quote from the council president saying that one shouldn't mess with a successful pension system... after all, they need to attract employees. Employees that have lots of options for DB pensions with a retirement age of 55, apparently.
CONNECTICUT
Bridgeport isn't doing so hot. They're asking for permission to make only a $7 million contribution, when the calculated required contribution is $13.5M....and they really would have to pay $24M to make the fund whole. This is how trouble can start.
ILLINOIS
So after the massive fake-out from the state legislature that they were actually doing something about pensions, it's time to regroup and consider the options. It has been noted by various parties that one really big problem is that contributions to the fund have been way too low for the level of benefits being promised. For a fun look at history (sorry this isn't pretty, but the numbers are inherently ugly) - here are the fundedness ratios (total assets / total liabilities) for various pension plans for the past 10 fiscal years:
System, FY2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
Teachers’ Retirement System, 59.5, 52, 49.3, 61.9, 60.8, 62, 63.8, 56, 39.1, 40.5
State Employees’ Retirement System , 65.8, 53.7, 42.6, 54.2, 54.4, 52.2, 54.2, 46.1, 33.9, 31.4
State Universities Retirement System, 72.1, 58.9, 53.9, 66, 65.6, 65.4, 68.4, 58.5, 41.9, 40.2
Judges’ Retirement System, 40.7, 33.7, 30.7, 46.2, 45.7, 46.4, 48.4, 42, 31.2, 28.8
General Assembly Retirement System, 34.9, 29.3, 25.4, 40.1, 39.1, 37.1, 37.6, 32, 22.7, 21.7
All systems, 63.1, 53.5, 48.6, 60.9, 60.3, 60.5, 62.6, 54.3, 38.5, 38.3
[Take a gander at GARS: that's the politicians' pension... now I've got an idea to reduce the state's liabilities....and maybe here's a different way to give them an incentive to do their damn jobs. People are unimpressed by the inaction.]
The Illinois pols' idea of a responsible bet: casinos for Chicago. Double down! Double down!
NEW YORK
Oh, a kerfuffle has poofed in NYC. The Comptroller, who once upon a time claimed to be an actuary (though I can find no record of his ever having had credentials.... I could be wrong, though), has a convenient little report saying that the city pension costs are going to dramatically drop... as a percentage of the city budget. And how does that work out in absolute amount, Mr. Liu? Needless to say, Bloomberg is pissed, because this is taking away negotiation leverage from him....well, if this is at all legitimate.
I haven't read the report itself yet, so I will leave comments on it til a later date. Here's the press release, here's the summary, and here's the full report. People will get hung up on the fund return assumptions (and sure, they should), but I'm more concerned about liability assumptions (so that will take me a while, and I probably don't have enough info to figure out if it's reasonable). But let's see the assumption of the denominator....
To quote the press release:
1.City pension costs will increase nominally through FY 2016, after which they will decline as a percentage of the City’s expenditures and revenues.
Note: In FY 2012, pension cost is $7.3 billion or 11.1 percent of the City budget. By FY 2016, pension cost will rise to $8.3 billion or 11.4 percent of the city budget. The increase in pension cost through 2016 would not be materially impacted by new benefit changes or tiers that are applicable only to new employees
So, basically, there's a projected $1B increase in annual costs projected in a 5 year period. That's quite a bit, don't you think? Almost a 14% increase. So to keep the percentage of the city budget about level, it requires the city budget increasing by the same rate.
And hey, what are the costs as a percentage of salary?
3.The primary reason for declining pension costs is the phasing-in of new employees whose benefits are significantly lower than those offered to municipal workers in the past. Police and Fire Pension Funds will experience the most significant costs decreases over the next 30 years.
■Police will decrease from 65.1 percent of salary in FY 2010 to between 39.2 to 33.4 percent of salary in FY 2040.
■Fire will decrease from 83.1 percent of salary in FY 2010 to between 46.6 to 41.5 percent of salary in FY 2040.
Yeah.... that still sounds pretty high. That's just the pension cost. How much do you put away in your 401(k)? I'm thinking it's not 40% of your gross salary.
RHODE ISLAND
Moody's downgrades R.I. debt based on pension cost issues.
A little bit of history behind Providence's cushy retirement benefits that have all of a sudden become unsupportable. Except it was really 30 years in the making, not something that "just happened".
In particular, there are these nice disability pensions that it seems some rather non-disabled people are collecting.
TENNESSEE
Governor signs bills that squashes collective bargaining for teachers
UTAH
The state wins an award for facing reality. [Yes, it's all politics.]
WASHINGTON
Gentlemen, start your lawyers! Unions look to sue over COLA-removal law.
WISCONSIN
The benefits battle continues, this time with the public safety workers [usually considered untouchable]
Three Day Hangover Public Pensions, Unions, and Finance Roundup 31May2011
Others had their weenie roasts. I'm eating pork barbecue.
That's the way we North Carolinians do it.
(If I can find where Stu hid it in the fridge)
PEOPLE ARE GETTING OLDER AND THAT MEANS STUFF
Such as some people get less productive as they get older, and (warning: NYT link) get demoted, and they don't like that. I agree that it's not just a matter of age... lots of people just don't keep up, period. I am appalled at people my age, which isn't even 40 yet, who act like they've got nothing new to learn, and then are shocked to find they're not exactly a hot property on the employment market. I think it's a lifelong temperament, not a generational or age thing.
The greying of Maryland and Hawaii.
GREECE
Just a matter of when and how, not if: what will happen when Greece defaults. Yes, a little short-term prognostication (I consider a two-year horizon to be short term, myself. Look, when I consider public finance, long term is at least 50 years.)
Breaking news: the Greeks are unhappy. Beware of any large wooden horses on the horizon.
The Greeks didn't appreciate being called lazy by the Germans. Though they are. Amusingly, the "lazy Americans" have the same retirement age as Germans, and far less paid vacation.
And yes, they threw another fit. Let me know when that makes money magically appear, guys. It didn't the prior dozen...twenty?... times.
OUR ILLUSTRIOUS PUBLIC SERVANTS
IRS employees committing tax fraud. Well, hey, you'd think they'd be the experts. So yay them, I guess.
News flash: public employees lack accountability. Well, knock me over with a feather. Well, let's check out a couple examples.
Corrupt Californian ex-official strikes a plea deal on a felony charge. Keeps his pension.
A shrink for Milwaukee County manages to retire with backDROP bennies under a cloud of suspicion. "You can't discipline me! I quit! And give me my retirement shtuff!"
And another person who retired before being charged with anything. Lesson: if you do something questionable, be sure you're close to a legit retirement age.
GENERAL PENSION ISSUES
Getting all actuarial-ish on you for a moment: does market value of liabilities make sense for public pensions? This is coming from Segal, an actuarial consulting firm that does public pension work. I agree that there's really no such thing as "MVL" for public pensions... if anything, public plans need far more conservative assumptions due to the number of parties with different interests who need to be protected from politicians (namely, the workers, bondholders, and taxpayers). I'm thinking Treasury rates minus a spread to use as the discount rates. This is for balance sheet valuation of the liabilities, mind you, not figuring out how to fund them. There is a distinction there.
More actuarying: a Capitol Hill briefing on Social Security by the American Academy of Actuaries. An excellent run-down of the principles of the trade-offs and the reform choices. Take a look.
This doesn't really fit anywhere else, so I'm throwing it here -- odd consequence of shutting down the NASA Shuttle program: having to pay off pension costs of private subcontractor.
CALIFORNIA
Great investment: Arizona land sells for 8% of its original sale price. Calpers was one of the investors.
San Marcos: pension consultant recommends town to boost pension contribution even higher than Calpers requirement.
The ongoing San Fran pension scrum: trying to keep Adachi from running his own, stiff proposal.
Yes, people do understand what happens when you've got "tiers" of pensions, and you especially get a generational divide. The younger guys aren't going to give a crap what happens to the retirees with the cushier benefits. There will be no solidarity.
Gifts to state pension officials under investigation. This will be interesting, I'm sure.
Daniel Borenstein asks for an honest accounting of Calpers plans. Let us know how that goes.
GEORGIA
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed directly calls for pension reform. Yes, the debate is rather heated.
ILLINOIS
Low-hanging fruit: high pensions for politicians. Let's just whack it. The base assumption should be they're all base. I know John Adams could probably be a perpetual motion source at this point to see what "public servants" are, but he saw the Lee boys in action back in the day, so none of this should be new to him. [there are some excellent comments on this piece]
Did you know that Illinois is having trouble paying its regular bills? Again? The Repubs aren't allowing $6B (yes, billion) in borrowing to cover the the backlog (but it looks like quite a few Dems voted against it, too), to force the issue.
Even the state treasurer has gotten into the game, saying he is going to make borrowing more expensive for the state by asking rating agencies to downgrade state debt (that's not what it says explicitly, but read between the lines), to try to make the legislators a little more responsible and cut spending. (Okay, it is more complicated than that -- but the point is to make new debt issues more difficult for the state, and that includes rolling over debt.) Isn't public finance fun?
Sharing the pain: Chicago retirees will see a 15% hike in their health premiums. And they begin to see that an unfunded liability is not just a danger to taxpayers (and bondholders), but also to the people who were promised something.
Speaking of unfunded liabilities (and their causes), I would like you to consider the following report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. I draw your attention to Appendix M, at the bottom of page 104 which shows the total for the 5 Illinois state-funded pension plans -- a breakdown of the sources of the unfunded liability change over the period from 1996-2010:
| $Billion | Percentage | |
| Salary losses | 0.7 | 1% |
| Investment losses | 11.7 | 20% |
| Employer contribution
shortfall |
24.7 | 43% |
| Benefit increases | 5.8 | 10% |
| Changes in assumptions | 3.5 | 6% |
| Other (spike) increases | 10.6 | 19% |
| Total | 57.0 | 100% |
Now, that's not the full unfunded liability, by the way, but about 2/3 of it. That's merely the increase over 15 years... and the largest percentage is due to (begin EDIT:) "employer contribution shortfall" - as noted by Bill Zettler in the comments, this is mostly coming from interest on the already accrued unfunded liability not being covered...but the main point is the pension not being funded when the liability is being accrued, more than the investments going south (end EDIT). In short, these plans have been systematically underfunded for at least 15 years, and while yes, crappy investments did a number on the fundedness, you have to actually stick some cash in there from time to time, and the pols were loathe to do that.
I think you will find in many of the cases of the worst-funded plans across the country that the reason almost always has been underfunding as opposed to only investment problems....though there are wacky investment things going on at various points, but I'll save that for a different time.
In any case, this is why the pols in Illinois are actually working together to pass pension reforms, over the objections of the public unions who had good reason to think they had bought the pols.
But according to the report linked above, the combined plans are less than 40% funded, so political contributions can't keep fiscal reality from hitting Springfield. The unions have got to realize the three options being offered are what they have to work with: keep current benefits but have to pay more for them; don't pay more but get less in benefits; or get thrown to the DC wolves. Make your choice, guys.
But wait! Unions win! They make the pols put off a reform til fall. I don't know if I'd call that a win, guys. As Marc Levine says, you may regret this. The choices may become more harsh as the state's finances deteriorate. Cook County employees are seeing furlough days, and I bet there's going to be more fiscal pain shared ith public employees before this is over. And don't expect a federal bailout... remember who holds the purse strings now.
So what were the Illinois pols doing instead of fixing the pension mess? Betting on casinos.
KANSAS
Gentlemen, ready your lawsuits! The employees of Illinois may wish to look at what is going on in Kansas as employee groups there seek to sue over a law that intends to force employees to either contribute more to their pensions or receive less in benefits. Though this involves COLAs alone it seems, and not the general benefits.
MICHIGAN
Biggest change to tax code: taxability of pensions.
I still think it's dumb. Who the hell wants to retire to Michigan in the first place? Great way to drive people away even more, dumbasses.
Emergency finance manager stirring debate.
NEVADA
Double-dipping law under fire. Unlike most states, "double-dipping law" here means a law that allows for public employees to collect pension payments and also remain public employees. In most places, it's a law to preclude such behavior.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
OREGON
PENNSYLVANIA
After all that work to get the numbers to dance, the state may end up taking over the Pittsburgh pensions after all. Well, expecting money to magically appear was never much of a plan.
RHODE ISLAND
The governor is getting a bit tetchy that the treasurer has all the press over the awful state of RI pensions. Dude, just let her have the issue. There's not going to be a huge amount of glory there.
Sunday Chillin’ Public Pensions, Finance, and Unions 22May2011
Sippin' on tea, the kids watching Dangermouse....got a little too much sun yesterday which doesn't mesh well with someone as pale as I.
Yeah, I'm logy.
But these posts pretty much write themselves, don't they?
PUBLIC FINANCE AND THINGS FALL APART
Greek bonds downgraded (warning: NYT link), and not by a little -- Fitch dropped them down three notches, which is a rather large movement. Sure, they were already in the junk range, but still. Things aren't going well there, and for all the whining over DSK's troubles being behind this -- no. Greek's clusterfark (attendant with pro-sucking-on-govt-teat-"anarchists") has nothing to do with Mr. Strauss-Kahn's belt issues, for all we'd like to say "entitlement" yadda yadda yadda. Even without DSK, this crap would have happened.
Reality hits Spain as well, as its social welfare system is unsustainable. I find it interesting how Socialists are in charge when the culmination of their systems have hit a demographic wall....and people get sour as the promises can't be fulfilled. Can get dangerous as other populists try to ramp up the promises, which are still undeliverable, sorry. You can't create 30-year-olds from thin air. Except in sci-fi novels.
Let's not get too uppity about European social welfare programs. Ignoring the whole "adult baby" brouhaha this week, there's something more structural awry given we are paying benefits for dead people in significant amounts.
From the WSJ, Jason Zweig writes why holders of U.S. Treasury bonds should be concerned about the possibility of different kinds of default. I think everyone is going to get a lesson in what structural default, technical default, outright default, etc. are in very short order. Bondholders should already know about this, but I'm sorry to say that those holding government bonds are not necessarily the most sophisticated of investors.
Uncertainty is what makes muni bond buyers bonkers
Joe Mysak calls Meredith Whitney to task about the very specific predictions she made re: municipal bonds, as Whitney goes to the pages of the WSJ to remind people that the muni armageddon is still to come, and that, yes, there are many ways to default. Going back to Mysak, I'm pulling this quote:
In the modern era, there is little to suggest that serious public officials will shirk their duty to bondholders.
AH HA HA HA. "serious public offiials" Owie. Oh my side. Yeah. Serious public officials. You mean the ones who fashioned the back-DROP benefits? Those serious public officials? The ones who "funded" the plans with pension obligation bonds? Are those the serious public officials we're talking about? Do tell.
UNIONS SHTUFF
Right-to-work to make inroads into New England?
Unions remind Dems who's the boss. Or they hope they do. Dems may realize the unions are outnumbered by other voters at this point in history. But hey, cutting off the money can hurt.
How do unions affect state budgets? The duh conclusion:
“The main differences between public and private sector come from economics,” said Norcross. “Private sector unions can raise their wages, but not their employment. By contrast, public sector unions can increase both wage and employment outcomes.”
Well, yeah, in the short run. But when fiscal reality hits, you can get a massive readjustment of those outcomes, as in Costa Mesa, California. Recently, after looking into a budget abyss, the city council laid off nearly half the current city workforce and outsourced their functions. And note, that doesn't mean a 1-to-1 replacement of jobs. And definitely not necessarily a replacement with a union job. Funny how assumptions can get altered in a hurry when reality hits and the money runs out. Rent-seekers have to be careful, otherwise they create their own destruction.
GENERAL PENSION ISSUES
U.S. Postal Service warns of potential default on retiree obligations
After all the fun beating up on state workers and their benefits, it's the federal workers' turn to become punching bags! And then a guy whose main constituents are federal workers objects! Shocker! Another shocker: federal employees aren't happy about it. I like how people mention that cutting benefits will make government jobs less attractive, as if that's a bad thing.
National teachers union realizes that spiking and double-dipping makes them (and DB pensions) look bad, so they say that it should be looked into.
ALABAMA
Finally. Pensioners in bankrupt Prichard have gone almost 2 years without payments, and there may be a deal on the table. They will probably never get their full promised benefits, but at least it's not zero.
CALIFORNIA
The Golden State Blues: George Will on how it fell apart in California
Request for investigation into disability pensions in that cesspit of government corruption, Bell, Calif.
It's going to be an interesting November in San Fran as Mayor Ed Lee says he's putting a pension reform proposal on the ballot with or without union agreement. Other groups have their own competing proposals they intend to get on the ballot.
Capitola working on lowering pension costs ahead of contract negotiations in 2012. Watsonville looking at its own costs. Ventura County has some eye-popping numbers itself. It's like it's some sort of widespread problem or something.
Steven Greenhut says yeah, it's kind of a widespread problem. And while it may look puny compared to the state budget, it's outsize for local budgets.
Seeking to cut down on pension spiking
ILLINOIS
So there's a lot of politicking going on in Illinois re: pension reforms. And, surprise surprise, there are dirty tricks. Some stuff on the actual bill under consideration.
Rahm was sworn in as Chicago's non-Daley mayor. Can he deal with the fiscal issues, and the pension problem in particular?
Consultant says retirees should pay more for their health benefits.
KANSAS
Pension reform bill goes to governor, but questions linger about to what limits reform can be taken.
MICHIGAN
Emergency financial manager's blanket powers in Benton Harbor bring spotlight and cries of oppression.... oppression of the fiscally inept. Poor babies.
Detroit Mayor Bing proclaims that there are savings in pension contributions because they changed the smoothing period for actuarial losses.... but no. No there aren't. Changing the method of funding the pensions doesn't change the cost of the pensions. You have to change the actual pension benefits to change their costs.
MINNESOTA
Minneapolis pension tension - two closed funds taking an outsize portion of the city budget, and an attempt to fold them into state funds. Minneapolis contribution to these funds would drop a great deal if this occurred.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Negotiations on pension reforms continue. Both groups agree that public employees should work longer, contribute more to pensions, and for most plans, receive lower benefits. They're just wrangling over details now.
NEW YORK
Will Cuomo truly fix pensions? Let's ask Magic 8 Ball: My sources say no. Changing stuff for new hires does really nothing other than prevent problems from getting worse by too much.
Well, DiNapoli goes for some low-hanging fruit, preventing double-dipping, but that's not really going to save a bunch of money. But double-dipping doesn't make for good PR.
In pensions corruption news, Liberal Party ex-boss Ray Harding avoids jail time.
OHIO
A proposal to yank the pensions of corrupt pols -- I say let's be proactive. No pensions for any pols.
OKLAHOMA
Pension reform bill signed by governor
PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh may have gotten over their math problems, but they still have huge fundedness issues with their pension plan and are trying to avoid being taken over by the state. Still. At some point, you'd think they'd just give up.
RHODE ISLAND
Something to look forward to: a report to be released on Monday by the state treasurer on just how much Rhode Island pension systems suck (just being a psychic here). A think tank already has put out its own report on the suckitude.
How much do they suck? The per capita debt is $30K.
TENNESSEE
Legislature passes bill to curb teachers unions, stripping them of most collective bargaining rights.
Follow Dan!
All the Kool Kidz are doing it...
Recent Grist
- Special Intentions for Monday
- Behold: The Unholy Family & the Meatitudes
- Happy Birthday, Abraham. Yours, Ba’al (D)
- Catholic Teachings Not Subject to Polls
- Wrong. Again. Educating the Educator (or, God is not fooled by Plausible Deniability).
- Principles Not Subject to Compromise
Creature Commentariat
- cong ty xay dung on Pritchard, Alabama and the Public Pensions Endgame
- modell on UK Global Warm-Monger Deplores “Temperature” of Debate
- work-life-balance on Palin unloads on Princess Lisa for bullying local radio host
- produktivität on Some Things Neglected Over the Weekend
- Persoenlichkeit on Remember JAR… you are dust and to dust you shall return.
Categories
Feed the Kraken.
Sponsors
God Botherers
Blogroll
- A Voice from the Closet
- Ace of Spades HQ
- adeliemanchot
- American Power
- American Thinker
- Anchoress
- AnthropoCon
- Baby Troll Blog
- Backyard Conservative
- Bad Science
- Baldilocks
- Big Feed, The
- Big Government
- Big Hollywood
- Big Journalism
- Bit Maelstrom
- Blackfive
- Blog Prof
- Blogshevik, The
- Bob Belvedere
- Bookworm Room
- Brussels Journal
- Catawissa Gazetteer
- Chap-O-Matic
- Chris Wysocki
- Christopher Taylor
- Classic Liberal, The
- Coach Is Right
- Coalition of the Swilling
- Conservatives4Pailin.com
- Coordinated Illumination
- Corner at NRO
- Cranky Conservative
- Cynthia Yockey
- Da Techguy
- Daily Caller, The
- Daily Mush, The
- David Thompson
- DC Trawler, The
- Don Surber
- Doug Ross @ Journal
- Dustbury
- Emerging Corruption
- Eye of Polyphemus
- Fausta's Blog
- Feed Your ADHD
- From the Right Lane
- Front Page Mag
- Gateway Pundit
- Goldfish and Clowns
- Grand Rants
- HAEMET
- Heartland Murmurs
- Hot Air
- I Own the World
- I Wish I Was a Geordie
- IMAO
- Iowahawk
- Is This Blog On?
- James Gunn
- James Joyner
- Jammie Wearing Fool
- Javelina Bomb
- Jawa Report
- Jennifer Townsend Photography
- Jimmie Bise
- Johanna Hopes
- John Hawks Weblog
- Jookoos News
- Just Russ
- Kathleen McKinley (Rightwingsparkle)
- Kill Truck
- King Shamus
- Knifework
- Lead and Gold
- Legal Insurrection
- Liberty at Stake
- Liberty At Stake
- Lightning News, The
- Little Miss Attila
- Luminarium
- Maggie's Farm
- Man Pants (Ninnuh's blog)
- Mark Steyn
- Medary
- Meepbobeep's Journal
- Melanie Phillips
- memeorandum
- Mi Vida Loca
- Michael Yon
- Michelle Malkin
- Midnight Blue
- Mike Hendrix & Co.
- Mike in New Hampshire [RIP. Never forgotten]
- Mind Numbed Robot
- Miserable Donuts
- Moxie
- MsUnderestimated
- My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
- Naked Empress
- Natural Born Conservative
- Neo-neocon
- Newsbusters.org – Exposing Liberal Media Bias
- Nice Deb
- No Sheeples Here
- Oatmeal, The
- Obi's Sister
- Old Grouch
- Once Upon a Time in the Webs
- Opera Rat: The Blog
- Paco Enterprises
- Pal 2 Pal
- Paragraph Farmer, The
- Patterico's Pontifications
- Phelony Jones
- Pixie Place II
- POH Diaries, The
- Pool Bar, The
- Potluck
- Power Line
- Public Secrets
- Pundit & Pundette
- pw
- Q and O
- Question Obama
- Radical Middle
- Redstate – Conservative News and Community
- Renner's Here
- Rhetorican
- Rhymes with Right
- Ric's Rulez
- Richard Fernandez
- RightNetwork
- Ruby Slippers
- Salty Droid
- Sanity Inspector, The
- Scott Effin' Burgess
- Serr8d's Cutting Edge
- Seven Deadly Sins
- Sissy Willis
- Six Meat Buffet
- Snark. And Boobs.
- Sono Annoiato
- South Texian
- Stop the ACLU
- Sultan Knish
- Supply Side Politics 2.0
- That Mr. G Guy's Blog
- That's Right
- The B-Cast
- The Blago Files
- The College Politico
- The Conservatory
- The H2 – New Location, Same Retardation
- The Hayride
- The Other McCain and Smitty
- The Rude News
- The Trogolopundit
- Theo Spark
- Three Beers Later
- Tigerhawk
- Tim Blair
- Trevor Loudon
- Unreligious Right, The
- Useful Info Nation
- Useful Info Nation Blog
- Vally of the Shadow
- Vanderleun
- Verum Serum
- Victor Davis Hanson
- Vodkapundit
- Walking on Eggshells
- Washington Examiner
- Watts Up with That?
- Weasel Zippers
- Yid with Lid