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Meet Squeezy, the public employees pension python

Illinois Governor Mark Quinn offers a clear and creative explanation of the crisis faced by his state as a result of decades of underfunding contributions to public pensions: Quinn avoids casting blame on the public employees or their unions, putting the blame instead on politicians who didn't worry about making...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 20, 2012 11:07 PM

Bad bureaucrats: Pension logrolling, hidden funds, expenses fiddling

A few news items of interest, while you wait for me to publish some sort of analysis of last Tuesday's results: Reuters: Special Report: How a vicious circle of self-interest sank a California city -- long, but a must-read: Yet on close examination, the city's decades-long journey from prosperous, middle-class...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 14, 2012 11:37 PM

Bartlett to Canadian paper: Tulsa FOP "selfish and greedy"

It's a story from February 1, 2010, but I just saw it this week, via Troy Sappington on Facebook: a story in the London (Ontario) Free Press that prominently featured comments from Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr on police salaries and layoffs. The story was part of a series entitled...

Posted by Michael Bates on May 8, 2010 11:37 PM