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<p>You will see when googling EB-1 and EB-5 immigration.
Many of them will have asset of at least $500,000.</p>
<p>But, I don’t understand. It was one thing when the government restructured Chrysler and did that to the bondholders.</p>
<p>I just don’t understand how Stockton will be able to function if they can’t issue bonds when this is over. It doesn’t seem like a good idea, not even for the pensioners, actually.</p>
<p>[Calpers</a> Bankruptcy Strategy Pits Retirees vs. All Others - Businessweek](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)</p>
<p>"Is there an arbitration process for tax appraisal for people who bought it at the top in 2005 and have lost value? "</p>
<p>Yes. Although we did not buy at the top of the market, I actually got my taxes LOWERED last year. I posted here about my situation and folks were very helpful!</p>
<p>“Shrinkrap – where do you live? Bay Area housing prices and San Diego prices seem to be rising rapidly.”</p>
<p>Solano County. Only “technically” bay area; my part is closer to Sacramento.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_22400509/solano-housing-market-continues-improving-more-slowly-than[/url]”>PG&E boss says company wasn’t fully ready for California outages – Times-Herald;
<p>zooser- even with great benefits and until recently zero contributions from employees NY states pension fund was fully funded. They were one of the few States without a dire pension problem.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in NJ the State begin skipping their required 4% employer contribution for teachers and State workers around 1991. That is correct the State had to contribute 4% of an employee’s salary to fund the pension. When they did that the pension had 106% of required funds.
The police and politicians can still retire early and spike their pensions and their funds are in decent shape because towns made the majority of the required contributions.</p>
<p>Miss making payments for a good part of 21 years and blame someone else for the problem.</p>
<p>States with the most billionaires (based on 2011 Forbes data):</p>
<p>**1. California 90<a href=“LA%20ranks%205th%20and%20San%20Francisco%208th%20globally%20among%20cities%20with%20the%20most%20billionaires”>/B</a>
2. New York 67 (NYC #1 city globally with most billionaires)
3. Texas 47 (Dallas #6 globally)
4. Florida 28
5. Illinois 18 (Chicago #10 globally)
6, Connecticut 11
7. Michigan 10
8. Wisconsin 9
9. (tie) Nevada 7
9. (tie) Washington State 7</p>
<p>One option to consider - If a person pays a lot of taxes chances are financially he’s doing something right, so give him more weight in decisions involving the way the government’s finances are handled.</p>
<p>The CA state legislature could have a House of Lords</p>
<p>The billionaires do not always claim income though. They just have a lot of money in assets. The people who usually have clearly taxable income are those running small businesses or those working for companies earning a lot of money. I suspect there are many higher paid people than Zuckerberg at FB.</p>
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<p>Wow. I remember back when I was in college there were only 3 billionaires in the entire world: J. Paul Getty, H.L. Hunt (both oil men), and Howard Hughes.</p>
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</p>
<p>That already occurs, in the form of wealthy people or organizations lobbying politicians, funding PACs, etc. without having to seek large numbers of smaller donations (granted, this mainly applies to the super-wealthy in the top 0.01% or so, not the “ordinary” wealthy). Or just making large donations to their favorite political causes.</p>
<p>(Whether that is desirable or not is something that can be argued forever…)</p>
<p>Yes, pensions are a huge problem. Just read in the paper today that pensions here in Minnesota are 75% funded.</p>
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</p>
<p>Yes, Dayton already started campaigning for tax increase on the wealthiest Minnesotans.</p>
<p>The % of government revenue that has been paid towards public sector pensions is miniscule.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nasra.org/resources/NASRACostsBrief1202.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nasra.org/resources/NASRACostsBrief1202.pdf</a></p>
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<p>Maybe this is why they are under-funded.</p>
<p>They were overfunded when the States were contributing about 4% of revenue. Cut funding for 20 plus years and you create a problem. Great how they get to blame employees who are required to make contributions as a condition of employment.</p>
<p>Depends on the definition of miniscule. 3% of california budget is 3 billion.</p>
<p>I see both sides of the issue, in fact. I think it was horrible stewardship on the part of our state, Illinois. OTOH, there are some people who are seriously abusing the way they add up their pensions, too. I don’t think anyone should be receiving a quarter of million dollars a year from a government pension. I just don’t.</p>
<p>I feel, though, for the worker joes and janes, and I believe they were actually the shafted both ways, by the abusers of the system, and by the cities and state.</p>
<p>But, now what?</p>
<p>
I wholeheartedly agree. That’s a seriously excessive payout and that size of a benefit should be modified.</p>
<p>For all the flack federal employees get, our pension system was reformed 25 years ago - starting in 1986, all new employees are on FERS. It’s now a mix of a modest defined-benefit pension (1.1% of the high-3 average salary per year of service), a defined-contribution plan called TSP (contributions matched up to 5% of salary), and Social Security. I think it’s a fair system.</p>
<p>Does not change the fact that as a percentage of the entire amount of government revenue the % going to pensions is low.</p>
<p>If you read the charts in the attachment the pension problem was created by States not meeting their required contributions. In NJ 1.86% of all revenue goes to pension costs. If they just made the contributions required the problem would be minimal or not exist at all.</p>
<p>In N J pensions are now maxed out at the social security max income- $106,000 or so. We still have one of the biggest problems and it is solely because the contributions were not made for years.</p>