Anything from me show up yet?

ElectKarlock.com

Thanks
JK

Lewis's same ol same ol " Save the Children's education" runs a little hollow when I see more than 1/2 of my reality taxes are for poorly run schools..how do we spell mis-managed? Blame it on Sizemore...ya, right.

Cracks me up when these city hopefuls run on an education platform when the city has no authority over the schools.

Makes for a good sound bite, I guess.

Teacher's Pensions First!

Two relatives are retired and living off of PERS - well, too, I might add. I don't know of any private sector position where you make as much or more than you did while working, after retirement. Feh.

NW......No doubt that PERS is a great retirement, but few get more than what they made as an employee. Just to be clear there is this information from the annual report.

􀂃 For all retirees from 1990-2007, the average annual retirement benefit equaled 55% of final average salary at the time of retirement
􀂃 For 2007 retirees, the average annual retirement benefit equaled 51% of final average salary
􀂃 For all retirees from 1990-2007, there were 8.2% who received annual benefits more than 100% of final average salary. The average years of service for this group was 31 years
􀂃 For 2007 retirees, there were 4.9% who received annual benefits more than 100% of final average salary. The average years of service for this group was 31 years

Hey Gibby,,, nice try, but how many are getting full or near full pay starting in their early 50s for the rest of their lives. A needless and excessive retirement arrangement which only came about through a defective, compromised and under funded collective bargaining system.

A person grduates from college at 25 and puts in 31 years That would make him/her 56 tears old. S what is wrong with a retirement at that age?? Military is even better paying for an officer.

My relatives retired 15+ years ago and are getting far more than you mentioned, Gibby. But times may have changed. That they are getting ANYTHING puts them head and shoulders above Joe Average who worked years for most private businesses with no comparable retirement package.

I've worked for some large companies in Oregon over the years and the most any of them extended were matching 401K funds (which I appreciated). Since my 401K was invested in the marketplace it has followed the path of most 401Ks and is presently in the toilet. Hopefully some skillful plunging by Uncle Sam will bring a bit of it back.

Still, I expect that I will be working until I can no longer make it out the front door and don't expect to ever be able to afford to retire in the traditional sense.

And I'm probably better off than many Americans.

Speaking of unusual perks, I forgot to mention another relative who retired after working for years for PGE. Apparently at least some PGE employees get a special reduced rate on their electric bills after retirement.

Hey Tex, the truth is that most PERS retirees walked into work every day for 30 years, did their job, and really knew very little about PERS. They saw a statement once a year letting them know what they would likely get per month after they retired. If the pay was bad or the work was hard it was OK, because everyone knew the agreement for later in life.

Somewhere along the way some folks began to get upset that maybe PERS was too good of deal. This feeling seemed to occur after many of them lost their shirts in the dot com era. Changes were quickly made to the system, just as many neared retirement. Kinda like having your roof done for an agreed upon price, but then telling the roofer he is too expensive after the job is all completed. Maybe in this environment even more changes need to be made, but I be hesitant to persecute or blame the retiree.

"the truth is that most PERS retirees walked into work every day for 30 years, did their job"

Puh-leeze, I've had to deal with ODOT and OHCS and if you need something in a timely manner forget it. Hope you don't need them during deer hunting or NASCAR seasons. I have no idea why they earn such great benes when for every good state employee there are 4 bad ones.

I hadn't rec'd any until last week. Now I am getting 8-10 per day. No wonder my recycling bin was heavier tonight when I put it out to the curb. What a waste of paper since I voted last weekend.

Oh Gibby, that's swell, but the fact remains that public employees have been able to dominate politics with payroll donations and skewed the whole PERS system.

That's why retirement can happen with full or nearly full pay in their 50s while the rest of the working force cannot. It aint funded enough to make it happen at either sector but the PERS retiresss get it anyway. Politcians handed over that PERS retirement. The these so called good faith negotiations that granted retirement benefits without the money to pay for them was actually a process of political favor.

I don't blame any retirees but that doesn't mean the system should not be criticized. Especially since every election cycle those same public unions support every single tax increase,every levy and oppose any reforms. It's their part of the "good faith negotiations".

Oh goody, I guess to see Boris Karlock here, although he seems to have been banned at Blue Oregon. Nice ballot statement, the the way, Boris, but you forget to mention how climate-change denial factors into your plans.

As for Charles Lewis, I heard him and Amanda Fritz on KBOO last week. Fritz was obsessively detail and "process" oriented to the point of distraction, but Lewis came off as a guy with one answer for everything (Portland would be just fine if city hall would promote small business). His most distressing comment, though, was perhaps when he was asked whether Portland should reconsider participating with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, aka Son of Red Squad. He lamely remarked that if the FBI would just share everything it had with the city, he'd be willing to give the JTTF another hearing.

"Nice ballot statement, the the way, Boris, but you forget to mention how climate-change denial factors into your plans."

I DO NOT DENY CLIMATE CHANGE, please quit misrepresentation my position.

In fact I agree with the National Academy of Sciences Report on global climate change (nap.edu/catalog/11676.html) that said It can be said with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries. That same report went on to say there is good evidence for the existence of the "little ice age" from about 1500- 1850. See Page 111 (sheet 126)

I'll leave it to you to do the arithmetic.

Thanks
JK

Talk about election porn this year! Not to mention a huge waste of paper products! Between tuesday and saturday of last week we received 44 pieces of election garbage.
And that's just the stuff we counted AFTER we sent in our ballots!

... y'know, always there's this talk of how egregious Good they've got it who are public employees -- bureaucrats, fire and police, teachers, military-domos, politicos -- getting their 'retirements.'

And nobody ever says, "hey, if public employment has it so much Gooder than private 'business,' then why don't you get yourself some, instead of complaining?" "whattza matter, can't pass the physical? or the mental?"

---
Topically, not all election porn is printed. The filthiest depravity is as much or more in fly-by broadcasting: Limbaugh smears Obama with misrepresentation of comments on Constitution, October 28, 2008.

Distorting comments by Sen. Barack Obama from a 2001 radio interview, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh falsely characterized Obama as "an anti-constitutional professor" who has "flatly rejected" the U.S. Constitution. Obama made the comments in a panel discussion of how the Founders addressed the issue of slavery in the Constitution; he did not reject it, as Limbaugh falsely claimed, but called it "a remarkable political document."

During his October 27 broadcast, Limbaugh said: "Obama, ladies and gentlemen, calls himself a constitutional professor or a constitutional scholar. In truth, Barack Obama was an anti-constitutional professor. He studied the Constitution, and he flatly rejected it. He doesn't like the Constitution, he thinks it is flawed, and now I understand why he was so reluctant to wear the American flag lapel pin. Why would he?" Limbaugh later added, "I don't see how he can take the oath of office" because "[h]e has rejected the Constitution."

Limbaugh's assertion that Obama "rejected the Constitution" is false, as is clear from a clip from a September 6, 2001, interview on Chicago public radio station WBEZ ....

I went to a high school football game the other night. Nice game under the lights on a artificial turf, big grandstand, etc. The baseball fields also had perfectly laid artificial turf, big lights and grandstands. There was a dozen tennis courts with lights and very nice swimming center.

I got home and decided that it looked like the schools had plenty of money already so I voted no on the bond measures.