READER’S EDITORIAL: IMPRESSIVE GROWTH IN ONE SECTOR OF OUR ECONOMY
Printer-friendly versionBy Russell Buckley, co-founder, East County Tax Hawks November 10, 2011 (La Mesa)–The annual update of the CalPers $100,000 pension club (a list of CalPers pensioners receiving more than $100,000 per year) was recently published. It continues to show remarkable growth. The Club had 1,841 members in 2005. By 2009 it had grown to 6,133. 2010 membership was 9,111 and this year’s membership is 12,199. That is a 99% growth in just the past two years! Current club rolls show Helix Water District with five members, City of La Mesa with seven, and City of El Cajon with 27. Given the higher public sector salaries of recent years and the extremely generous increases in pension formulas granted by our elected representatives a few years ago, membership in the $100,000 pension club is expected to continue to grow at exponential rates for many years. The unaffordability of current pensions is well documented. Pension costs have stretched the budgets of virtually every city in the county (and state). Unfunded pension liabilities (less money in pension accounts than necessary to meet pension obligations) threaten to keep pension costs high for many years to come. The Little Hoover Commission (LHC) report published in February of this year warned that if significant measures to reduce pensions for new employees – and for current employees going forward – are not made soon, those costs will force counties and cities to severely reduce services and layoff employees. Although the affordability problem is well documented, much less has been written about the fundamental unfairness of it all. For many years, all of the money contributed to CalPers came from taxpayers. Even with recent changes that require employees to resume paying some of the cost, most of the enormous financial burden continues to fall on taxpayers. That being the case, it makes sense to me that public sector retirement programs should be roughly comparable to those common in the private sector. Right now, they aren’t even close. Public sector retirement programs generally pay much more than those in the private sector, much earlier in life, with payments guaranteed by taxpayers who assume all of the risk for underperformance of the pension system. While paying more to support the generous public sector pensions, many taxpayers struggle to manage their own much more modest retirement accounts. As the LHC report also noted, public sector pensions, whose initial objective was to provide retirement security, have morphed into wealth generators. Our elected representatives have been no match for the relentless push from employee unions and associations for more. Governor Brown has finally started to openly discuss pension reform (what took him so long?) and there is talk of some pension reform groups getting a measure on the ballot next year. We will have to wait and see what comes of those efforts. But in the end Cities and Water Districts must bargain with their employees to make the necessary changes. Time is running out. For now, stay tuned for more exponential growth when next years $100,000 club membership is published. The views in this editorial reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. To submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org. Printer-friendly version
FATALITY ACCIDENT: I-80 CLOSED IN ALPINE
Printer-friendly version November 10, 2011 (Alpine) – A SIG Alert has been issued and Old Highway 80 is closed in both directions due to a fatality accident this morning just west of Dunbar Lane. According to the CHP website, a black truck rolled over while turning at Dunbar and landed on the highway. Traffic on both Old Highway 80 and I-8 is currently impacted, with hard closure of Old 80 expected to last for a couple of hours, as of the closure notice issued at 7:16 a.m. Printer-friendly version
LIFE ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM: GOODBYE, FAREWELL, AND AMEN
Printer-friendly versionBy Brian Lafferty Last year I lost my mother to breast cancer. This column is the third of a four-part series about loss and grief from an Autistic’s perspective. November 10, 2011 (San Diego) – I’m an optimist. I’m not a Lloyd Dobler optimist, but I rarely get pessimistic. When Mom fell ill it was emotionally hard for me to see her sick every day. But I didn’t dwell on the worst-case scenario. I refused to believe the worst-case scenario would even occur. Mom was strong. I believed she would beat it. During October and November of last year, I noticed she didn’t get any better, but she didn’t get any worse. I kept thinking, “Her IV treatments just take time.” This optimism was shattered around this time last year. It started innocuously enough when Mom got a little frustrated trying to organize some letters for a nonprofit organization she and Dad volunteered for. Pretty soon she was in a lot of pain. She had been in pain for the previous two months. This pain, however, was searing. She couldn’t concentrate and the letters needed to be organized and mailed on that day. She called our neighbor from across the street and a very nice family friend to come over and help. Our next-door neighbor’s daughter also volunteered to assist. Mom was in tears. What troubled me was that she almost never cried. I was scared. I could see that she was hurting like she never was before. My mind acts like an encyclopedia where I can access information. My mental encyclopedia was in disarray as I tried to figure out what was happening, but I had no idea what to do. With a lot of help she got the letters organized and mailed. However, she was still hurting so badly she could barely move. She went to her bed. Dad came home from work early and took her to the hospital. My oldest sister and her friend came over a short while later to be with me. I watched all of this unfold with a combination of confusion, fear, and denial. My mind had no idea how to process it. I felt like I was in a dream. When I dream, I often feel like I’m living a second life in my mind while I sleep. My dreams are extremely vivid and feel so real that I’m aware of the surrealism that occupies them. I know that what’s happening isn’t really happening, but it feels so darn real. That is what that afternoon felt like. Mom seemed so (healthy) that morning and in a span of a few hours she was in the hospital and the prognosis wasn’t good. It was the first time that I realized she wouldn’t make it. At that point two of my sisters and their families came down from Northern California and Colorado. My mom’s extended family also arrived. I was so happy they all came because of what I’d been through living mostly alone with Mom (My sisters came from out of town for a week or two to help and my Mom’s friends and family had dinner with us from time to time). I needed the house to be full. Late one evening my sisters and I drove to the hospital. We learned that Mom didn’t have very long to live. My sisters and I sat around her bed as she told us how she felt about us. I don’t remember much what she told me in front of the sisters. I wish I could. Maybe it’s because I somehow blocked out that portion because it was so painful. After my sisters left the room, I stuck around. My cheeks were streaked with tears. Mom always had a way of saying things in a way that made me feel better. She told me something I will never, ever forget. In her soft, slurred voice, she recalled how, when I was a baby, she didn’t know what to do. When I was very little, the doctors told her I had slim to none chances of functioning in society. She refused to accept that. One night she prayed to God for a miracle. She said she’d do anything if God would provide a miracle for me. Over the years the miracles turned up in the form of numerous people and institutions. From my wonderful third grade teacher, to my advocate in middle school, to The Winston School, it seemed that God had answered her prayers. Mom kept up her end of the deal. She worked tirelessly with me. She fought for me. Her methods of getting me to communicate and function would now be called intervention. What’s most remarkable is that up until I was eleven I wasn’t diagnosed with Autism. Today many parents of Autistic children have an advantage my mother didn’t have: greater knowledge and effective treatment of Autism. Mom came home a few days before Thanksgiving. Her condition worsened. On her last day, November 26, she was no longer herself. She couldn’t speak or move. She could only breathe. The last time I saw her alive I buckled. I looked at her, broke down crying, and left the room. This was not the Mom that I hugged for five minutes when I was little, or took me to Disneyland, or celebrated my birthdays with. She was a shadow of her former self. Around 5:30 P.M. my sisters came into my room. They informed me that Mom stopped breathing. Her body was taken to a mortuary where she would be cremated. Many people say all good things must come to an end. What’s often overlooked is the inverse, which is this too shall pass. I’m still grieving, but things are really looking up for me almost a year later. I just had to navigate the rough waters of the following winter
SEED MONEY AND SUPPLIES NEEDED TO HELP GROW A COMMUNITY GARDEN IN LA MESA
Printer-friendly version By Miriam Raftery November 8, 2011 (La Mesa) – “Can you remember the first time you ate a garden fresh tomato?” asks Debi Byrd, science teacher at Helix Charter High School. “Many students in my class have never had this opportunity." Byrd seeks donations of gardening tools and composting to make a community garden at Helix become a reality. Students will work with community members to grow fresh produce that will benefit the entire community. The teacher has set up a Donor’s Choose fundraising page at http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/198343.-1345208230 for the Helix community garden project. To date, she has raised $567 and needs an additional $317 to purchase the items needed. “During these difficult and uncertain economic times, what better way to provide security and contentment by planting a community garden,” Byrd concludes. “This project will give hope and opportunity to many students and volunteers as they work towards a common goal, growing healthy, nutritious food in a place that is close to home. Not only will the garden provide a platform for health, but it will also provide a sense of community as we all work together for a better future.” Printer-friendly version