California Budget

We took a look at some of the budget numbers in California at www.scabee.com/statepay
where you can find the salary of most any state employee. We don't know of anyone there except Arnold and he's probably working for one dollar anyway. But we got to thinking if Calfornia was similar to some of the east coast states that have budget problems. So we picked a department like "Industrial Relations" and asked to see who made over $100k annually. 347 names popped up. We went to a bunch of other departments and each one had pages of people pulling down in excess of $100k. Now think about this. Each one of these people will retire early and get a hefty benefit filled pension for years after they leave their job so hard working stiffs like you and I that aren't so lucky support that gravy train for the rest of our breathing days. Something is wrong here and it only seems to be getting worse. The town I live at near the beach just decided that it wouldn't be nice to lay off any government workers or cut back on the budget (they are having fun building new everything) so they just announced a their completion of a new revaluation of homes proposing that our house receive a 42% increase in property taxes from $5,578 to $7,908 per year. Now don't think that we had a low assessment previously, we didn't. Everyone in the neighborhood is getting stiffed and our house is only a 1000 sq ft built some 50 years ago. Something wrong here. This reminds us of the decline of the former USSR. Are we on our way?

Ding Dongs Policing the Wing Bats

Today the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a press release stating that it had fined Del Monte Corp. nearly $3,500 for industrial wastewater violations last fall at its plant in South Centre Township, Columbia County.



Think about this process. Nearly every week PADEP issues a similar announcement. After weeks and weeks of behind the scenes work involving scientists, engineers, administrative staff, lawyers and then finally the PR people they announce this huge event. Probably the costs for the involved lawyers alone exceeded $10,000 in this one example and its not unreasonable to believe that after every government worker got involved they expended $50,000 chasing this down.



But take a look at the numbers. Del Monte had $3.7 billion in revenue last year and was fined $3,500 - How about putting that through the canine smell test?



Pretend as a fully employed citizen you have an income of $45,000 per year and were fined a similar percentage. What would that fine be? It would be .00000094 times your income which equals $0.0423 Yes that's a FOUR CENTS equivalent



Now if you get caught speeding, roll through a stop sign or make a left where you can only go right the total fines often exceed $150 and that hits your budget. That's close to 20 % of your weekly take home pay.



Here polluters get caugt and end up paying the equivalent of $ .04 - we need to fix the system.

Three Strikes Your Out

In some sports the rules are so simple that four year old kids can grasp the baiscs of the game instantly. That can't be said for the bankers on Wall Street. Today we learn that Merrill Lynch gave $3.6 billion in bonuses to some 39,000 employees just before the merger with Bank of America last year. Seems like we need to apply some good old baseball rules here. ML execs took a wild swing last year and missed the ball again. Our umpire says the execs need to be kicked out of the game. That is what they are making of all of this. Yes, kicked out of the job and retroactively taxed the entire amont of their bonus plus adding, as they say at Bank of America, a slight additional service fee say 25% would be appropriate.

Wal-Mart to Slash Staff by 800

OK We might not be the brightest guys on the block. But when will the media give it a break?

Everyone quickly reported these job cuts while the market tanked today. Let's put on our thinking hats and apply Bassic Math 101.

800 jobs out of 2,000,000 Wal-Mart employees. That's 4/100 ths of a percent.

Look at it another way. Say your take home pay was $1,000.00 per week. If you applied the same percentage cut 4/100 ths to that take home pay you would be bringing home $999.60

BFD Big Freakin Deal !

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes Who Pays Taxes ?

Seems like not to many Washington big shots are paying their taxes. Ya know, the odds are amazing. Compare this. millions of people buy Powerball tickets each week dreaming to be a winner. Sometimes a few weeks pass, millions and millions of tickets and no winner. The country has 300 million people. We picka few people for top government posts and each one has a tax problem. What are the odds?
Back here we feel like jackasses not dogs because we pay our taxes every year. What gives?
Maybe the obtuse answer is that the tax system is so complex and overly complicated that most of the brilliant people simply can't figure it out and make mistakes. Nawh, I don't think so.
By the way did you notice that this Nacny Killiefer has three people working at home for her. Two nannies and a personal assistant. Sure glad were putting common folk into these jobs so that they just might understand what its like to not know how you will pay next weeks bills.