From yamagata at virtual-markets.net  Tue Jan  4 23:31:21 2011
From: yamagata at virtual-markets.net (G Richard Yamagata PhD)
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 23:31:21 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Davis Democrats] 8th Assembly District Causcus this Sunday
Message-ID: <201101050731.p057VLcq061344@ns2.afes.com>

This e-mail is going out to the most ardent of the Davis Democratic Club
supporters and volunteers.  

This event has been in West Sac and in Vacaville the past two times.  Since
it is being held this year in Davis -- please come out and support your
Davis neighbors that are running for party delegate.  I am told that there
are at least 9 DDC members running for delegate.  There are 12 slots open.  

8th Assembly District Democratic Party CAUCUS IN DAVIS
PLACE: ARC Building on UCDavis Campus       
Date: Sunday, January 9, 2011
Address: Next to Rec Hall now renamed UC Davis Pavilion
        On LaRue Blvd
        UC Davis CAMPUS, CA 95616
Doors Open: 11AM
Registration until: 1 PM
Reg FEE:  $5

This Democratic Party Caucus elects the 8th Assembly District Party Chair
and 12 delegates to the state convention, who are 6 men and 6 women.
Parking is free.  Park in the former Rec Hall parking area and walk into the
ARC conference building.  Signs will be present to direct you inot the ARC
conference building.  The reg fee, I was told, is to cover overhead costs of
the caucus.
G Richard Yamagata  PhD
CEO/President   VME Inc.   http://www.vme.net/   http://vme.net/bcards/bio.html
Phone: 530-VIV-VMEI or 530-848-8634

G Richard Yamagata is a member of the Davis Community Network Board of 
Directors, Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Davis Democratic 
Club, President of the board of Virtual Market Enterprises, Inc, 
Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of the Davis Progressive Business 
Exchange and communications liason and board member for the Business 
Link of Woodland and Davis.

For public service to the Democratic Party of Yolo County, 
Recipient of the 2007 Williamson-Wier Award

========================== The Virtual Markets =================================
Davis Virtual Market - http://virtual-markets.net/vme/
Fresno - http://vme.net/fvm/   Reedley - http://vme.net/rvm/  
Sacramento - http://virtual-markets.com/svm/  Vacaville - http://vme.net/vvm/
Woodland  - http://vme.net/wvm/   
"Pet, Vets, You, and Dr.Sue - http://vme.net/dvm/DrSue/ 

The thoughts expressed are my own and do not reflect the policies or opinions
of DVM, FVM, GVM, RVM, SVM, WVM, VVM, VME Inc, DCN, DDC, WBL, DPBE, or IOOF.



From jac07 at dcn.org  Sat Jan 29 00:44:36 2011
From: jac07 at dcn.org (John Chendo)
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:44:36 -0800
Subject: [Davis Democrats] FW: State Senator Noreen Evans
 (California-Democrat- SD#2)-chair of Legislative Women's Caucus- criticizes
 Republicans' attack on pension plans of public employees
In-Reply-To: <E1Pj6Zg-0005vs-Ag@server.californiaprogressreport.com>
Message-ID: <C9691374.2F76E%jac07@dcn.org>


------ Forwarded Message
From: John  Chendo 
<jac07 at dcn.org>

   
Message from sender:

Republicans want to eliminate guaranteed public employment pension  benefits
    

 
Published on California Progress  Report
(http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site)
 

 
Home </site/>  > Blogs </site/blog>  > megan's  blog </site/blog/7678>  >
Public Employee Pension ?Reform? or Dismantlement?
 

 
Public Employee Pension ?Reform? or  Dismantlement?
 
By megan
 
Created 01/28/2011 - 2:03am
 
     
                   
Posted on 28 January  2011
      
             
By State Senator Noreen Evans

While the Governor and Legislative Democrats grapple with the state?s
fiscal crisis by proposing severe budget cuts matched with tax extensions,
our Republican colleagues remain on the sidelines. Recently, however, they
made their first demand ? destruction of pension plans of public  employees.

You remember retirement plans? Just about everyone working for a large
company used to have one. Then some smart MBAs figured that corporations
could save a bundle of money by dropping pension plans and substituting
401(k) ? style benefit plans. The corporation would pay out less, retirees
would reap ?benefits? from a perpetually growing stock market, and
investing firms would earn lavish fees. Of course, the market goes up and it
goes down, and if an employee about to retire is caught on the wrong end of
the graph, well life is tough.

So now our colleagues say that in order to consider letting voters decide
whether to extend taxes to help fill the budget gap, Democrats must first
agree to mandate that all new state employees forgo state pensions and
instead contribute to 401(k) ?style benefit plans.

Requiring state employees to enter into 401(k)-style benefit plans is not
?pension reform?; It is the complete dismantlement of our state?s  public
employee retirement system and presents a host of potential  dilemmas.

Retirement plans can be broken into two basic categories ? defined  benefits
(DB) plans and defined contribution (DC) plans. Defined benefit  plans pay
out specific benefits to retirees that cannot be changed or limited  during
that individual?s lifetime. Defined contribution plans define the  specific
contributions the employers and/or employees make to an  individual?s
retirement account, but do not specify the amount of the  benefit paid out
upon retirement. Then there are 401(k) plans which depend  entirely upon the
market and an individual?s skill or luck.

Historically, public sector employees are paid lower wages than comparable
private sector employees. Secure long-term retirement benefits are often the
hook that keeps valuable employees in public sector employment rather than
leaving to find higher wages in the private sector. Substituting a DB system
with a DC system or 401(k) plan would discourage civil service employment
and  increase turnover rates, resulting in an inconsistent workforce and
loss of  institutional memory.

Studies  have shown
<http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/member/retirement/info-sources/defined-b
ene-facts.pdf>  that DBs are less expensive to administer and do much better
than DC systems. Average administrative costs for a DC system are 2% of
assets, while a DB system costs only .18% of assets. And DB systems employ
top quality investment managers, consistently outperforming DC systems in
down market times.

Today many state employees contribute to both systems, often to defer
taxes, and that?s well and good. And there are ways to reform pension plans
that are common sense and fair. The Governor, for one, is talking about such
reforms. But requiring state employees to enter into a 401(k)-style defined
contribution retirement plan would put public employees at the mercy of Wall
Street, and would represent a major step back to retirement insecurity, not
?reform.?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

State Senator Noreen Evans represents California's 2nd State Senate
District, which spans from the North Bay to the North Coast.s. Evans serves
as Chair of the Legislative Women's Caucus. This article originally appeared
on her  new blog 
<http://noreenevans.blogspot.com/2011/01/public-employee-pension-reform-or.h
tml> . 
  
   
                   


 

 

------ End of Forwarded Message