Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick
The signs clearly call for caution in crafting government budgets.
Consider these two storm clouds.
- The retirement fund for public school teachers posted negative returns for the fiscal year ending June 30. The kitty that funds teacher retirements lost 1.3%.
- The pension fund for California public employees lost 6.1% on its investments.
This is the first time this has happened since the Great Recession of 2009.
Last week (on Aug. 1, to be precise), the Legislative Analyst’s Office issued a warning on a shortfall in future revenues. The non-partisan group that advises the Legislature on fiscal matters said:
“At the time of our May outlook, we cautioned that economic indicators were suggesting a slowdown could be on the horizon. More recent economic data has continued to point in this direction. Consistent with this, our updated estimates suggest collections from the state’s “big three” taxes—personal income, sales, and corporation taxes—are more likely than not to fall below the Budget Act assumption of $210 billion.”
Marin’s cities and county government, meanwhile, have doled out pay raises and budgeted for increases in spending, using a variety of COVID-relief money to fill in the gaps.
The County of Marin adopted a 5% increase in spending this year. The county called it “balanced” and “structurally sound.”
That is only true because the county assumed that we’re headed into a “full economic recovery.”
That’s far from certain, as the LAO reports.
Inflation is roaring and I, for one, see no reason to bet the mortgage that the Biden Administration can turn things around.
All I’m saying is that there are storm clouds overhead. When it comes to spending, it’s best to err on the side of caution.
THIS IS NUTS
A union representing mental health workers plans an open-ended strike for better work conditions. Patients, they say, wait months to access care. And this strike against one health provider in Northern California (Kaiser) is going to help? I’m not seeing it.
STUPID COVID RULES
A meme crossed my computer recently that read: “Never forget that people actually believed ‘One Way’ grocery aisles saved lives.”
In hindsight, I guess that’s a fair point.
There were many other silly mandates.
Forcing us to wear paper masks (now proven ineffective) when the political and medical elite wore upgraded masks, comes to mind.
Another: Advising parents to quarantine their kids in their bedrooms when they returned home from college. Yeah, that’ll work.
Plexiglass shields in front of bank tellers. Seriously?
And let’s not forget the dumbest edict: You can walk on the beach, but you cannot sit on the beach.
What in the world were we thinking? If there’s a next time around for this kind of thing, let’s do better.
BEFORE I FORGET
I didn’t want any more time to go by before I lifted up the Marin study that seems to have made a significant advancement in the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and similar ailments.
A peer-reviewed article that first appeared last month in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, shows that a treatment of diet, exercise, sleep and supplements produced cognitive improvement, warranting a larger trial of this approach.
I don’t understand all of it, but it makes me proud that Marin is on the cutting edge of this important work.
ENOUGH ALREADY
Mill Valley held a dog and pony show recently to show folks what the historic Engine No. 9 might look like if it were placed in the Depot Plaza. Nothing wrong with that, but I must ask why the town’s moms and dads are playing so coy with this project. This wonderful display should be in the plaza. It’s a locomotive from the Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railroad, for goodness sake. The locomotive was saved by a group of johnny-on-the-spot Marin history buffs who bought the train at an auction.
Stop the debate. Put the train in the plaza. It’s a good and joyful thing to do.
That’s my opinion which, with $5, will get a medium drink at Starbucks. (I used to say $3, but in the post COVID world that price is long gone, apparently.)
ONE MORE THING
– Kids mispronouncing things is super adorable. But at some point I’m going to have to tell my daughter that we don’t put “Farmer John’s cheese” on spaghetti.
– This meme reinforces a lot of my biases about life:
Thanks for reading and until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.
(“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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