Latest news with #publicemployees
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
The Cities and States That Are Getting It Right
President Trump's domestic policy law will create big budget problems for many states and cities. Budget shortfalls aren't new, and neither is the playbook that leaders usually follow. They make across-the-board cuts to programs and raise fees and maybe taxes. Inside government agencies, they emphasize sharing the pain: implementing hiring freezes, instituting furlough days for public employees and laying off workers based on seniority. Nobody is happy, but at least the approach is equitable and minimizes disruption. This is the wrong playbook. Those who follow the across-the-board approach will end up cutting teachers or raising subway fares while protecting jobs that could have been automated years ago. The public is already frustrated with government for unkept promises and often sluggish services. If our leaders simply manage cuts to avoid upheaval, that frustration will only rise. Now is the time for intelligent disruption. Government feels like it's stuck in an earlier era because it often is, operating in a model that hasn't served us for decades. Our industrial-age bureaucracies were slow to adapt to the internet era, and now they risk missing the boat again as the world hurtles into a new technological revolution. As budgets shrink and public needs grow because of this new law, defending the status quo isn't just inefficient; it's also immoral. To transform the operations of the public sector, leaders will need both courage and creativity. Government unions and contractors alike will be uncomfortable. The question is whether to prioritize the needs of the existing system or the needs of the public it is supposed to serve. A few pioneers are choosing the public, responding to the coming crisis by ensuring that our public institutions have the right people doing the right work. Other states and cities should follow their lead. In Denver, which is facing a budget shortfall, the city recently moved to change its layoff rules. In many states and cities, layoffs must be based on seniority, and a more senior employee can bump a more effective junior one. Mayor Mike Johnston changed that, and Denver's new rules instead instruct managers to weigh employees' performance history, abilities and length of service. At the meeting where the city's Career Service Board approved these changes, a crowd that included city workers booed and shouted, 'Shame.' But Denverites should applaud their mayor for putting the government's ability to serve the public first. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
17-07-2025
- General
- Forbes
Embattled Adult Kids Are Stressing Their Aging Parents-Can It Stop?
Two sisters with parents in their 80s bitterly accuse one another of wrongdoing. Older sister (OS) originally had full charge of both parents, quitting her job to care for Dad when he got sick. Younger sister (YS) is sure OS took money she should not have taken, as she drew a small regular amount from the parents' funds to help support herself. OS is sure YS took money out of the parents' savings and hid her actions. Then the power over funds was switched to YS and finally revoked by the parents. No one is clear about Verbal strikes by sisters stress older parents who is right. The fight goes on. The conflict seems to be driven by an underlying fear that the parents will run out of money while they still need full time care. It is a legitimate fear. The parents' income is good from their retirement plans as public employees for decades, but it is not enough to pay for a full time caregiver who helps both of them. Mom cannot do much for herself now. She is in a wheelchair and needs assistance with her basic activities such as bathing, dressing and getting to the bathroom. Dad is less impaired but has early dementia. He's in a wheelchair too. The Dire Financial Picture Most of us believe that if we have solid careers and a retirement plan or pension that we'll be okay in retirement. For many, the rude awakening comes when one must pay for help at home. Medicare does not cover this except for a short time after a hospitalization. Normal health insurance does not cover it either. So, it has to come out of savings or selling assets. In this family's case, the only significant asset left is the parents' home, which has a loan on it. That loan is paying for the home care workers. When it comes due, the elders will have to sell their home. That creates a taxable event and will not leave a huge amount of sale proceeds to pay for care elsewhere. No one in this family has a plan for what happens after the home must be sold. Neither OS nor YS make enough money working to support their parents. Failure To Plan The parents, like many retired elders, never imagined running out of money. After all, that good pension should be enough to live on rather well, right? Neither parent ever contemplated becoming impaired and needing around the clock help. That is a failure on their part to even consider the potential need for long term care, now causing nasty fighting between their adult children. The mutual accusations between the sisters will never solve the running-out-of-money issue. What the aging parents might have done at an earlier stage in life could have included investing in a way that increased their income, downsizing their home to generate cash, buying long term care insurance when they were younger, making a plan to move to a less expensive place to live and get care, and other possible options. As they live on, the parents face the prospect of becoming impoverished and having to accept the lowest level of care available with public benefits, which at this moment are all in danger, given the current political climate. Possible Solutions No one is going to give these elders an easy way out of their situation. There is no public program that will allow them to stay at home indefinitely, keep the home, repay the loan, and have full time care there. No magic solution exits. There are some things that can lessen the load of stress the elders have to deal with now, particularly over the daughters' battle. They make accusations about who took what money from the parents and how it was spent. Facts can clear up the misconceptions if there are any. 1. A neutral outside professional, such as a licensed fiduciary, bookkeeper or Daily Money Manger can do an accounting of all income and expenses from the time the Dad fell ill up to the present. Money leaves a trail. A neutral person can show in black and white the figures both sisters and the parents need to see to reduce the vitriol that is unnecessarily stressing out the parents. If anyone needs to make things right, the same evidence will be before all family members. If not, they can drop the fighting and focus on their parents' future. 2. Either OS or YS or any other competent person can start the research now on alternative living arrangements where care can be provided for both parents full time. The elders live in a very expensive area of their state where property values are high. Even with repayment of the loan on the home, and the tax consequence of selling it, they are going to receive some cash after it's said and done. That cash can help pay for care in a far less expensive location than the parents' current home with their agency provided caregivers. 3. Both parents need to be prepared to accept that they can't stay at home after the home loan comes due. They also need to accept that their living situation must change. They expressed the desire to remain where they are 'as long as possible.' That is a common refrain we hear at where we advise families, including this one. These folks are reaching the limit of 'as long as possible' at home soon. Possible means one must be able to pay for the privilege. That has an expiration date in this case. There are no other assets to tap to enable them to stay in place. The Takeaways It seems clear to us as advisors in this matter that the real force behind the sibling fighting over who did what is that neither wants their parents to end up with nowhere to go and no way to pay for care. The daughters themselves cannot provide the needed care. We suggested to them to do these things: 1. Get a full accounting of finances from an outside neutral person and accept the results. It is too late to undo any money moving that may have happened in the past. Unless there is clear proof of financial abuse from the accounting, it is not worth anyone's time to continue the battle. Get over your own conflicts and concentrate on planning for your impaired parents' safety for the future. They are very stressed by your fighting. 2. Plan for alternative locations where your parents can live and receive care at a lower price than they are now paying in their very expensive county. Lower cost options do exist, outside their city and in different parts of their state. Spend your time and efforts in finding a good place for them, analyze the timeline and plan for it. 3. Get tax advice, medical opinions and projections from their healthcare providers, and care planning advice from the appropriate available experts. Those kinds of advice are valuable in helping to protect vulnerable elders from being forced into a sub standard nursing home, their worst nightmare. Family fights are not an uncommon matter in the world of aging parents who need care. It is possible to get them resolved if the family members are willing to change focus from accusations against one another to protecting their parents. Family meetings conducted by facilitators or mediators who are well versed in the legal and medical issues at hand can reduce stress for all.
CBC
24-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Why there's an ‘unprecedented level of frustration' amongst Alberta's public sector workers
Some of the biggest public sector unions in the province have voted in favour of taking strike action. From Alberta's teachers to members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, they all have one major issue in common.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
California lawmakers join state workers in rejecting proposed salary freezes
In California's behind-the-scenes budget process, it's hard to know what legislative leaders and Gov. Gavin Newsom will agree to — until the dust settles. But with just over a week to finalize the budget, or go without pay, lawmakers are weighing the options about which of the governor's proposed cuts they're willing to stomach. One option to help patch the $12 billion deficit would be to delay salary increases for public employees in the upcoming fiscal year. By negotiating pauses in pay raises with bargaining units, the administration hopes to save $767 million. While some lawmakers have opted to remain quiet on the question, legislators on both sides of the aisle have said they are not willing to balance the budget on the backs of state employees' salaries. 'I'm here in solidarity to support you and to help fight for you in the Capitol,' Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, told a crowd of hundreds of state employees gathered on the Capitol grounds on Thursday morning. A coalition of labor groups, including Service Employees International Union Local 1000 and smaller unions representing doctors, scientists and other public workers, descended on the Capitol to urge lawmakers to reject the governor's budget-savings measure. The stakes are high for public sector unions, many of which have spent the last few months pushing back against Newsom's March directive to bring public employees back to offices four days a week. Now, labor groups are hoping that lawmakers will say no to the governor's proposals. While the governor has offered to negotiate with the state's 21 bargaining units over the salary freezes, the budget proposal before the Legislature now would grant the administration authority to impose savings anyway, if lawmakers agree. California is required to follow labor contracts that cover its workforce, but only if the Legislature approves the spending for it. 'Take care of state workers, so they can take care of Californians,' Kristen Silliman, a Department of Developmental Services employee, said outside the Capitol Swing Space Thursday waiting in line to lobby lawmakers. The issue of supporting public employees is close to home for Schiavo, whose constituents have been suffering the health consequences and misery of a perpetually burning landfill in Southern California. Those who live near the Chiquita Canyon landfill have come to depend on the guidance of state scientists monitoring the noxious fumes coming off the literal dumpster fire. 'I want to be here to stand with you, to fight with you, and to make sure that this budget changes before we see it on our desk next week,' Schiavo said to rallying state employees. While she does not sit on the Assembly budget committee, Schiavo said there is a general consensus among lawmakers that they don't want to balance the budget with the help of public workers who protect California's communities. The vice chair of the Senate Budget Committee, state Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, similarly opposed the governor's proposal to freeze salaries. 'State workers' pay is a contractual obligation,' the Sacramento-area Republican said in a statement. 'It would be wrong for the Governor to unilaterally break that contract.' Additionally, Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, previously expressed opposition to the cuts while presiding over a budget subcommittee hearing on the issue. Other lawmakers, including those on budget committees, were not as eager to come out against the proposal. State Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento, and Assemblymember Liz Ortega, D-San Leandro, both declined to comment when asked if they supported freezing public employees' salaries as part of the budget solution. Meanwhile, state workers and their unions have not been quiet on the subject. On Thursday, hundreds of public employees from across the civil service spectrum marched from the Capitol to the Swing Space in Sacramento to decry and lobby against the proposed payroll freeze. Equipped with pithy signs and a mariachi band, labor groups also hoped to call attention to various other employment issues at the state. Dr. Kafia Abbasi, a psychiatrist who treats incarcerated patients at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, said it's already difficult to recruit doctors to work in state prisons. 'It's taxing to work in a toxic, stressful environment,' Abbasi said, standing with her fellow white-coated members of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, which represents medical professionals working for the state. Not awarding these raises will make it more difficult to hire doctors, Abbasi said, which could exacerbate another issue the union has been fighting: the replacement of state-employed physicians with contractors. Representatives for the doctors union said contracted physicians can earn more than double than what state-worker counterparts make. But because these private employees often work temporary assignments, patients don't receive the same continuity of care that state doctors said they provide, Abbasi said. The impact of salary freezes on recruitment and retention issues are also a major concern for state veterinarians. Dr. Everardo Mendes, a veterinarian with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said the state will struggle to hire new veterinary graduates if the government withholds raises that were agreed to the previous year. 'I didn't expect to be here,' Mendes said. 'I thought we had a contract.' Mendes noted that his bargaining unit, which represents state scientists, went years without raises due to stalled negotiations between the state and California Association Professional Scientists, UAW Local 1115. Now, Mendes is concerned he won't see raises another year. Additionally, Newsom's return-to-office order was a major concern cited by protesting workers Thursday. As an office technician, Carlyn Pipkins is on the lower end of the salary scale for state employees. With the expectation that she will return to office four days a week, Pipkins is expecting her day-to-day cost will increase. The Department of Water Resources employee hopes lawmakers will reject the proposed salary freezes. She said she was banking on a raise this year 'just to be able to live.'
Bloomberg
28-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
UK Plans to Force Nation's Pensions to Invest in Private Markets
The UK said it plans to require the country's pension funds to invest in private markets and the domestic economy, a move widely opposed by the City of London's investment managers. The government 'will take a reserve power in the pension schemes bill to set binding asset allocation targets' for investments in private markets, the Treasury said Thursday in an emailed statement. It also will secure £27.5 billion ($37 billion) for 'local investment priorities' from defined-benefit programs for public employees.
