[7/19/2002 12:43:36 PM | Andy Kovacs]
Today is my friend's birthday. Tracey turns 27. She is the only woman that I know of so far who hasn't complained about edging near 30. I've known Tracey for just over 3 years now. She's a good friend and an equally good sport. When we worked together I used to do so many things to annoy her; little annoying things over which any normal person would have had me killed. Anyway, once again, Happy Birthday, Tracey!!!

"In Portland, OR, a woman charged with shooting her husband, cutting up his body into little parts, and then scattering his parts around the nighborhood, plead guilty to a lesser charge. What is the lesser charge? Littering?"
- Jay Leno


[7/19/2002 9:37:01 AM | Andy Kovacs]
Good morning, folks.

Everyday you read some news about another corporation being investigated by the SEC. From Enron to WorldCom and now PNC Bank, it seems that everywhere you turn another major company is hitting the skids, causing their stock to drop drastically, thereby decimating the pensions of its workers and also the pensions of employees from other companies whose pension invests in that other company's stock. It's an ugly domino effect. Everyone's retirement funds have been hit hard and it seems as if it's only going to get worse, and that no company is safe from these "accounting irregularities."

On this basis, I have some pretty disturbing news here for New Jersey state residents. You may have heard about it or read it if you have access to the Star Ledger. I found the article online after hearing about it on the radio this morning.

The article is titled, Taxpayers may get bill for pension fund losses.

The article states that the state of New Jersey's pension fund lost 8.6% last year and the year before it lost over 10%, pushing it's three-year average to less than a zero percent return.

The article also goes on to state that "[u]nder state laws designed to keep the state's retirement system financially sound, taxpayers must make extra contributions into the fund whenever the average rate of investment return falls below 8.75 percent over a five-year period."

This is ridiculous, folks. When did this law come into effect? How long has it been law? Who allowed this to pass? How is this fair? Didn't governor Whitman put some ridiculous amount of money like $4 billion into the fund and promise us that the pension would be good for another 30 years? What happened to all that money? That's a heck of a lot of money to lose in the stock market, if that's where it really went.

I don't believe that all the state workers should be treated to a replenishment funded by the taxpayers of New Jersey. It isn't our fault that the stock market tumbled. We didn't inflate WorldCom's reported earnings. Why should we be held responsible, then, for what the state invested in?

I believe that state workers should have to take the same hit as everyone else. Their pensions are based on the same stock market as mine and yours, am I wrong? Who is going to replenish my retirement fund?

I can see having to replenish the state police's and maybe the fire department's pension funds because, for the most part, the cops keep us safe and the fire guys literally pull our fat out of the fire. These are both jobs that I have no interest in, but seeing as they put their lives in peril to save ours, I can understand helping them out.

I can't see, however, replenishing the funds of, let's say, a data entry clerk in the Department of Health and Human Services. I can't see any way to justify our having to replenish that person's retirement funds. It would be like me trying to justify to state lawmakers why they should replenish mine.

This topic is making me ill. I don't like thinking about it and I think it's something we should raise our voices about. Write to somebody - a congressman? An assemblyman? The Governor? Oh, that's right - he's on a "business trip" in Ireland right now.

Anyway, there's something that needs to be done about this and something has to be done soon to try to avert the possibility of this action by the state. Otherwise, we'll all be crying if our taxes shoot through the roof next year!

-andy