Showing posts with label 2012. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2012. Show all posts
Friday, November 2, 2012
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Quote of the day
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Quote of the day: "More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them." - Harold J. Smith Other good Quotes "Be more con...
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
truth be told: AMERICA EMBRACE LIBERTY BEFORE ITS TOO LATE
truth be told: AMERICA EMBRACE LIBERTY BEFORE ITS TOO LATE: WHAT DOES THIS SAY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.... WAKE UP!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Anti Johnston Ralley Tuesday before the council me...
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Anti Johnston Ralley Tuesday before the council me...: What we have in Stockton, is a Rogue Council and Mayor... Ann Johnston Tuesday, Oct. 9 2012 @ 5pm in front of City Hall, to begin our A...
Friday, September 14, 2012
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Help Solve Stockton, Mayor needs the Help!
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Help Solve Stockton, Mayor needs the Help!: Submitted by Linda Park , Community Web Producer STOCKTON, CA - Disheartening topics about Stockton run as regular headlines on the morni...
EVERYONE NEEDS ONE OF THESE...
EVERYONE NEEDS ONE OF THESE...
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
STOCKTON RECORD: Four More years being ignored?
By Michael Fitzgerald
Record Columnist
September 07, 2012 12:00 AM
Democrats concluded their three-day lovefest for President Barack Obama on Thursday night. The applause sign is not blinking over Stockton. What has Obama done for Stockton?
For four years, Obama has neglected the San Joaquin Valley by failing to deliver help that cities such as Stockton need the most, a fix to the foreclosure crisis.
"It's like we're out in no-man's land sometimes," lamented Mayor Ann Johnston.
Uncle Sam found other ways to help Stockton. Substantial ways. But housing remains the Big Enchilada, and Obama never even popped that one into the oven.
"I would have hoped that Congress would have taken action to force the banks early on to help refinance mortgages," Johnston said. "To do whatever they could to keep people in their homes so we would not have had this wave of foreclosures."
Instead of taking bold, sweeping measures, Obama fiddled with foreclosures.
"I think they totally missed the boat on that," Johnston said.
"President Obama poured vast amounts of money into efforts to stabilize the financial system, rescue the auto industry and revive the economy," the New York Times recently wrote. "But he tried to finesse the cleanup of the housing crash. ... "
And it didn't work.
We are in a crucial time here in the Central Valley, and "the house leaders" who are the politicians we vote in. So everything in Stockton, stems from the poorly managed idea of serving the public. Vote Anthony Silva for Mayor, and help us remove these evildoers from civic duty.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Valley News: Valley News Endorses Anthony Silva fo...
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Valley News: Valley News Endorses Anthony Silva fo...: Valley News: Valley News Endorses Anthony Silva for Mayor : "Valley News Endorses Anthony Silva for Mayor Stockton, CA. has been on...
Valley News Endorses Anthony Silva for Mayor
Stockton, CA. has been one of if not the hardest hit city in America, ailing crime, foreclosures, and a city council that seems unable to make the right decisions. When these type problems are compiled with inflation, and a shrinking budget, the outcome is a city like Stockton, CA.
Voted the most miserable city in America in two of the last three years, Stockton is still getting worse, and will continue to crumble, unless a change in leadership is made. Valley News sees the changes that can be made to fix the status quo in our two-time All-American city. The Mayoral candidate we are endorsing is Anthony Silva.
Anthony Silva is a man of integrity, honesty, and loyalty, all characteristics that our city's current mayor Ann Johnston lacks. She has been on the council for the last twelve years, as I recall, Stocktonians were better off in 2000, correct? So stand with the Valleys sole source of truth, VALLEY NEWS, and do whats right for Stockton's future, elect Anthony Silva for Mayor.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
It's the ? of the world known as Stockton, CA
There is a sickening, gut-wrenching feel to this city. It's rising up to nearly 30% unemployment, when adding the amount of people who have past their U.I. extensions, and are reduced to limited Income. These Nomadic Stocktonians are lucky to bring in $50 in a month. Imagine what that would do to a full family. It's true times are tough. However, if your life seems tough, come to Stockton and find a place to sit.
Oh Zee
8-14-2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
Property Values Decline slows
(Source: By Zachary K. Johnson, The Record, Stockton, Calif. (MCT) – STOCKTON – For the fifth year in a row the assessed value of properties in San Joaquin County fell, but the drop of less than one percent is a dramatic difference from the free fall that followed the depth of the housing bust.
For more than 115,000 homeowners, it means the market value of their property fell again last year, but it comes with the silver lining of a smaller property tax bill to come.
And for the local governments that have seen declining property taxes contributing to year after year of shortfalls and cuts, the slowed decline shows shrinking tax revenues are leveling out, offering some hope that better days are on the horizon.
“It seems like things are improving,” Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk Ken Blakemore said. But he cautions that the assessed value is marked on Jan. 1 of this year, and not a predictor to where the housing market is headed.
From 2000 to 2007, the assessed value of property in San Joaquin County more than doubled when it peaked at $62.6 billion in 2007.
Since then, the value declined by 19 percent, to $50.9 billion in 2012, according to the latest roll released by the Assessor’s Office this week. It was a drop of 0.3 percent over 2011.
The assessed value isn’t necessarily the market value of a home. It is used to determine how much property tax is owed.
The assessed value of a property can grow at a maximum of only 2 percent, no matter how fast the housing market is rising. If the market value falls below the assessed value, then the lower value becomes the assessed value.
Starting today, the Assessor’s Office begins sending out notices to 115,000 property owners that their properties have been assessed at a lower value.
About 60,000 owners will not receive notice because their assessed value will increase by 2 percent, according to the Assessor’s Office.
For the most part, a decline in assessed value means a decline in revenue for local governments, and any decline in revenue could be a burden on budgets, said Jessica Trounstine, associate professor of political science at University of California, Merced. “Local governments are working from paycheck to paycheck.”
The decline in property taxes is one of the precipitating factors leading up to Stockton’s bankruptcy filing and financial problems for other cities in the state, said Bob Benedetti, director of the Jacoby Center at University of the Pacific.
In court documents filed with federal bankruptcy court, Stockton makes its case for insolvency, in part, by noting the decline in property tax revenue following the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the rash of foreclosures that followed.
Stockton has a budget in place for the city to operate during bankruptcy proceedings.
The city could not say whether the assessed values were better or worse than anticipated or how the news from the Assessor’s Office would affect the city’s spending plan, without further analysis, city spokeswoman Connie Cochran said.
Property in Stockton was valued at $16.2 billion, a 1.6 percent drop from last year. The value of property in Ripon and Manteca rose by less than a tenth of one percent.
The Assessor’s Office figures have been submitted to the San Joaquin County Auditor-Controller’s Office.
The final tax roll for public agencies at the county start at 1 percent of that assessed value and goes up from there, including adding in special assessments that vary from area to area, Auditor-Controller Adrian Van Houten said. Later in the year, his office will let local governments know what their share of the tax roll will be, he said.
San Joaquin County government can expect to take in about 18 percent, said Assistant County Administrator Rosa Lee. Property tax makes up about 80 percent of the county’s local discretionary dollars, and the figures released from the Assessor’s Office indicate better revenue than anticipated in this year’s budget.
“I think that it’s good news; it looks like hopefully we’re turning the corner,” Lee said. In the best-case scenario, last week’s news could mean $1.5 million more for the county’s General Fund.
There are many pending appeals from property owners asking for a lower assessed value, Lee said.
Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/johnsonblog.
———
©2012 The Record (Stockton, Calif.)
Visit The Record (Stockton, Calif.) at www.recordnet.com
More CA Cities are Going Belly Up
By The Record
July 15, 2012 12:00 AM
And then there were three. First Stockton. Then Mammoth Lakes. Now San Bernardino. Three California cities. All unable to pay their bills. All in bankruptcy court or about to be there.
Not since 2008, when Vallejo filed, has a California city filed for bankruptcy protection. Now in the span of 15 days three have.
Like Stockton, San Bernardino's woes stem from too much exuberance during the boom years when the state's Inland Empire was on a roll and San Joaquin County became what amounts to a bedroom community for the Bay Area. Big projects. Big pensions. Big pay. (Mammoth Lakes' financial problems stem from a multimillion dollar court judgment the city says it can't pay.)
When the boom ended - as they always do - there were big problems. The river of revenue became a stream, then a creek and now a trickle.
"We have an immediate cash flow issue," San Bernardino Interim City Manager Andrea Miller told Mayor Patrick Morris and the seven-member City Council last week.
At 210,000 residents, San Bernardino is smaller than Stockton, but it faces a bigger deficit. It has a budget shortfall of $45.8 million compared with Stockton's $26 million deficit. San Bernardino has stopped paying some vendors. Stockton stopped making bond payments. San Bernardino officials said they may not be able to make payroll over the next three months. Stockton adopted a "pendency plan," a kind of day-to-day budget so it could pay its bills as bankruptcy plays out.
Likely these California cities will not be the last to take the drastic step of bankruptcy. Cities and counties throughout the nation are facing financial stress. In Scranton, Penn., the mayor has defied a court order and slashed all city workers' pay to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. He faces a contempt of court charge but said he has no choice. Scranton is out of money.
Since Congress added Chapter 9 to the bankruptcy code in 1937 to allow municipalities to seek protection, about 640 government entities have filed.
We probably will see more the next few months. What's different this time is the size of the cities in trouble. Stockton is the largest city in U.S. history to ever file. San Bernardino is the second largest.
Bankruptcy is an ugly, unpredictable and ultimately expensive choice. But as Stockton determined and San Bernardino decided, it was the only choice left.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Outside-the-Box Thinking: Ron Paul as Romney's VP
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Outside-the-Box Thinking: Ron Paul as Romney's VP: By Kathleen Ann | Yahoo! Contributor Network Political rumors abound about Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick -- especially with public...
Friday, July 13, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Stockton, CA Filed for Bankruptcy, but What's Next...
Oh Zee's Words of Wisdom: Stockton, CA Filed for Bankruptcy, but What's Next...: Stockton, California files for bankruptcy By Jim Christie SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Jun 28, 2012 11:49pm EDT (Reuters) - Stockton, Californi...
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Stockton bankruptcy is hard hit for city retirees
(AP Photo: Ben Margot)
Associated Press
When Stockton becomes the largest U.S. city ever to file for bankruptcy, it will strike a hard blow to residents, especially city employees and retirees whose health benefits and pensions helped drive the city toward insolvency.
City Manager Bob Deis said late Tuesday that officials were left with little choice but to recommend bankruptcy after failing to hammer out deals with creditors to ease the city's $26 million budget shortfall.
Deis expects the city to file for Chapter 9 protection by Friday.
Stockton will join a number of other cities and counties across the nation that have plunged into financial crisis as the recession made it tough to cover rising costs involving current and former employees, bondholders and vendors.
"What's going on in Stockton is endemic to what's going on all over the state and the country," said Michael Sweet, a San Francisco bankruptcy attorney at Fox Rothschild LLP. "Local governments are hurting and strained under the current pension and compensation systems. These systems are not appropriate for the type of economy this country has evolved into."
At a standing room-only Stockton City Council meeting Tuesday, numerous former city employees talked about their life-threatening medical conditions and said cuts to their health benefits prompted by the city's financial straits meant they would, in effect, lose their insurance.
"Some people will be devastated. There are those who have such severe medical problems that they will not be taken up by any medical company," said Gary Gillis, a retired fire chief on the board of directors of the city retiree association. "This plan appears to be a sledgehammer or a machete."
Several retirees broke down in tears after the city approved changes to their medical benefits as part of a bankruptcy budget adopted by the City Council.
"For me, bankruptcy might as well be a life sentence," said Gary Jones, a retired police officer, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor 10 years ago. Jones said his medical insurance enabled him to undergo chemotherapy and other treatments, which he said will be unaffordable at the lower level of coverage.
During the past three years, the city has dealt with $90 million in deficits in part through drastic cuts in police and fire personnel, even as residents said they have to deal with recurring break-ins and robberies, a climbing murder rate, homelessness and plummeting property values.
Once a beneficiary of the housing boom, the city now has the second-highest foreclosure rate in the nation. Its unemployment rate has doubled in the past decade and now hovers around 16 percent while a fifth of residents live below the poverty line.
"The average citizen will not put up with this," said Gregory Pitsch, a 26-year-old unemployed homeowner who made an unsuccessful run for mayor. "Their home prices have plummeted, they have no jobs, a lot of people are getting fed up so that they have to resort to crime."
Betty Garcia, who co-owns a downtown jewelry store with her husband, said her community is starting a neighborhood watch group to respond to a rise in crime and lack of police response, which they expect will only get worse.
"We already hear gunshots every night," Garcia said. "It's becoming like listening to the train go by. People don't even call the cops anymore."
Experts say municipalities such as Stockton must find a way to lower their contractual obligations to current and former employees as the cost of health care skyrockets and people are living longer.
"When times were good, it was easier to expand benefits and pensions and not pay as much attention to the unfunded liabilities that were growing," said David Dubrow, a bankruptcy lawyer at Arent Fox LLP in New York City. "Now that times are not good and not good for prolonged periods, those costs are becoming severe."
Some states have passed legislation related to changing pensions and retirement benefits for new employees, Dubrow said. But it's difficult to change the rules for existing employees and even more complicated for retirees, because state constitutions and other legal issues may prevent such restructuring.
In Stockton, pensions will not be affected by a bankruptcy filing, but health benefits for employees and retirees will.
There are about 2,400 retirees in the city and slightly less than half of them receive medical benefits. The unfunded liability for those benefits stands at $417 million.
As of July 1, the bankruptcy plan approved by the City Council reduces contributions to current employee and retiree health benefits and eliminates benefits for employees with less than 10 years of city service. And as of July 2013, it completely eliminates city-funded medical benefits for retirees.
Thirteen cities, counties and other government entities filed for bankruptcy protection last year _ the highest annual level in nearly two decades.
Stockton, a river port of 290,000, would be the seventh U.S. municipality to file this year and the first California city since Vallejo, which sought protection in 2008, according to James Spiotto, a Chicago bankruptcy attorney who tracks municipal bankruptcies.
Since Congress added Chapter 9 to the bankruptcy code in 1937 to allow municipalities to seek protection, some 640 government entities have filed. Last year's 13 filings more than doubled the six filed in 2010. That was the most since an equal number were filed in 1994.
Bankruptcy is a bandage for Stockton that won't solve the city's deeper problems, said Garcia, the jewelry store owner.
"With all the cuts, it's just so much, it will have a trickle effect on everybody," Garcia said. "If we make it out of this, I don't know how much skin we'll have left."
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