In their never ending drive to distort reality in support of their attacks on public employees and public employee pensions, the Orange County Register has again used misleading comparisons of apples to onions to gin-up fear and envy.
Over the past week we learned of the termination of the County’s popular Green Fair, NRC held a hearing on the reopening of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, and Nick Berardino pushed back on an Orange County Register editorial attacking organized labor.
Well the numbers are in for the fiscal year ending June 2011 and it turns out Costa Mesa had a $3.8 million surplus. City officials had predicted a shortfall of $1.4 million earlier this year. But what’s a $5.2 million difference among friends?
I took a few moments this morning to review the staff report for tonight’s Costa Mesa City Council Study Session regarding their 5 year financial forecast. In order to inflate the costs of employee pension contributions, the staff has forecast that the employees would no longer contribute to their pension costs after the current contracts expire.
It seems that in the past week, the Los Angeles Times has finally rediscovered Orange County. In particular, Costa Mesa and the boiling controversy created by extreamist in the GOP who are hell-bent on destroying public sector employees, their benefits, and their ability to collectively advocate and bargin through their unions.
“Should Costa Mesa be run like a business?” All sides in the debate seemed to be in agreement that business principles have a role in the management of any city budget. However that agreement led me to the conclusion that the positions advocated by Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and Costa Mesa Taxpayers Association President Colin McCarthy are far removed from any sound principles I have ever seen.
While I understand the desire to pull surprising, and even shocking statistics, out of a report to prop up a flawed argument; in this case the Orange County Register seems to have noting else to support their position.
Page optimized by WP Minify WordPress Plugin
