Unionwatch/ Ca publ pol ctr

<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24.64px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See CPC: SPN

see sep node<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24.64px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24.64px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://ourfuture.org/20120813/discover-the-network-out-to-crush-our-public-workers">https://ourfuture.org/20120813/discover-the-network-out-to-crush-our-public-workers</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24.64px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">

great tool:  <a href="http://conservativetransparency.org">http://conservativetransparency.org</a>/recipient/institute-for-justice/

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<a href="http://unionwatch.org/" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;">Union Watch</a> (updated regularly)  KOCH  <a href="http://conservativetransparency.org/recipient/california-public-policy-center/">http://conservativetransparency.org/recipient/california-public-policy-center/</a> 25K$ 2012?

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BS: Union Watch is a project of the <a title="California Public Policy Center" href="http://californiapublicpolicycenter.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">California Policy Center</a>, a c3 educational foundation established in 2010 to conduct research and provide information resources to voters, members of the press, educators and policymakers on the impact of unions on government budgets, government accountability, the economy and the democratic process. While UnionWatch endeavors to report and analyze national and international impacts of unions, the emphasis is on the impact of public sector unions, especially in California.

Frequent Contributors:

David A. Bego is the president and CEO of EMS, an industry leader in the field of environmental workplace maintenance, employing nearly 5000 workers in thirty-three states. Bego is the author of “<a title="The Devil at My Doorstep" href="http://www.thedevilatmydoorstep.com/purchase.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">The Devil at My Doorstep</a>,” based on his experiences fighting back against one of the most powerful unions in existence today.

<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Jon Coupal is president of the <a href="http://hjta.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Howard Jarvis Taxpayers</a><a href="http://hjta.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"> Association</a> — California’s largest grass-roots taxpayer organization dedicated to the protection of Proposition 13 and the advancement of taxpayers’ rights.

Kevin Dayton is the president and CEO of Labor Issues Solutions, LLC and is the author of frequent postings about generally unreported California state and local policy issues at <a href="http://www.laborissuessolutions.com">www.laborissuessolutions.com</a>.

<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Jack Dean is editor of <a title="PensionTsunami.com" href="http://pensiontsunami.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">PensionTsunami.org</a>, formed to monitor developments in all three pension spheres nationwide – public employees, corporations and social security. PensionTsunami, like UnionWatch, is a project of the <a title="California Public Policy Center" href="http://californiapublicpolicycenter.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">California Public Policy Center</a>. He is a former newspaper editor and  a past executive director of the Reason Foundation. He has been active in politics for more than three decades and currently serves as president of the Fullerton Association of Concerned Taxpayers.

<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Steven Greenhut is vice president of journalism for the <a href="http://franklincenterhq.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Franklin Center </a><a href="http://franklincenterhq.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">for Government and Public Integrity</a>. Previously, Greenhut was the founding editor-in-chief of <a title="Cal Watchdog" href="http://www.calwatchdog.com/about-calwatchdog/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Cal Watchdog</a>, an independent, Sacramento-based journalism venture providing original investigative reports and news stories covering California state government. Greenhut was deputy editor and columnist for The Orange County Register for 11 years. He is author of the book, “<a title="lunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation" href="http://www.amazon.com/Plunder-Employee-Treasuries-Controlling-Bankrupting/dp/0984275207" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation</a>.”

Ed Ring  is the executive director for the California Public Policy Center where he oversees execution of the Center’s strategic plan. He is also the editor of <a href="http://unionwatch.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">UnionWatch.org</a>. Previously, as a consultant and full-time employee primarily for start-up companies in the Silicon Valley, Ring has done financial accounting for over 20 years, and brings this expertise to his analysis and commentary on issues of public sector finance. From 1995 to 2009 Ring was the editor of EcoWorld, a website covering environmental issues from a free-market perspective. Ring has an MBA in Finance from the University of Southern California, and a BA in Political Science from UC Davis.

<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Gloria Romero is the State Director of <a href="http://www.dfer.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Democrats for Education Reform</a> and has been a forceful advocate for education reform and civil rights. She was elected to the 24th Senate District in 2001, representing East Los Angeles and the greater San Gabriel Valley. She was elected by her peers to serve as Senate Democratic Caucus Chair and as Senate Majority Leader — the first woman to ever hold that leadership position in the history of the California State Senate. Romero served as Chair of both the Education Committee and the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Education. She believes that education is the civil rights issue of our time.

Mike Shedlock is the editor of the top-rated global economics blog <a href="http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis</a>, offering insightful commentary every day of the week. He is also a contributing “professor” on <a href="http://www.minyanville.com/" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">Minyanville</a>, a community site focused on economic and financial education. Every Thursday he does a podcast on <a href="http://howestreet.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">HoweStreet</a> and on an ad hoc basis he contributes to many other websites, including UnionWatch.

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<table width="100%" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><tbody style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"><td>http://my.firedoglake.com/garycohn/2013/09/03/slash-and-burn-the-war-against-california-pensions/#more-42

</td></tr><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"><td colspan="2" class="postHeader" style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; background: transparent;">

<h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 0px; border: none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"><a href="http://my.firedoglake.com/garycohn/2013/09/03/slash-and-burn-the-war-against-california-pensions/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Slash and Burn: The War Against California Pensions" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Slash and Burn: The War Against California Pensions</a></h2>

</td></tr><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"><td style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">By: <a href="http://my.firedoglake.com/members/garycohn/" title="Gary Cohn" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">Gary Cohn</a> Tuesday September 3, 2013 1:33 pm</td></tr></tbody></table>

Benjamin Gamboa doesn’t know John Arnold, but they are linked by a shared concern over the fate of public-employee pensions in California.

“I’m proud to have a pension,” the 30-year-old Gamboa says. “I believe every American should have a pension.”

The two men live in very different worlds. Gamboa is a research analyst at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, California. Arnold is a hedge-fund billionaire from Houston, Texas.

There’s another difference between them: Arnold recently had a representative present at a secret “pension summit” held at a Sacramento hotel, where strategies to limit public employee retirement benefits were discussed; Gamboa, a union member, did not – representatives of labor were specifically not invited.

“Pension reform” has become the latest battle cry in a seemingly endless war that has ostensibly been declared against tax-dollar waste, but whose single-minded purpose has been to slash the job protections and benefits enjoyed by California’s working middle class. Pension-cutting advocates have filled airwaves, websites and op-ed pages with stories about employees retiring in early middle age on six-figure pensions. The reality is that the average state and municipal worker retires on about $26,000 a year.

The Sacramento summit took place May 22 at the Citizen Hotel, a luxury boutique inn two blocks from the state capitol. It was hosted by the <a href="http://reason.com/" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Reason Foundation</a>, a Los Angeles-based conservative and libertarian public policy group that embraces privatizing government functions and cutting public employee pensions. The foundation’s most prominent trustee is billionaire businessman David Koch, a <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/who-can-stop-the-koch-brothers-from-buying-the-tribune-papers-unions-can-and-should-20130510" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">longtime advocate</a> of reducing public sector retirement benefits.

The <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/165110585/Pension-Retreat-Agenda-5-22-2013" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">meeting’s agenda</a> – a copy of which was obtained by Frying Pan News — was written in the terse, opaque prose of event planners, but still offers a glimpse into the group’s plans. Among other items, it  lists an hour-long session on “Overcoming Opposition: Anticipating and Addressing Government and Union Opposition.” Perhaps the agenda was even more important for what it did not say: That the attack on public sector pensions may soon be transformed into a state ballot initiative that would change California’s constitution.

The participants in the closed-door meeting were Republicans and Democrats, and included public officials and representatives of numerous foundations and think tanks intent on reducing pensions for public employees.

Among those attending were San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed; former San Diego city councilman Carl DeMaio; Josh McGee, a vice president at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation; Marcia Fritz, president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility; Dan Pellissier, president of California Pension Reform; Ed Ring, executive director of the California Public Policy Center (CPPC) and editor of UnionWatch.org; Jack Dean, executive director at the Reason Foundation and editor of PensionTsunami.com, and Steven Greenhut, a journalist and author of the book <em style=" font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Plunder! How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.

Their gathering received no media coverage, with the exception of a brief mention in a column Greenhut wrote for the <em style=" font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/Jun/23/tp-fixing-california-pension-reforms-regroup-to/" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">San Diego Union-Tribune</a>. Despite the pension-cutting movement’s talk of the cause’s bipartisan pedigree, it seems to rely upon transfusions of money from wealthy rightwing personalities and nonprofits. Apart from the Reason Foundation’s close ties to David Koch, Greenhut’s own online hobby, <a href="http://calwatchdog.com/about-calwatchdog/" style=" font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">CalWatchdog</a>, is the creation of the <a href="http://www.pacificresearch.org/home/" style=" font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Pacific Research Institute</a>, a libertarian think tank with deep pockets.

Both the Reason Foundation and Pacific Research Institute are allied with the Koch-funded<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pacific_Research_Institute" style="font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"> American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)</a>, which has been writing corporatist model legislation for about 30 years. More locally, however, the nexus for pension-cutting is the Tustin-headquartered <a href="http://californiapublicpolicycenter.org/" style="font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">California Public Policy Center</a>, a conservative nonprofit led by Ed Ring, who worked to promote the anti-union Proposition 32 last year. CPPC’s advisors include Marcia Fritz and Jack Dean; its president is Mark W. Bucher who helped qualify and pass 2000’s Proposition 22, which effectively banned same-sex marriage in California. (Bucher is also a board member of Family Action, a rightwing Orange County political action committee.) Another CPPC board member, Robert Loewen, also serves as president of the ultraconservative <a href="http://fryingpannews.org/2012/10/30/a-day-at-the-lincoln-club-my-lunch-with-the-group-behind-citizens-united-and-prop-32/" style="font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Lincoln Club</a> of Orange County.)

The Sacramento meeting apparently helped set the stage for moves that are now occurring largely behind the scenes.

In an interview, Reed confirmed that he attended the pension summit and that he has been working on a statewide ballot initiative that would allow the state and local governments to reduce retirement benefits for current employees for the years of work they performed after his proposed reforms would go into effect. He says that such statewide reform is necessary for California’s fiscal health, to ensure that the state and local governments can provide a reasonable level of services to the public and to protect public employees.“What we need to do statewide is make it possible for local governments to change future accruals for work not performed,” he says. He adds that his proposed ballot measure could be voted on as early as November, 2014.

Reed, a Democrat who has opposed <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_20742735/council-members-call-san-jose-mayor-back-gay" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">same-sex marriage</a> and the <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2012/11/19/san-jose-working-to-brace-businesses.html" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">raising of the minimum wage</a> of his city’s workers, seems to be what pension-cutters have in mind when they speak of their movement’s bipartisan makeup. (The gathering’s other politician,<a href="http://carldemaio.com/news/2013/03/05/oc-register-profiles-carl-demaios-pension-reform-efforts" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Carl DeMaio</a>, is a Republican — and Reason Foundation senior fellow — who has advocated replacing San Diego city employees’ pensions with a 401(k)-type substitute.) Last year Reed pushed a ballot measure in San Jose to reduce that city’s retirement costs for its public employees. The measure passed, but is now tied up in the courts. He acknowledges that any such measure is likely to provoke an all-out fight with the state’s public-employee unions. Interviews with labor officials and their representatives seem to bear him out.

A ballot initiative to cut back pensions for existing employees would “change the constitution and would be a horrible thing,” says Steven Maviglio, a publisher of the <a href="http://www.camajorityreport.com/" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">California Majority Report</a> and a Sacramento-based political consultant whose clients include Californians for Retirement Security, a labor coalition representing 1.5 million public employees and retirees.

Maviglio says that many employees have worked for years at jobs where they were promised certain benefits and that it would be a breach of faith to “throw out that understanding and break that trust. That’s the whole foundation of pension benefits.”

He adds, “If someone is teaching for 25 years and somebody changes the rules of the game, that’s hardly fair.”

Any statewide ballot measure campaign aimed at cutting back public employee benefits would provoke an expensive fight with unions. “It would cost tens of millions of dollars — $30 or $40 million,” Reed says. Fritz, president of the <a href="http://www.fixpensionsfirst.com/" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility</a> (whose vice president is the CPPC’s Jack Dean), says that the backers would likely look for funding from the Arnold Foundation, among other sources.

The Arnold Foundation has funded similar efforts in the past. Two years ago, for example, the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that the Arnold Foundation had given a $150,000 grant to Fritz’s group for a series of reports seeking to limit public employee pensions. Last year, another of the foundation’s checks made headlines when it was revealed that the Arnold Foundation was a <a href="http://blogs.wpri.com/2012/12/11/texas-enron-traders-fortune-helped-fund-engage-rhode-island/" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">major backer</a> of Engage Rhode Island, the group that pushed through that state’s pension overhaul law.

The Arnold Foundation is clearly in the forefront of nationwide efforts to scale back pensions for state and municipal workers. On <a href="http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/resources" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">its website</a>, the foundation identifies pension reform as one of its key initiatives, and it provides position papers supporting its stances.

“The current system has allowed politicians to promise one level of benefits without fully funding them,” the Arnold Foundation’s McGee told Frying Pan News in an email last week. “Across the U.S., state and local governments have underfunded workers’ benefits by at least $1 trillion.”

The Arnold Foundation, McGee wrote, works with state and local communities to provide policy information and technical assistance to help them develop pension reforms. He said that a ballot initiative is just one tool to improve the retirement system, and added that the foundation “does not promote or fund ballot initiatives.” He also acknowledged that he attended the pension summit in Sacramento.

“We discussed the need to deal responsibly with accumulated pension debt, secure benefits that have already been earned, and create a system that is affordable, sustainable, and secure,” McGee stated.

Others believe the Arnold Foundation has its eye on California in order to promote public employee pension cutbacks across the nation. The foundation’s thinking, Maviglio says, is that “if liberal California can do it, it can happen anywhere.”

In many ways, Benjamin Gamboa, the 30-year-old research analyst at Crafton Hills College, is typical of those employees who find themselves in the pension-cutters’ crosshairs. Working at a community college, he believes, is serving the public good by helping students to reach their goals.

“I love what I do, and I love the security of my job,” he says. “My plan is to retire with a pension just large enough to spoil my grandkids.” He says that his hope and expectation will be for a pension of about $30,000 a year. “I want to enjoy the simple things,” he says. “There are no European vacations in my future.”

He adds that he is concerned to hear about the continuing efforts to limit his and other workers’ pensions.

“To attack the work I do and the security I treasure . . .” he says, then pauses. “It’s heart-wrenching. It’s demoralizing.”

<em style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Gary Cohn is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has worked for the Los Angeles Times<em style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">, Baltimore Sun<em style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"> and Wall Street Journal<em style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">. This story was reported by <a href="http://fryingpannews.org/" target="blank" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Frying Pan News</a> as part of its <a href="http://www.fryingpannews.org/california-expose" target="blank" style=" padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">California Exposé</a> investigative series, and published here in collaboration with Firedoglake.

===

<a href="http://ourfuture.org/20120813/discover-the-network-out-to-crush-our-public-workers">http://ourfuture.org/20120813/discover-the-network-out-to-crush-our-public-workers</a>

...

In One State

This is a brief look at one small part of a state “pension reform” campaign that is occurring in California.

Here is the smallest of examples of the daily barrage of the anti-public-employee campaign: two letters to editor on one day in <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_17295492?nclick_check=1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">a recent San Jose Mercury News</a>

Pension overhaul must be part of any tax deal

Labor groups such as Service Employees International Union and the California Labor Federation are threatening lawmakers who refuse to support a ballot initiative to raise or extend certain taxes with a negative ad campaign. They further warn that if new and higher taxes are not approved, K-12 education programs will face further cuts. I find it interesting how they move the focus of the debate from the real problem, public sector pension programs. These pension programs, not our present tax structure, are robbing our children of educational funds. All Californians, whether Democrat, Republican or independent, would be foolish to vote for any increase or new tax until public sector pensions are replaced with contributory 401(k) plans for new employees.

[A person's] claim that “California public retirees put back $2 into the economy for every $1 they receive in pensions” should come as welcome news to taxpayers fuming over the state’s hundreds of billions of dollars of unfunded pension liabilities (Letters, Feb. 3). Beyond showing immense gratitude for this bountiful effect on our economy, taxpayers need to go further, and mandate that all public retirees be given a minimum pension of, say, $1 million annually. All this extra money sloshing around our economy will solve our woes in short order, and will have the added benefit of eliminating the need for public employees to “pension spike” their final year of employment.

</blockquote>

A bigger example of the campaign, closer to its source, came in a January 18, 2011 LA times op-ed, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-fritz-pension-reform-20110118,0,7987400.story" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pension reform or else</a>, that talks of “retirement scandals” in which a fire chief gets a $200,000 pension, and tuition increases that will go to cover “pension debt.” It also scares readers about huge pension obligations, attempting to make people think that public employees enjoy lucrative pensions while the rest of us receive very little.

A tip-off that helps us understand the agenda underlying this op-ed comes when the author declares: “Although the public employee union bosses will fight to retain them, financially unsustainable pension benefits must end.” Whenever you hear someone refer to “union bosses” you know something is going on under the surface. From the op-ed,

Taxpayers are often shocked to learn that they are paying 100% of the cost of pension and retiree healthcare benefits for many public employees. When employees must contribute their own money toward their retirement, they generally opt for benefits they can afford, and if workers are given the opportunity to opt out of retiree healthcare benefits, many will continue to work until they are covered by Medicare. Delaying retirement just five years would, on average, cut pension costs in half.

</blockquote>

CFFR’s <a href="http://www.californiapensionreform.com/about/board/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Board of Directors</a>, includes Jack Dean, Vice President.

Jack Dean’s name is on this page as a link. If you click the link it takes you to the website of an organization named <a href="http://www.pensiontsunami.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pension Tsunami</a>, “a project of the California Public Policy Center.” From the website,

The oncoming wave of pension debt is even bigger than it seems. The purpose of this website is to provide an overview of the multiple pension crises that are about to drown America’s taxpayers. Our primary focus is on California, but we also track other states, corporate pensions, social security and international trends. PensionTsunami.com is a project of the California Public Policy Center.

</blockquote>

So just what is this <a href="http://californiapublicpolicycenter.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">California Public Policy Center</a>? From their website:

The mission of the California Public Policy Center is to promote the gathering of reliable and accurate information about the impact unions have on the local, state, and national level, to inform the public about such impact, and to carry on other charitable and educational activities associated with this goal, as allowed by law.

</blockquote>

UnionWatch was established in 2010 as a project of the California Public Policy Center to conduct research and provide information resources to voters, members of the press, educators and policymakers on the impact of unions on government budgets, government accountability, the economy and the democratic process. While UnionWatch endeavors to report and analyze national and international impacts of unions, the emphasis is on the impact of public sector unions, especially in California.

</blockquote>

The CPPC Board of Directors includes Mark W. Bucher, Esq., who also founded the Education Alliance,

a group dedicated to assisting school board candidates who are independent of education unions, as well as authoring, qualifying, and chairing the 1998 Proposition 226, which would have required unions to receive permission to use their members’ dues for political purposes.

Bucher also oversaw the qualification of the 2000 Proposition 38, a school choice initiative, and currently serves as the treasurer of the Orange County Republican Party and the Orange County Lincoln Club.

</blockquote>

Amends the California Constitution to make it illegal to deduct from wages or earnings of a public employee any amount that will be used for political activities as defined. Prohibits any membership organization that receives public employee wage deductions from using those funds for any political activities …

</blockquote>

Anti-union, vouchers, Republican Party and neo-confederates. And just three guys. Where does pension reform fit in this mix? Pension Tsunami and UnionWatch — <a href="http://www.californiapublicpolicycenter.org/projects/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">according to</a> the website this is all the California Public Policy Center does. Not a lot of “public policy” going on at this “public policy center.” Interesting.

Exploring further, one group of links at the Pension Tsunami website is a list of “think tanks” they want readers to visit:

PensionTsumani: THINK TANKS

<a href="http://www.bipps.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions</a>

<a href="http://www.calvertinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Calvert Institute</a>

<a href="http://www.cato.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Cato Institute</a>

<a href="http://claremont.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Claremont Institute</a>

<a href="http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Commonwealth Foundation (PA)</a>

<a href="http://www.empirecenter.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Empire Center for New York State Policy</a>

<a href="http://www.heartland.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Heartland Institute</a>

<a href="http://illinoispolicy.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Illinois Policy Institute</a>

<a href="http://www.independent.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Independent Institute</a>

<a href="http://www.mises.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Ludwig von Mises Institute</a>

<a href="http://www.manhattaninstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Manhattan Institute</a>

<a href="http://www.ncpa.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">National Center for Policy Analysis</a>

<a href="http://pacificresearch.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pacific Research Institute</a>

<a href="http://www.pensions-institute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pensions Institute [UK]</a>

<a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=32368" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pew Charitable Trusts</a>

<a href="http://www.reason.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Reason Foundation</a>

<a href="http://retirementreform.ncpa.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">RetirementReform.org</a>

<a href="http://www.riograndefoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Rio Grande Foundation</a>

<a href="http://rfs.rockinst.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Rockefeller Fiscal Studies</a>

<a href="http://sesfoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Sierra Environmental Studies Foundation</a>

<a href="http://www.thefreeenterprisenation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The Free Enterprise Nation</a>

<a href="http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Yankee Institute</a>

</blockquote>

It is worth exploring some of these related “Public Policy Institutes.” Let’s pull some threads and see what we find.

The <a href="http://www.bipps.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions</a>, in Kentucky, describes itself as a “free-market think tank.”

The Bluegrass Institute runs <a href="http://www.freedomkentucky.org/index.php?title=Main_Page" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Freedom Kentucky</a> which has a section on <a href="http://www.freedomkentucky.org/index.php?title=Kentucky_Retirement_Systems" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public Pensions</a> where you can find into “related to pension reform, Pension Reform Legislation, the teachers retirement system, and much more…”

The <a href="http://www.calvertinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Calvert Institute</a> (for Public Policy) is in Maryland, <a href="http://www.calvertinstitute.org/main/whycalvert.php" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">describing itself</a> as a, “public policy research institution committed to generating new ideas based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government and personal responsibility.”

Just a few things from their website:

<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px 3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2.75rem; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-type: disc;">G. Liebmann, “Pensions Dig Us Deeper into Debt”, Baltimore Examiner, 2008-09-28</li>

<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px 3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2.75rem; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-type: disc;">Editorial, Pair of Think Tanks Issue Warning on Pensions, Baltimore Sun, 2008-10-30</li>

<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px 3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2.75rem; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-type: disc;">J. Malarkey, Market Worsens Public Pension Crunch, Baltimore Examiner, 2008-10-31</li>

<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px 3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 2.75rem; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-type: disc;">Hit and Run Politics: Baltimore City and Maryland State Pensions: A Short History, George W. Liebmann 2010-09-30</li>

</ul>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 33.2357px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The <a href="http://www.cato.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Cato Institute</a>, “dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace,” warns regularly about <a href="http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/the-increasing-burden-of-government-employees-on-taxpayers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The Increasing Burden of Government Employees on Taxpayers</a> and <a href="http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj30n1/cj30n1-5.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public Sector Unions and the Rising Costs of Employee Compensation</a>.

The <a href="http://claremont.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Claremont Institute</a> says public employees are <a href="http://claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1776/article_detail.asp" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Neither Civil Nor Servants</a>,

</blockquote>

The Commonwealth Foundation discusses <a href="http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/research/detail/union-pension-bailout-generational-theft" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Union Pension Bailout & Generational Theft</a> and warns that “Pennsylvania’s largest public pension plans … are severely underfunded.”

Commonwealth Foundation Directors:

Board Chair Michael W. Gleba.

Treasurer of The <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Scaife_Foundations" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Carthage Foundation</a> (Scaife)

Executive Vice President of The Sarah Scaife Foundation

Board Member, <a href="http://www.alleghenyinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Allegheny Institute</a> for Public Policy

Mr. Matthew J. Brouillette (President & CEO):

On an advisory committee for the New York City-based <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Family_Foundations" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Atlantic Legal Foundation</a>.

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=T._William_Boxx" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">T. William Boxx</a> is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the <a href="http://old.mediatransparency.org/funderrecipientpersonconnections.php?funderID=12" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Phillip M. McKenna Foundation</a>.

Frederick W. Anton III, Pma Capital Corp

Glen Meakem | Conservative Talk Show Host

Staff:

Charles F. Mitchell is Vice President and COO of the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives. … Previously, he was a program officer at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and an intern at the Heritage Foundation. Charles is a graduate of theCharles G. Koch Charitable Foundation’s Associate Program, the Mackinac Center’s Leadership Conference, and the Claremont Institute’s Publius Fellows Program.

The <a href="http://www.empirecenter.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Empire Center for New York State Policy</a> is a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. The Empire Center warns that “<a href="http://www.empirecenter.org/Special-Reports/2010/12/pensionexplosion120710.cfm" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">New York’s Exploding Pension Costs</a>” are “threatening to divert scarce resources from other essential public services in the midst of a fiscal crisis.”

Empire’s parent, the <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Manhattan Institute for Policy Research</a> is “shaping American political culture and developing ideas that foster economic choice and individual responsibility.” If you visit Manhattan Institute you will learn <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=6868" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">How Public Unions Took Taxpayers Hostage</a>, that <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=5968" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public Workers Feel No Pain In Recession</a>, <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=6126" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">N.Y. Public Workers Thrived Amid Misery</a>, <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=6511" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Obama Puts Public Sector Employees Ahead of Private Sector</a>, <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=6568" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">A Cautionary Tale About California’s Budget-Busting Public-Sector Unions</a> and much, much more!

Chairman of the Board Paul E. Singer, founder and CEO of hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation.

Vice Chairman Michael J. Fedak. On National Council of <a href="http://www.aei.org/home" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The American Enterprise Institute</a>(which asks <a href="http://www.aei.org/audio/100673" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public-Pension Deficits: How Big? Can They Ever Be Paid?</a>)

Roger Hertog, chairman of the board of Alliance Captial Management Corporation (valued at about $100 billion)

Charles H. Brunie, also a Trustee of the <a href="http://www.hudson.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Hudson Institute</a>, an “organization dedicated to innovative research and analysis that promotes global security, prosperity, and freedom.” (Note: The Hudson Institute warns about <a href="https://www.hudson.org/bookstore/itemdetail.cfm?item=3101" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Union Pensions at Risk</a> as well as <a href="http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=6899" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Decrying the Union Pension Bailout Bill</a>.)

Charles H. Brunie started Oppenheimer Capital in 1969

The rest of the board is largely hedge fund, capital management, securities, etc…

The <a href="http://www.heartland.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Heartland Institute</a>, “free-market solutions to social and economic problems,” offers a handy guide to <a href="http://www.heartland.org/article/27578/No_126_The_State_Public_Pension_Crisis_A_50State_Report_Card.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The State Public Pension Crisis: A 50-State Report Card</a>.

The <a href="http://illinoispolicy.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Illinois Policy Institute</a> is “dedicated to supporting free market principles and liberty-based public policy initiatives for a better Illinois.“ The IPI <a href="http://illinoispolicy.org/news/article.asp?ArticleSource=2678" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">warns us that</a> “Illinois faces a staggering $83 billion in unfunded public pension liabilities” and their blog wants to know “<a href="http://www.illinoispolicy.org/blog/blog.asp?ArticleSource=3036" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Will You Bail Out Pensions?</a>“

Board:

Bill Becker co-founded The Maine Heritage Policy Center, an “organization whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise; limited, constitutional government; individual freedom; and traditional American values–all for the purpose of providing public policy solutions that benefit the people of Maine.” (Note: the<a href="http://www.mainepolicy.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Maine Heritage Policy Center</a> warns us about “<a href="http://www.mainepolicy.org/2011/02/the-cost-of-doing-nothing/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The Cost of Doing Nothing: Maine’s Pension Payments are Crowding Out Other Spending</a>.”

Steve Brown of Code Hennessy & Simmons (“CHS”), a Chicago-based private equity firm.

Terry T. Campo served as National Chairman of the Young Republicans from 1989 to 1991.

John Tillman, CEO serves on the boards of the Sam Adams Alliance and Sam Adams Foundation. Prior to his time with Sam Adams, he served as president and director of Americans for Limited Government. (ALG Urges Congress to Reject $100 Billion Handout to Public Employee Unions.)

Dick Weiss is a Core Equity senior portfolio manager at Wells Capital Management.

The <a href="http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Yankee Institute</a> is a “free market think tank” in Connecticut with a financial-services-industry-heavy board that warns that the <a href="http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/2010/06/100k-pension-club-includes-299-state-retirees/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">$100K Pensions Club Includes 299 State Retirees</a>. (FYI it is largely university chancellors, deans, professors, med school instructors.)

“Government workers receive compensation and benefit packages that are much more generous than those available to private sector workers,” said Fergus Cullen, Executive Director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy.

The <a href="http://pacificresearch.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pacific Research Institute</a> has a mission to “champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility for all individuals by advancing free-market policy solutions.”

The Director of PRI’s Journalism Center wrote a book called, “Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.”

The <a href="http://www.reason.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Reason Foundation</a> writes about <a href="http://reason.org/news/show/public-employees-vs-the-public-will" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public Employees vs. the Public Will</a> and warns <a href="http://reason.org/blog/show/public-employee-unions-are-sin" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public Employee Unions Are Sinking California</a>.

<a href="http://retirementreform.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">RetirementReform.org</a> Clicks through to <a href="http://www.ncpa.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">National Center for Pollicy Analysis</a> page on Common Sense Retirement Policy which advocates “reform” for Social Security. But never fear, NCPA elsewhere warns about “<a href="http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st329" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Unfunded Liabilities of State and Local Government Employee Retirement Benefit Plans</a>” and says <a href="http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=19406" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PENSIONS ARE A TICKING TIME BOMB</a>

<a href="http://www.ncpa.org/about/ncpa_board_of_directors" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">NCPA’s Board</a> includes a number of people from the financial industry, private equity, holding companies, etc.

The <a href="http://www.riograndefoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Rio Grande Foundation</a> “is a research institute dedicated to increasing liberty and prosperity for all of New Mexico’s citizens. We do this by informing New Mexicans of the importance of individual freedom, limited government, and economic opportunity.” They warn,<a href="http://www.riograndefoundation.org/content/new-mexicos-government-pension-problem-3rd-worst-nation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">New Mexico’s Government Pension Problem: 3rd Worst in the Nation</a>.

This is all from pulling the threads just a little bit that come from just one op-ed on pension reform. I didn’t go into the funding of these organizations or look at what else they are doing, other associations, etc. These are just a few of the network of conservative “institutes,” etc. around the country. Just a very few. (<a href="http://www.policyexperts.org/organizations/organizations_results.cfm?Organization=&Head=&rdoSearchType=COUNTRY&AllPriorityIssues=&Country=154&State=ALL&Org=StateResOrg&Tax=ALL&Search=Verify%3E&Submit=Submit" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Here is a list of 185 organizations purporting to be conservative state think tanks</a>, a list of <a href="http://www.policyexperts.org/organizations/organizations_results.cfm?Organization=&Head=&rdoSearchType=COUNTRY&AllPriorityIssues=&Country=154&State=ALL&Org=NatOrgStateNet&Tax=ALL&Search=Verify%3E&Submit=Submit" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">40 conservative national organizations with state network</a>s and a list of <a href="http://www.policyexperts.org/organizations/organizations_results.cfm?Organization=&Head=&rdoSearchType=COUNTRY&AllPriorityIssues=&Country=154&State=ALL&Org=NatResOrg&Tax=ALL&Search=Verify%3E&Submit=Submit" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">306 organizations purporting to be conservative national think tanks</a> and<a href="http://www.policyexperts.org/organizations/organizations_results.cfm?Organization=&Head=&rdoSearchType=COUNTRY&AllPriorityIssues=&Country=154&State=ALL&Org=FamilyOrg&Tax=ALL&Search=Verify%3E&Submit=Submit" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">65 conservative “family policy” organizations</a>. There are other lists with other criteria.)

As you follow these threads you discover layer upon layer of corporate/conservative front groups, masking their activities and funders with more layers of front groups. They all have similar mission statements, have similar people on their Boards with similar backgrounds, cover the same issues the same way, and even use remarkably similar language. They seem to be not just connected but <a href="http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/archive/appendix-2-an-example-of-interconnectedness" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">interconnected</a>. The <a href="http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/archive/tort-reform-organizations-and-the-far-right#t1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">sheer number of these similar “think tanks”</a> make it appear that there must be a machine somewhere that stamps these things from a template. <a href="http://mediamattersaction.org/transparency/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">That machine is named “Scaife/Coors/Koch</a>…” (<a href="http://www.truth-out.org/joshua-holland-how-right-wing-billionaires-and-business-propaganda-got-us-economic-mess-century63462" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Please read also</a> and <a href="http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/archive/information-about-the-right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">spend some time here</a>.)

These corporate/conservative organizations are very good at manipulating the media and public opinion — it is their purpose. Their “experts” are well paid and always available to talk to reporters, appear on TV and radio shows and write articles and opinion pieces for newspapers, blogs and for their network of similar organizations. Their “reports’ and “studies” reach the conclusions that fit the strategy, and are crafted to sound just right. And there are so many of them! The result is development of “conventional wisdom” about what is going on in our society. This is why that conventional wisdom more and more reflects the corporate/conservative line. And right now the corporate conservative line is that we should think that public employees and their unions are responsible for state and local budget shortfalls.

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