Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Thursday March 17 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

State Lawmakers Aim to Reduce Ranks - (online.wsj.com) Proposals to Trim Number of Senators and Representatives Once Faced Long Odds, but Gain Traction Amid Fiscal Austerity. Chris Steineger, a state senator in Kansas, has a plan to cut back government. It starts with his job. Looking to slash expenses in a time of fiscal straits, Mr. Steineger last month introduced a bill that would reduce the state's legislature to 30 senators from 40 and to 90 representatives from 125. "Every legislator thinks he or she is so important that we could not possibly get by with fewer of us," said Mr. Steineger, a Republican. "You just simply don't need this many people to make the decisions we make." Mr. Steineger isn't alone. With states facing big budget deficits and governors proposing deep cuts to education and state medical care, legislators around the country are suggesting they share the pain by reducing their ranks. In Pennsylvania, state Sen. Elder Vogel, a Republican, introduced a bill that would reduce the state Senate to 30 seats from 50; the state House would fall to 121 representatives from 203. Maine's legislature also would shrink if the state adopts a law introduced by Portland Democratic Rep. Jon Hinck. Minnesota lawmakers have introduced a proposal to shrink their legislature. Lawmakers offer several arguments for smaller government. In many states, the number of legislators was set in an era before email or even the interstate highway system, which have both made it much easier to see constituents and learn their opinions on state issues.


Almost half of city work force gets pink slips - (www.dailypilot.com) About 203 city employees will be receiving the six-month notice in the City Council effort to correct the budget. City officials have crunched the numbers and determined that more than 200 Costa Mesa employees — or 43% of Costa Mesa's municipal workforce — could be laid off through outsourcing. Of the 472 full-time positions, 203 city employees, give or take one or two, will get pink slips notifying them that they could be laid off in six months, said Administrative Services Director Steve Mandoki. Tuesday's move is part of a dramatic restructuring of a city that faces potentially skyrocketing pension costs in the coming years. Costa Mesa's own projections show that in the next few years, it will be expected to pay more into the state's public pension fund, CalPERS. It's a situation being replayed up and down the state: When the CalPERS pension fund was flush in the early 2000s, Costa Mesa did not have to pay much to the state to cover its employees' retirement costs. Now that CalPERS investments are hurting, cities have to cover the difference. That pattern looks to continue for at least the next five years, city officials project.

Post office faces cash shortage by end of year - (www.ap.com) The Republican-controlled House opened the envelope of postal finances on Wednesday and what it pulled out wasn't pretty. Unless things change, the post office will run out of money by the end of the fiscal year in October, Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe told the House Oversight subcommittee on the postal service. Donahoe said that as of Sept. 30 his agency will owe the federal government a payment of $5.5 billion to fund medical costs, in advance, for future retirees, and in November it will need to make a $1.3 billion payment for worker's compensation. "The Postal Service will not have the cash available to make both of these payments. We need legislation this year to address that fact," he said. If it does come down to crunch time, said Donahoe: "We will deliver the mail." Employees will be paid, as will suppliers, he said. "The thing we will not do is pay the federal government." Without some important changes to the law the post office "cannot survive as a self-financing entity," Donahoe said. While the post office has been battered by the recession and the movement of mail to the Internet, it has also cut costs sharply by reducing its workforce by 240,000 people in recent years. Last year it cut costs by $3 billion and expects to reduce spending by another $2 billion this year, Donahoe said.

Fed Policy Makers Signal Abrupt End to Bond Purchases in June - (www.bloomberg.com) Federal Reserve policy makers are signaling they favor an abrupt end to $600 billion in Treasury purchases in June, jettisoning their prior strategy of gradually pulling back on intervention in bond markets. “I don’t see a lot of gain to reverting to a tapering approach,” Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart told reporters yesterday. “I don’t think that is necessary,” Philadelphia Fed PresidentCharles Plosser said last month. Central bankers, who next meet March 15, are about half way through their second round of bond purchases. To bring the program to a full stop in June, they must be confident that the economy is strong enough to endure higher long-term interest rates and rising expectations of an exit from the most expansive monetary policy in Fed history, said Dan Greenhaus at Miller Tabak & Co. LLC in New York.

Costa Mesa to lay off nearly half of city workforce, outsource services - (www.latimes.com) The city of Costa Mesa plans to lay off more than 200 employees and outsource 18 city services by the fall. The layoffs would cut the city's municipal workforce by 43%. The City Council approved the layoffs in a 4-1 vote late Tuesday night, despite nearly unanimous opposition from the audience. City officials said pink slips will go out in the next six months. The mayor blamed years of missteps by city staff and rising pension costs.

OTHER STORIES:

Calls Mount to Tap U.S. Oil Reserves - (www.nytimes.com)

Weber tells central bankers meeting: worse imbalances loom - (www.reuters.com)

Fed's balance sheet hits record in latest week - (www.reuters.com)

U.S. Service Industries Grow at Fastest Pace in Five Years - (www.bloomberg.com)

Productivity in U.S. Rises More-Than-Estimated 2.6% as Costs Decline 0.6% - (www.bloomberg.com)

U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Fall to 368,000, Lowest Since 2008 - (www.bloomberg.com)

Fed Finds Climbing Costs Hit Shoppers - (online.wsj.com)

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