BACK TO SCHOOL w/ Teachers who aren't looking out for the children, just themselves

Yes, we all know there are good teachers who are there for the kids.....At the same time, we have a multitude of teachers and teacher's union hacks who are only interested in how many tax $$$$$ they can extort out of the people's pockets.

The average cost per pupil per year in public schools has reached $11,800. This increase in cost has not produced BETTER schools, only more expensive ones that are failing our children. The Boston Herald editorial staff pegs it - The Teacher's Unions are in DENIAL.

Teacher union in denial

By Boston Herald Editorial Staff Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Boston Teachers Union is continuing its crusade to protect lousy teachers, now threatening a legal challenge to the city’s plan to implement a new performance evaluation system in September.

Now in the real world, of course, workers don’t get to dictate which criteria will be used to evaluate their job performance.

But the BTU and the School Department have to bargain over a new system for rewarding good teachers and getting rid of bad ones. Still, despite a legal requirement by the state to put a new system in place this school year — and despite the loss of $9 million in federal funds meant to reward the best teachers — there is still no deal.

The union claims the city hasn’t bargained in good faith, which is preposterous, given the union’s own refusal to separate the evaluation issue from other unresolved contract issues to try and save that $9 million.

So in the absence of a deal, the city has decided it will move full steam ahead with a new evaluation program. Now the BTU is threatening to prolong the seemingly endless labor dispute.

We’re not sure BTU president Richard Stutman was watching, but there was a lesson for the entire educational establishment on display at the GOP convention in Tampa this week, when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spelled out the need for reform.

“Teachers don’t teach to become rich or famous. They teach because they love children,” he said. “We believe that we should honor and reward the good ones while doing what’s best for our nation’s future — demanding accountability, higher standards and the best teacher in every classroom.”

“We believe in teachers,” he added, slamming politicians who instead “believe in teachers’ unions.”

Amen to that.

" The Unions say you're not paying enough taxes.."

The Unions say you're not paying enough taxes as they want more revenue for their union members. What world are these morons living in that they feel that they can solve our problems by grabbing more money from the taxpayers?

Cut spending and you'll see there is plenty of $$$ already. It is wasteful spending and allowing state & local employees to have huge wage increases that is a huge part of the problems faced by our state & local governments.

Look carefully when it comes time to vote and if a candidate is inline with these fools, vote them out. An injection of reality is needed and that had to start with putting the brakes on wasteful spending by those who benefit from raising taxes.



Unions push for state income tax hike
Labor and advocacy groups press for increasing state income tax to raise $1.37 billion.
By David Riley
wickedlocal.com
Posted Apr 09, 2012


BOSTON — Here’s a question for taxpayers as the deadline to file income taxes approaches quickly: Do you think Uncle Sam and Beacon Hill took too much, too little or just the right-sized bite out of your paychecks this year?

A coalition of labor unions and advocacy groups believes Massachusetts falls in the “too little” camp, at least for upper-income brackets.

The Campaign for Our Communities calls for raising the state income tax rate from 5.25 percent to 5.95 percent. The proposal also would tax investment income at 8.95 percent, up from 5.3 percent for most investments, but down from 12 percent for short-term capital gains.

Supporters said legislation they back also would hike exemptions to protect low- and middle-income taxpayers, while shielding seniors and the disabled from the higher investment rate.

Cuts to crucial services and annual struggles to balance state and local finances spurred the campaign, predating the recent recession, backers said. They pointed to cuts to mental health and senior programs, the MBTA’s looming budget gap and the proposed closing of Taunton State Hospital, among other things.

“We just do not have a revenue system that is bringing in enough revenue,” said Andi Mullin, director of Campaign for Our Communities. “That is true when the economy is good, and it’s particularly true when the economy is bad.”

Supporters said the changes would raise an additional $1.37 billion in tax revenue.

Cuts also have stretched town, city and school budgets thin, supporters said. Government cannot maintain quality public services while addressing budget gaps through cuts alone, they argued.

“It’s all about getting more money into our communities to fund what we view as essential public services,” said Jim Durkin, spokesman for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 93, a union that has endorsed the campaign.

But House Minority Leader Bradley Jones, R-North Reading, said taxes are too high already.

Jones sponsored legislation this year to cut the state’s income tax rate to 5 percent by 2013. He said the measure would fulfill a successful 2000 ballot question calling for the state to cut the income tax from 5.95 percent to 5 percent over three years.

The Legislature in 2002 froze the rate at 5.3 percent and set targets for revenue growth under which the rate could drop further. The rate dipped to 5.25 percent this year.

Jones has sponsored similar bills in the past.

“I’ve sponsored it simply because I think we have an obligation to fulfill what the voters said they wanted to do,” he said


Neither effort is likely to advance this year. The Joint Committee on Revenue sent Jones’ bill to study, a move that usually dooms legislation for the rest of the session.

The Campaign for Our Communities counts local teachers unions among its supporters, including those in Arlington, Bedford, Boston, Cambridge, Dedham, Fall River and Weymouth.

Paul Toner, president of the Mass. Teachers Association, said budget crunches have led to rising class sizes in some districts and cuts to arts, technology and student support programs. More schools have imposed fees to fund busing and other programs, “increasingly putting the burden on families,” Toner said.

The Massachusetts Senior Action Council, which also backs the campaign, views raising the income tax rates as a way to ensure funding for senior services without competing against other legitimate interests, Executive Director Carolyn Villers said.

“Rather than a bigger piece of the pie,” she said, “we need a bigger pie.”

Jones said he fundamentally disagrees. Hiking the income tax would be a “total, 180-degree about-face” from legislative leaders’ calls to avoid raising taxes, he said.

Madness

It's madness....especially since the Village Idiot in the Oval Office would rather focus on his College Basketball Brackets than how to help Americans with the price of energy...No doubt about it - Obama Must Go.

As the flood approaches....

Those in the "lifeboat" care very little about those who are not...All is well for them, so why should they concern themselves with the troubles of others?

Like in Massachusetts where the number of state employees earning over $100,000 a year has jumped 40% since Governor Deval " Cadillac " Patrick has taken office, with approximately 7000 state employees reaching this level of annual compensation.

NJ Lawmakers adjust to reality - a word that the Public Unions have no idea about.....

re·al·i·ty / rēˈalətē / Noun 1. The world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them: "he refuses to face reality".

REALITY is something the Public Unions in this country refuse to recognize. Three cheers for Gov. Chris Christie and the NJ Lawmakers for recognizing reality.... They passed a sweeping rollback of benefits for 750,000 government workers and retirees.

" ...the state’s pension funds are among the most underfunded in the nation — estimated last year at $54 billion short of the amount needed to meet future obligations. Mr. Christie and others have warned that mounting pension and health care costs could eventually bankrupt the state and local governments."

That is REALITY...The Unions want to hold on to " Well I was promised this by some guy back when I started 30 years ago..." So were many others who worked just as hard and as diligently for the private companies...The difference is the private workers didn't have a rigged system to back them up like the public unions do.

Sorry Public Union workers, the game is O-V-E-R. You will still collect much more than 99% of the other citizens in benefits but that alone is not enough....they aren't happy to have a piece of the pie, they aren't going to be happy until they have the whole damn thing.

Looks like NJ has put a whole bunch of them on a diet.....about time.


New Jersey Lawmakers Approve Benefits Rollback for Work Force
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: June 23, 2011 - NY TIMES

TRENTON — New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday approved a broad rollback of benefits for 750,000 government workers and retirees, the deepest cut in state and local costs in memory, in a major victory for Gov. Chris Christie and a once-unthinkable setback for the state’s powerful public employee unions.

The Assembly passed the bill 46 to 32, as Republicans and a few Democrats defied raucous protests by thousands of people whose chants, vowing electoral revenge, shook the State House. Leaders in the State Senate said their chamber, which had already passed a slightly different version of the bill, would approve the Assembly version on Monday, and Mr. Christie, a Republican, was expected to quickly sign the measure into law.

The legislation will sharply increase what state and local workers must contribute for their health insurance and pensions, suspend cost-of-living increases to retirees’ pension checks, raise retirement ages and curb the unions’ contract bargaining rights. It will save local and state governments $132 billion over the next 30 years, by the administration’s estimate, and give the troubled benefit systems a sounder financial footing, mostly by shifting costs onto workers.

While states around the country have moved to pare labor costs and limit the power of unions, the move is all the more striking here, in a Democratic-leaning state where Democrats control both houses of the Legislature and union membership is among the highest in the country. Most Democratic legislators opposed the benefits reductions, but their leaders voted in favor of the changes, exposing deep, longstanding rifts in the party that lawmakers say could weaken it in coming elections.

The fight over benefits reflected both Mr. Christie’s ability to exploit the divisions among Democrats, through his alliances with more conservative Democratic party bosses and legislators, and his success at using the public-sector unions as a foil in his drive to shrink government spending. It has also allowed a nationally known but highly polarizing governor to claim the mantle of bipartisan conciliation, telling audiences that New Jersey is setting an example that other states and the federal government should follow.

“These accomplishments have been the result of compromise with the other party, and have been done with Democratic votes and Republican votes,” he said at a town-hall-style meeting on Wednesday in Fair Lawn.

On Thursday, thousands of people wearing union T-shirts and buttons filled the Assembly visitors’ gallery, the State House corridors and, in a high-decibel protest, the sidewalks, lawns and streets around the building. A procession down State Street included a hearse draped with a banner saying “The Soul of the Democratic Party,” and organizers with bullhorns led the crowd in chants of “We’ll remember in November!” and “Kill the bill!”

Unions have been broadcasting advertisements attacking Democrats who support the bill — particularly Stephen M. Sweeney, the Senate president — and this week union leaders have spoken of the difference between “real Democrats and Christie Democrats,” pointedly including in the latter group Mr. Sweeney, who also is an official of the ironworkers’ union.

“This bill is not about savings; it is about breaking the backs of the hard-working men and women of this state,” Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., a Democrat from Middlesex County, said Thursday evening after the session began. “I challenge everyone in this chamber today: how many have even read the full 124 pages of union-busting activities?”

The legislation applies to all state employees and to a much larger number of county, town and school district workers, because most local governments participate in the state-run pension and health care systems. When it is fully phased in, after four years, the average government worker will pay several thousand dollars more into the benefit funds.

But union leaders say the bigger issue is what they call a stealth assault on collective bargaining. With just a week remaining in the contracts for the major state employee unions, the unions are now trying to negotiate new agreements with the state.

Most public employees in the state, other than teachers, police officers and firefighters, have had no guarantee of collective bargaining on any issue except for health benefits.

The legislation will supersede that right, allowing the state to impose health care terms unilaterally. For many workers, this means that if contract talks reach an impasse, the government will be able, at least in theory, to dictate all terms, like wages, time off and work rules.

“This bill cuts away the one issue, health care, that the unions could use to trade off against other things,” said Jeffrey H. Keefe, associate professor at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University.

Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the Communications Workers of America, said, “This bill is nothing less than Chris Christie’s frontal assault on organized labor.”

Union leaders said they were exploring the possibility that some provisions of the bill, like the suspension of cost-of-living increases for retirees, could be challenged in court.

Assemblyman Angel Fuentes, a Democrat from Camden, said, “These reforms are unquestionably bitter pills for us to swallow, but they are reasonable and they are necessary.” He added: “We now have towns across this state that are struggling to afford health benefits for their employees. This has resulted in cities laying off workers.”

In his campaign to rein in the unions and shrink government, Mr. Christie has often been helped by New Jersey’s unique political culture, where local political machines still dominate some areas, and many state legislators also hold local government jobs. That gives striking influence in Trenton to mayors, county executives and local party bosses who struggle with rising labor costs and have repeatedly sided with the governor’s push to cut benefits and wages.

Until recently, the public employee unions were among the most feared forces in state politics. They were a major source of votes, campaign cash and foot soldiers for Democrats, but officials in both parties were eager to please them. For years, governors and legislators from both parties sweetened their pension benefits but did not put any money into the system to pay for them.

As a result, the state’s pension funds are among the most underfunded in the nation — estimated last year at $54 billion short of the amount needed to meet future obligations. Mr. Christie and others have warned that mounting pension and health care costs could eventually bankrupt the state and local governments.

The pendulum has swung back over the last four years, first under Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, and then under Mr. Christie, as the state took steps like increasing what workers paid for benefits, raising retirement ages and limiting contract arbitration awards. But the bill now awaiting the Senate’s approval and Mr. Christie’s signature is easily the most far-reaching one yet

Talk about a Trainwreck - Massachusetts Commuter Rail hands out big $$$ to Unions and sticks it to the riders....what a way to run a railroad!!

Two News stories.....another case of unbelievable stupidity and incompetence costing the middle class extra while rewarding those who can't get the job done.......you be the judge.

1st has been the all winter long saga of the local commuter rail service in Massachusetts - Bad service, late trains, broken down trains and poor performance all around.

Mass. GOP senators call for commuter rail hearings
By Associated Press
Monday, March 7, 2011 - Added 2 weeks ago

BOSTON - The four Republican members of the Massachusetts Senate are calling for legislative oversight hearings on the spate of recent service interruptions and mechanical failures at the MBTA.

GOP Senate Leader Bruce Tarr said the group is asking the chairs of the Joint Committee on Transportation and the chairman of the Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee to hold one or more hearings to figure out the causes of the problems and to come up with some solutions.

The MBTA’s commuter rail trains have been plagued with delays during the winter, including a four-hour ordeal for passengers trying to get from Boston to Worcester last week

The service has been dismal, the trains are old, the cost is high ($250 a month for a monthly pass and $4 a day to park at the T station)

Sooooo....what gets printed on page B11 of the Saturday paper next to the Obituaries in the Boston Globe????

THIS does -

Commuter rail pact includes wage increase
Talks continue with other unions
By L. Finch
Globe Correspondent / March 19, 2011

Unions representing Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. conductors and locomotive engineers agreed to a new contract Thursday, ending more than two years of negotiations. Labor talks continue, however, between the remaining commuter rail unions and the company, officials said.

The new four-year contracts with the Brotherhood of the Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the United Transportation Union afford a total 13.7 percent wage increase to members including retroactive pay to July 2009, include a $1,000 signing bonus, and cap employee health coverage contributions at $100 per month, according to statements released by the unions yesterday. This marks the first time MBCR employees will contribute to their health insurance costs; the company previously covered 100 percent of health insurance premiums.

The agreement, which runs through July 2013, also raises the layover pay for employees forced to wait for more than an hour between train routes, from half-time to five-eighths time.


ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? No wonder they have needed to charge us higher costs !! They have been footing the full bill for the healthcare all along (at the same time the public pays the full cost for our healthcare) and now that the union members will be asked to pay, they cap it at $100 a month !!! That is $25 a WEEK...who do you know has family healthcare for $25 a week....and they will get 13.7% pay increase and a $1000 signing bonus.....what a racket.

The public gets screwed, the trains are still old, not maintained, broken down and the Union idiots walk away with all of the $$$ and benefits they can haul.....the riders get screwed and the Unions walk away with the benefit. And of course, the Boston Globe buries the story on the back of the paper next to the Obits.

INCOMPETENCE of the highest order by the public sector and those who put these feckless idiots in charge of running the commuter rail which so many have to depend upon. The middle class who need this service to get to work takes another hit and the Politicians turn a blind eye to the gouging of the public....pissa.