|
By Jon Coupal
Recently, this column exposed the foolishness of two proposed statewide bond measures: A $15 billion school bond, which will be on the March 3 ballot, as well as a “climate resiliency” bond.
Both are horribly flawed for several reasons, not the least of which that it makes no sense for California to go further into debt when we have a large surplus.
But at the local level, taxpayers need to be aware of a recent resurgence in the use of pension obligation bonds, a risky financing method that fell out of favor during the recession but is now making a comeback.
Fortunately, there is more scrutiny on this form of debt financing than in years past, which may help to dissuade our elected leaders from making ill-advised decisions.
There is a technical definition of POBs set forth below but we prefer a definition that most people can understand: A POB is basically paying your Visa bill with your MasterCard.
Here’s the technical definition: Pension obligation bonds (POBs) are bonds issued to fund, in whole or in part, the unfunded portion of public pension liabilities by the creation of new debt.
The use of POBs relies on an assumption that the bond proceeds, when invested with pension assets in higher-yielding assets, will be able to achieve a rate of return that is greater than the interest rate owed over the term of the bonds.
Back in 2003, the state of California attempted to float a statewide pension obligation bond without voter approval.
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association sued to invalidate the bonds and prevailed in court.
For HJTA, the assumption of any long-term financial obligation by a government entity should be approved by those financially obligated for the repayment. That means the taxpayers.
More recently, others have questioned the return of POBs as a strategy to deal with unfunded pension obligations. State Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, and Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich, in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, sharply criticized a plan by the city of Huntington Beach to use POBs to paper over that city’s growing obligations to CalPERS.
To continue reading, please click here.
A note to our valued members and supporters: To increase the reach of our message to as many Californians as possible, HJTA made an agreement with the Southern California News Group papers to carry Jon Coupal's weekly column. The newspapers in the group, including the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Daily News, have added a paywall that allows only a limited number of page views per month, and then asks readers to become subscribers. HJTA is not marketing these subscriptions or receiving any payment from them. The columns are exclusive to SCNG's papers for one week and then are posted in full on HJTA's own website, www.hjta.org, under "California Commentaries," where you can read them at your convenience. Thank you for your understanding.
For your convenience, here are links to the opinion pages of all the SCNG papers:
www.whittierdailynews.com/opinion
www.dailybulletin.com/opinion
www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/opinion
www.sgvtribune.com/opinion
www.ocregister.com/opinion
www.pe.com/opinion
www.dailynews.com/opinion
www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinion
www.sbsun.com/opinion
www.dailybreeze.com/opinion
www.presstelegram.com/opinion
|
