Delta takes action--Congress no longer special travelers

Delta Airlines suspending special benefit to Congress

Delta appears to be pressuring Congress members to act by suspending a special benefit typically granted to them.

The airline announced that it has halted its dedicated flight assistance service for Capitol Hill legislators, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported.

"Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta," a statement from the company reads, according to the AJC.

"Next to safety, Delta's No. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which has become increasingly difficult in the current environment."

Members of Congress will be treated like all Delta travelers, according to their SkyMiles status, a spokesperson told the news outlet.

Read more...

Illegal Aliens and Federal Benefits

Scott Bessent Looks to Cut Off Tax Benefits for Illegal Migrants

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday announced his department will look to cut off federal benefits to illegal aliens.

In a message posted to X, Bessent said the Treasury would execute President Donald Trump’s order, which was posted across social media on Thanksgiving and took aim at a range of issues, including the “refugee burden” on America, which Trump blamed for “social dysfunction…something that did not exist after World War II.”

Trump has reacted strongly to the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members and the subsequent death of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, blaming illegal immigration and the wider immigrant population for troubles in the United States– something he has done throughout both his administrations and one of the reasons for enacting the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

Trump in his Thanksgiving message heavily criticized immigration policy in the U.S. and the benefits those immigrants receive.

Particularly, Trump described how “a migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family.”

Read more at Newsweek

Broader Illegal immigraton Crackdown

Trump Admin Tightens Benefit Rules

Bans Illegal Immigrants From Federal Programs

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a sweeping policy change Thursday that bars illegal immigrants from accessing several federal programs, including Head Start, community health centers, mental health and substance use treatment services, and the Title X family planning program.

Kennedy’s decision stemmed from a February executive order by President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to tighten restrictions on illegal immigrants’ access to taxpayer-funded services. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) argues that previous administrations, particularly the Clinton administration, unlawfully permitted exceptions to the 1996 welfare reform law.

While illegal immigrants were already barred from most federal benefits, this policy expands the list of programs classified as federal benefits, now totaling 44 programs, up from 31. The policy is effective immediately, with a 30-day period for public comment.

Kennedy said he was rescinding a decades-old interpretation of a 1996 law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act that had “improperly extended certain federal public benefits to illegal aliens.”

The move is the latest in a series of steps that furthers Trump’s goal of cracking down on illegal immigration, a key promise of his campaign. Democrats are already screaming.

Read more about it...

Cutting Medicaid Fraud

Dr. Oz: DOGE Found $14 Billion in Medicaid Fraud

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said that his agency and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have identified at least $14 billion in fraud, waste, and abuse.

“There’s about $14 billion we’ve identified with DOGE, of folks who are duly enrolled wrongly in multiple states for Medicaid,” Oz told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

As an example, Oz said, “You live in New Jersey, but you move to Pennsylvania, and which state gets your Medicaid? Turns out both states collect money from the federal government.”

He said that some people who are eligible to get a job or seek education are receiving Medicaid, echoing statements made by GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). who in recent days said that able-bodied individuals and illegal aliens have received Medicaid benefits.

Read more...

Lying Democrats love to say that Trump is cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. That is their constant fear tactic. Nope. They are finding and getting rid of the fraud so that these services can provide benefits to worthy individuals such as people with disabilities and others who need it or in the case of social security, who have earned it.

Saving Social Security

ANALYSIS: The Good and Bad in Biden's 4-Point Plan to Save Social Security

Any changes made to the program should be based on need, not age,' Social Security expert says

As Americans reach the age of retirement, the majority of them will come to depend on the Social Security trust fund benefits they've been investing in from the first day the taxes were taken out of their first paycheck. However, the $22.4 trillion funding plunge predicted in the 2023 Trustees Report could result in benefit cuts of up to 23 percent for America's retirees beginning in 2033.

Unlike Medicare, Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust (OASI) is not heading toward bankruptcy or insolvency. As long as there are Americans working there will be money flowing into the trust fund coffers to cover the benefits of current retirees. What is at stake are the benefits of future recipients.

Those proposed changes are:

• Taxing wages above $400,000 while leaving all earned income between $160,200 and $400,000 untaxed. As it is currently, any wages above $160,200 are exempt from Social Security tax.

• Shifting the measure for Social Security's cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E)

• Raising the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) received by retired workers annually by 1 percent between the ages of 78 and 82, which would eventually amount to a 5 percent increase

• Increasing the special minimum benefit for lifetime lower-wage Social Security beneficiaries to 125 percent of the federal poverty level

More at The Epoch Times

Dumb and Dumber

Hat Tea to benefit Lake Worth Historical Society

Lake Worth Creates new Retirement Plan

Second Public Hearing Tuesday, August 21 – Cash Balance Plan Created.

Effective October 1, 2018, there is hereby added a Cash Balance Plan feature (“Cash Balance Plan”) to the City of Lake Worth Employees Retirement System, set forth in Sections 16-44 through 16-50.

All employees who are hired on or after October 1, 2018, and all employees hired before that date and after September 30, 2010, who elect to participate in the Cash Balance Plan pursuant to Section 16-26(c), shall be subject to the provisions of the Cash Balance Plan. The Cash Balance Plan is intended to meet the applicable requirements of Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a), hereinafter referred to as “Code Section”. The Plan is a “governmental plan” within the meaning of Code Section 414(d), and as such, is exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended.

Except as otherwise provided below, the terms of the City of Lake Worth Employees Retirement System shall apply to the Cash Balance Plan. 16-45 – Contributions, Benefit.

• (a) Employees shall contribute five percent (5%) of their compensation to the Cash Balance Plan.

• (b) The City shall contribute such amounts as are actuarially required to fund Plan benefits. The Cash Balance Normal Retirement Benefit for each employee shall be equal to a hypothetical account at such employee’s Normal Retirement Date. The hypothetical account shall be credited with an allocation of ten percent (10%) of each employee’s compensation, plus a hypothetical interest credit of five percent (5%) per year. Interest will be credited quarterly at an effective quarterly rate of 1.2273 percent per quarter.

• (c) Employees shall not have the option to receive the employer contribution as cash.

• (d) In addition to the contributions outlined above, the City shall contribute such sums as are necessary to pay the administrative costs of the Cash Balance Plan.

Our Immigration System

As so many illegal aliens are receiving at least one government benefit (over 10 million of the estimated 22 million in our country), President Trump is strongly considering the Republican bill that will stop it.

According to the Migration Policy Institute – “In a just-released study of welfare use by U.S. born Americans, naturalized citizens and non-citizen aliens, the Migration Policy Institute found that of the 22 million non-citizens in the country, 10.3 million are on at least one welfare program."

The report said that 54.2 percent of children and teens up to age 17 receive at least one of four major public welfare benefits while its 46.3 percent for those aged 18-54 and 47.8 for older aliens. [RedRightTVVideo]

Read more... about what President Trump wants to do about it. The RAISE Act would have deep cuts to family-based immigration and the creation of a points system for the selection of immigrants coming via employer sponsorship.

Benefit in Parkland today - "This sh!t has to stop--It's about the kids"

Andrew Pollack, son and others speaking at  benefit, talking about their mission of love and safety.

Union and City - Pension Tug of War

A Battle that Never Ends...

Today is D-Day...Decision Day--hopefully--a compromise and a decision will be decided upon on this long-drawn out union negotiation with the city's desire to move all of the Lake Worth employees to a 30 year retirement plan. Many of our employees were hired under the old plan. Employees have held their own saying you hired us under certain conditions that we accepted and if we voluntarily switch, we will lose a lot of retirement dollars.

So many costs are rising and the city's infrastructure is crumbling at their feet. They are looking for savings in anyway they can get it thus a new employee contract is strongly being pushed. The City is saying that they no longer can afford the old plan and have been holding up the 4% raise to all employees since October 1 (the money is in the budget) until a final contract is signed. Although employees don't begrudge management getting their raises, it is something they grumble about as they themselves haven't received one in many years.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out as the employees will be the ones giving up something--possibly it will be either the 4% raise after not having one in nearly 8 years or the old retirement plan. If the employees elect to stay with the old plan, the question then is, will the city employees ever expect a raise again? Will all of this be the final nail in their coffin? Will it all turn out fairly?

I can't see where a compromise will make anyone happy, least of all the employees. In the meantime, they are doing their jobs with a shortage of staff and working their butts off. But in a tug of war, it is the guy with the most strength who prevails. The city is the guy who signs the check.

The meeting will be held at the City Hall conference room, today at 9am.

The Problem
(Click to enlarge)

Lake Worth gets an F grade

Comment Up

Our problem in Lake Worth has been union benefits and retirement costs and contracts that are unsustainable. Because of what we have to pay into these accounts and money we have to pay PBSO for keeping us "safe," leaves Lake Worth in a precarious state.
 
The study printed in today's Palm Beach Post gives Lake Worth an F grade. If you notice in the graph, Lake Worth has gone from C and D grades to F's for Employees and Police since 2010. According to the C.A.F.R. for the year ending September 30, 2013, the following are Lake Worth's unfunded liabilities:

The Employee’s retirement $ 43,463,807
The Police retirement plan $ 22,660,667
The Fire retirement plan $ 23,593,457

Operating on a Deficit with huge unfunded Pension Liabilities

Politicians want to blame every Lake Worth administration over the past 50 years for the condition of our roads.  The fact remains is that retirement benefits take the biggest part of our operating budget.  There is NO money left over to have new roads ever since the Unions got a hold of this city.  Employees believe that they are entitled to 80% or 100% of their salary for life after reaching age 55 or whatever it is now. We are lucky to be able to afford the basic services that cities must provide. On top of that, the taxpayers are very generous and award them better than average salaries with benefits they only can dream about.

Lake Worth commissioners need to do something about this uncontrollable union retirement benefits and make serious changes. Instead, they sweep it all under the rug--too political and they "care" about their employees. Have you even heard one discussion on this?

At the end of fiscal year 2013, Lake Worth taxpayers contributed the following into the various pension funds for that fiscal year beginning October 1, 2012 ending September 30, 2013:

 Employee retirement system: $3,293,953.00
 Police: $1,733,395.00
 Firefighters: $1,845,288.00

At that time, non-controllable costs were 66.55% of our operating budget with that percentage projected to rise to 69.31% in 2014. I'm not even going to mention the massive amount of unfunded liabilities (a situation that could lead to bankruptcy) as I have gone over that numerous times in the past.

Out of a proposed operating budget of $31,006,779 for FY2015, controllable costs are $9,953,178 and we only took in $5,646,125 in ad-valorem. This shows everyone how poor we really are but the "free lunch' is here to stay or until there is another commission.

How do you run a city that is so far in debt, spends more than it takes in, increases department budgets and hires more personnel which means more retirement and medical benefits, and stay afloat?

They come up with this clever phrase about getting into the 21st Century and want to tax the people on some emotional pothole fix and want to grab $63.5 million. Has anyone thought about how much money that is or where it all will end up?

Lake Worth's next priority and it "ain't" Pot Holes

Comment Up

Ever since Kenneth Oakes, Internal Auditor, brought up rampant cell phone abuse by Lake Worth city employees, there has been discussion behind the scenes as to what to do about it.  Remember his report on the Code Enforcement department? Upper management took this all to heart and got rid of most of the staff and revamped the entire department.  Now it's cell phones.

Instead of re-writing their policy and setting a criteria, they are thinking about a cell phone stipend with employees using their personal phones; it's the easy option. Really. Just think of the massive amount of man hours developing a policy that just says "No personal use of city owned cell phones or you've got some explaining to do." Presently, there are 160 employees with city cell phones, about 40% of the staff.

This is how they are going to manage cell phone abuse?  At the moment, cell phones are being used for personal calls during and after business hours.  "We will pay for your personal cell phone and give you $X amount of taxpayer dollars and X amount of hours and you can continue to make personal calls during business hours."  Are they serious?

Read about it... and this wild idea that will even make it less transparent or even impossible for the public to obtain public information under the Freedom of Information Act. And just when they are trying to get all of the law suits off their table.

The Sheriff

Comment Up

The Sheriff says our quality of life will be impacted unless he gets his whopping raise.

Lake Worth is not operating within its means and Palm Beach County is no exception. One of the biggest costs/problems the county has is the sheriff's budget and he says he won't budge. He needs it for raises and benefits and equipment. He knows how to protect those under him.

Paying for the Sheriff's Office already accounts for more than half of the county's operating expenses and he wants $32 mil more.  The County is expecting $40 mil more in revenues due to the increased value of property and he wants over 75% of it. Bradshaw wrote in his budget proposal, "Without adequate funding, this year might be the transition year wherein the quality of life in the county is noticeably impacted." Also, the County in recent years has used reserves to compensate for spending more than it makes, which leaves fewer funding alternatives this year.  Read more... at Channel 12.

Ric Bradshaw, a graduate of Lake Worth High School. likes to tell us that crime is down and says that just about every year. Here is a different report. "In 2013, Palm Beach County’s murder rate per 100,000 population was more than 19 times the murder rate in New York City!"

The Sheriff says that he will be running for re-election. "In 2004, He campaigned on the promise to add more deputies, improve community policing, and to make the budget easier to understand. He has added more deputies and grown PBSO from 3,210 employees in 2004 to today's 3,924." In Lake Worth, however, we have fewer boots on the street than we did when we started and costs continually go up as does crime. However, his community relations has been phenonmenal here in Lake Worth and neighborhood associations have their local deputy at every meeting to let us know they are on the job looking out for you.

"In yearly budget battles with the county adminstrator, he has demanded and received an ever larger share of Ad-valorem tax dollars, growing the PBSO budget 77% in eight years, and has been successful in attracting federal and state dollars, including a contract to house federal prisoners in the county jail. His critics fault his lack of budget transparency and resistance to Inspector General oversight." Click here for full history.

Do we feel safer?

Rockin Red, White & Blue Concert for Wounded Warriors

Comment Up

Former Rep. Allen West (R.-Fla.) and his foundation have put together the Rockin’ Red, White, and Blues Concert to benefit the Wounded Warriors of South Florida.

The event will be held at BB King’s Blues Club in West Palm Beach and will take place on Saturday, April 26th, 2014, from 12:00 pm to 4 pm. BB King's is located in City Place at 550 S Rosemary Ave, West Palm Beach, FL 33401.

Read more at Allen West Republic.com

Vote fails on 3 months, $6.4 billion unemployment benefits

55-to-42...that was the vote in the Senate.

It fell short of the 60-votes that were needed to break a Republican filibuster effort on the 3 month unemployment benefits extension that would have helped 1.7 million unemployed costing $6.4 BILLION dollars.

Read about it... at the Washington Post..

Domestic threat - Poverty

People on the dole--we have millions of them and they are growing, thanks to Obama. There is so much abuse and fraud, and you, the taxpayer has been made a party to it all through growing socialistic government programs.

With 20 percent of all American households on food stamps, amounting to 23.1 million households and 47.6 million individuals in July, an across-the-board cut in food-stamp benefits is scheduled to go into effect in November, even though most recipients know nothing about the coming change, says WND.

The government won't even give you true facts on poverty in America. "The upshot of this is that in the old days what the poverty line was really measuring is the number of people who were poor after the things we did to reduce poverty. Today that same poverty line is measuring the number of people who are poor before all the things we do to reduce poverty," i.e, SNAP, Medicaid, Section 8, etc.

And speaking of Section 8, don't be surprised if we don't get that at Boutwell and Lake Worth Road in the future.  This Commission was so intense about kick starting the Park of Commerce, it voted in 212 affordable, ooops, workforce rentals that are now under construction. Can't wait to see how that will change my neighborhood.

Read more... at WND.

Retirement and Benefit costs Eating us alive

Comment Up

According to The Wall Street journal, “All told, state and local governments are on the hook for between $700 billion and $1.5 trillion for retiree health benefits and like Chicago most will soon be unable to afford even their minimum annual payments. Offloading the costs on Uncle Sam will look attractive since retiree health benefits don't enjoy the legal protections that some states have bestowed upon pensions. Stockton, California intends to shed its $400 million unfunded liability for retiree benefits in bankruptcy.”

We have been having budget workshop meetings and only casual mention has been made about our unsustainable and escalating costs--union pensions and benefits. It has been said, but unconfirmed, that the mayor and certain staff have been negotiating with the employee union. Costs have escalated.

Just a few months ago our Finance Department reported that our Unfunded Liabilities were close to $85 million.  Revenue from ad-valorem is estimated at $5.788 million. Estimated revenues from all sources for the new budget year is $29.516 million and that is taking money from Enterprise Funds and our Utility.

Unfunded--(In other words, we DON'T HAVE THE MONEY)
The Employee’s retirement  $ 43,463,807
The Police retirement plan  $ 22,548,900
The Fire retirement plan  $ 22,605,192

Greenacres, a city of similar demographics, always has less of a millage tax imposed on its residents. They have their own police and fire departments. The other difference in Greenacres and Lake Worth is that they went to a defined-contribution plan for their employees in mid 1990. Click here for the explanation and comparison in Defined benefit and Defined contribution.

The retirement system became out-of-control thanks to some commissions of the past that allowed the Unions to get extremely lucrative contracts and city staff letting it all slide by. Politicians don't particularly want to give the Unions a hard time about anything; their political future often depends on it. Their first responsibility is to the taxpayers, not playing politics with Union Reps..

One solution to get out from under the rug is to file bankruptcy. In no way shape or form am I advocating such an idea. However, Chapter 9 bankruptcy is for "municipalities," which refers to cities, towns, taxing authorities, municipal utilities, and other governmental entities. Even city manager, Michael Bornstein, said that our city was "bankrupt." With Chapter 9, Municipalities' ability to re-write collective bargaining agreements can trump state labor protections allowing cities to renegotiate unsustainable pension or other benefits packages negotiated in flush times before the economy collapsed. Go to this link to see all those cities who have filed. Unions now have to consider alternatives if they want cities to be solvent and expect to receive retirement benefits in the future.

Lake Worth  budget discussions have avoided any discussion on the seriousness of these costs and how they are affecting this city and its duty to provide services to the residents.  They have not emphasized the exorbitant costs of benefits and not one commissioner has brought it up other than talking about their own health care enrollment. Perhaps the back-up for last night's meeting will be uploaded today.

UPDATE:  the Back-up documents have now been uploaded.

Sandy Springs, Georgia Outsourced Everything

Comment Up

While cities across the country are cutting services, raising taxes and contemplating bankruptcy, something extraordinary is happening in a suburban community just north of Atlanta, Georgia.

Since incorporating in 2005, Sandy Springs has improved its services, invested tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure and kept taxes flat. And get this: Sandy Springs has no long-term liabilities.