Some of the budget problems faced by the Granite State are not so different from those of the Garden State. This week, the Concord (NH) Monitor reported that New Hampshire’s pension system has a shortfall of $3.4 billion on an asset base of $4.7 billion. That may be peanuts by New Jersey standards, but for a small state like NH, this shortfall represents a very low funding ratio of 59%.
Most New Hampshire state and local employees contribute 5% of payroll, while police and firefighters pay 9.3%. Any shortfall to the pension system is made up by NH cities and towns which are being stressed by the early 2009 drop in the stock market.
Unlike a 401K retirement plan, in which a participating employee assumes all risk for the ups and downs of the retirement portfolio, government pensions – like those in New Jersey – guarantee pension payments: No matter what happens to the value of the portfolio, the state, school boards, and local municipalities must ante up any deficit.
When it comes to the fiscal stability of its pension obligations, New Jersey has nothing to brag about. The State Management Report Card for 2008 by the Pew Center reports that “New Jersey faces a newly revealed $58 billion tab for post-employment retirement benefits – a whopper by anyone’s standards.”
The same performance report by the Pew Center gives New Jersey an overall evaluation of C. This grade is comprehensive and includes four components: Money, People, Infrastructure, and Information. The ‘People’ measurement received a grade of B. The other performance measurements pulled a C.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
What is the Basis of Your Identity?
“We are not what we do. We are not what we have. We are not what others think of us.” The quandary presented by those claims is that many of us believe just the opposite – that we want very much to be what we do; what we have; and – most insidiously – what others think of us.
The conundrum associated with that apparent contradiction becomes obvious when we stop to think of how we obsess with not having enough; worry excessively about what others think of us; try to appease the unappeasable; and try to force our jobs into our personalities.
The person quoted in the first paragraph above is Henri Nouwen (Nouen in French). He was a brilliant 20th century mind who taught at the Menninger Foundation, Notre Dame, Harvard and Yale. But this Dutch priest, sensing a life of incompleteness, gave up those scholastic endeavors and devoted the last years of his life to the personal care of someone at L’Arche Daybreak, a community of mentally and physically handicapped people near Toronto, Canada.
Nouwen’s choice to turn his back on an eminently successful academic career is an extreme example of how one person dealt with the puzzle of the what-we-do, what-we-have, and what-others-think-of-us challenge.
Let’s put it in a business context: What would the business, technical and philanthropic world look like today, if Bill Gates had not left Harvard against all conventional wisdom to nurture the seeds of what would subsequently become Microsoft?
Executed well and for the right reasons, such life-altering moves can have a profound effect on both the individual and society.
The conundrum associated with that apparent contradiction becomes obvious when we stop to think of how we obsess with not having enough; worry excessively about what others think of us; try to appease the unappeasable; and try to force our jobs into our personalities.
The person quoted in the first paragraph above is Henri Nouwen (Nouen in French). He was a brilliant 20th century mind who taught at the Menninger Foundation, Notre Dame, Harvard and Yale. But this Dutch priest, sensing a life of incompleteness, gave up those scholastic endeavors and devoted the last years of his life to the personal care of someone at L’Arche Daybreak, a community of mentally and physically handicapped people near Toronto, Canada.
Nouwen’s choice to turn his back on an eminently successful academic career is an extreme example of how one person dealt with the puzzle of the what-we-do, what-we-have, and what-others-think-of-us challenge.
Let’s put it in a business context: What would the business, technical and philanthropic world look like today, if Bill Gates had not left Harvard against all conventional wisdom to nurture the seeds of what would subsequently become Microsoft?
Executed well and for the right reasons, such life-altering moves can have a profound effect on both the individual and society.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Sounds of the Lake
On Monday, I sat about ten feet from the water on one of the many private vacation mini-shores of Lake Winnipesaukee – about 74 square miles of refreshing glacial water dotted with well over 100 islands, large and small – a benefit left behind by a long-ago ice age. It’s a popular vacation attraction for New England residents, Canadians, and others ‘from away’ who know of its secrets.Reading Masters and Commanders in an old wooden beach chair, I paused to listen and to observe. Straight ahead, a small sailboat glided noiselessly by in the distance, disturbing nothing. To my right, along the edge of a private little cove, a kayaker paddled his way around a small granitic outcrop.
Power boats hadn’t come out in force yet and, when they did, their engines were muffled from the distance offered by no-wake-zone rules which keep boating enthusiasts away from shorelines and prevent them from gunning their craft full throttle until they reach the lake’s deeper, wide-open section called ‘The Broads.’
Even now, in the afternoon, after a drenching 10-minute rainstorm, boats passing by are barely audible. (A lot of boats at any one time in this inlet overlooking the Ossipee Mountains constitutes perhaps six or seven. Don’t think NJ congestion!)
It’s very relaxing here: Water laps gently at the sandy shore, rising intermittently as distant water craft create a mild series of harmless, low-peaked waves. Large stones line the swimming beach, preventing erosion to the sitting area. Granite is ubiquitous. Locally, you can purchase a top-quality, last-forever lamppost hewn from stone for $225.
Keep safe and give yourself a break. Mom always cautioned me, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Same for the ladies!
(Photo by Dick Bergeron, July 2009)
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The Raspberry Patch
Early this week, on a bright day before the rainstorms began rolling in, I walked out to the backyard raspberry patch – a place of wild, bountiful berries.Dressed in old shoes, a cap, long jeans, and a matching blue long-sleeved shirt, I began picking around the perimeter of the bushes. Don’t try wandering near or into a brier patch of raspberries with shorts and a T-shirt.
There are plenty this year, more than at any previous summer. Equipped with a light plastic bowl holding about 5 pints, it didn’t take me long to gather up a profusion of those sweet-tart organic fruit. Picking raspberries comes with some risk: you need to be ready for a few scratches, bug bites, and sticky sweat as the sun beats down on your person.
Since I wanted to harvest more than a few pints that day, I knew that I would have to venture into the middle of that prickly thicket, thorns or not. That’s when it occurred to me that life – in some respects –can be compared to a raspberry patch: If you live only at the margins of life, you don’t get to savor the full abundance of its fruit. But if you wade into the middle of life’s brier patch, you may find it much more rewarding.
Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But the thought is authentic. Part of the troubles in our community, state and nation, is that there are too many healthy and able people who expect others to pick their raspberries for them.
Take care of yourselves and enjoy the remainder of summer – it will be gone before you can blink. (Ah – luscious raspberries: I came out with about 8 to 9 pints.)
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Obama Proposes to Change Healthcare Quality & Cost
President Barack Obama made two statements in last night’s press conference that summed up the entire hour. Even before taking the first question, he laid out the two key aspects of his plan which incorporated everything that he said later in the Q&A portion:
The President disclosed that his healthcare plan will mandate a national committee “of doctors and health care experts” which will be empowered under the law to decide methods of treatment and reimbursement rates. Obama also said that Americans should get “the best care, just not the most expensive care.” Decode that last statement, and you have reduced benefits.
Several times throughout the press conference, Obama came back to the same two points, using different language to underscore the same thing: “They (that means you!) will have to give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier.”
And how will we know that? There will, Obama explained, “be a panel of doctors and health care experts advising how to get better results and to reduce costs.” More coded language for reduced benefits: “People will need to be discriminating consumers; we just can’t afford this.”
What about that bureaucratic healthcare committee? Obama says he will, “Create a panel of healthcare experts to make recommendations to Congress.” The Congress, he went on, “Will be required to vote on proposals (of that committee) as a package deal each year on treatment options . . . this will change how benefits are delivered.”
So there you have it. Cutting through the Q&A's in Obama’s statements, you could, if you listened carefully, discern the fact that President Barack Obama wants to 1. Expand medical care by reducing current and future benefits, and 2. Establish a national bureaucratic healthcare committee with power under the law to push quality of care and cost decisions through the Congress.
The President disclosed that his healthcare plan will mandate a national committee “of doctors and health care experts” which will be empowered under the law to decide methods of treatment and reimbursement rates. Obama also said that Americans should get “the best care, just not the most expensive care.” Decode that last statement, and you have reduced benefits.
Several times throughout the press conference, Obama came back to the same two points, using different language to underscore the same thing: “They (that means you!) will have to give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier.”
And how will we know that? There will, Obama explained, “be a panel of doctors and health care experts advising how to get better results and to reduce costs.” More coded language for reduced benefits: “People will need to be discriminating consumers; we just can’t afford this.”
What about that bureaucratic healthcare committee? Obama says he will, “Create a panel of healthcare experts to make recommendations to Congress.” The Congress, he went on, “Will be required to vote on proposals (of that committee) as a package deal each year on treatment options . . . this will change how benefits are delivered.”
So there you have it. Cutting through the Q&A's in Obama’s statements, you could, if you listened carefully, discern the fact that President Barack Obama wants to 1. Expand medical care by reducing current and future benefits, and 2. Establish a national bureaucratic healthcare committee with power under the law to push quality of care and cost decisions through the Congress.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)