SES Foundation

TechTest2008 Recognition Breakfast

George Rebane May 2008

The second annual TechTest Recognition Breakfast was held last Friday morning at Tofanelli’s in Grass Valley. Recognized for their achievement in being the top scorers on TechTest2008 were thirteen juniors and seniors from the county’s high schools. The four-hour merit scholarship test was given on 5 April 2008 under the supervision of TechTest Academic Committee chairman John McDaniel who teaches physics at NUHS. A copy of the test is available here.

The breakfast was attended by a large group of students and parents. SESF Executive Director Michael McDaniel welcomed everyone and thanked the Academic Committee for their work in administering and grading the test. He also recognized and thanked Tony and Paula Medler as one of the generous contributors to this year’s TechTest scholarship fund.

This year’s scholarship winners will divide $15,000 awarded to the thirteen highest scoring seniors. First prize $6,000, 2^nd prize $4,000, 3^rd prize $2,000, and ten $300 special recognition prizes. Juniors are permitted to take the test for practice. The top three scoring seniors Philip Jackson (NU), Andrew Pado (Truckee), and Collin Rutherford (NU) (alphabetical order) are pictured above. Their placement rank will be announced during the upcoming NU Scholarship Night on 4 June 2008.

My job as SESF’s Director of Research was to again be the test author. The four-hour test is written to have the expected top scores fall in the 50% range. This year the top three senior scores were 57, 46, and 45 out of a possible 100 points. The average score on the test was 34.54. Chris Convis, a junior at NU, took the test for practice and turned in the second highest score at 50.25. We may expect a strong performance from Chris when he goes for the money in next year’s TechTest2009.

All of the TechTest2008 scholars are to be congratulated as high achievers in a most difficult area of study. We can be proud that Nevada County is able to produce such students who will join the next generation of leaders in technology innovation, education, and entrepreneurs.

Bankrupt VALLEJO's $100k+ salaries

May 2008

Thank You SFGATE!  In times of Crisis the public cries out to be informed. 

During the calendar year 2007, there were 292 City of Vallejo employees who had total gross wages of $100,000 or more. Find out who they were HERE.  Thanks again SFGATE.

Vallejo Files for Bankrupcy

I hope our "Leaders" are paying attention

Michael McDaniel

On Feb 20th 2008 I summarized the crisis unfolding in Vallejo California HERE. The Associated Press reported today (May 7th 2008) that Vallejo in fact has taken the legal steps to file for BANKRUPTCY.  This is the largest California city to fail on this level.  As noted in our Feb 20th piece Vallejo budgets over 85% to employee benefits (wages, pensions, healthcare). 
Jason Dearden of the Associated press writes,"Many officials and residents attribute Vallejo's fiscal troubles to overly generous pay and benefits to the city's police and firefighters. The salaries for police and firefighters currently take up 75 to 80 percent of the city's general fund."
More insight into this epidemic can be found in the answers of hopeful California assembly members Sue Horne and Dan Logue.  According the CABPROReport (HERE) each of them believe that California has been hijacked by employee unions. 
Don't forget the size of this crisis folks... Our Governors pension crisis committee started HERE by executive order.  Just 2 years later this bi-partisan committee reported to the Governor that the state of California is not strong enough to battle the employee unions.  The state of California backed down from a fight against employee unions.  Schwarzenegger and his bi-partisan team analyzed the odds of defeating the employee unions and decided that such a battle would only increase the state's deficit.

Unfunded Pension Guru Speaks Out- Offers Solutions

Why Didn't I think of That?

Michael McDaniel May 2008

Marsha Fritz, vice president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility and a member of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board Pension Accounting Research Advisory Committee recently outlined her expert opinion (complete with solutions) on the current unfunded pension crisis HERE.

She calls on Union leaders to change there strategy. She insinuates that Union leaders (and thus public employees) would be better served to partner with government agencies instead of competing against them (...hand that feeds you).  Her suggestions offer the Unions both future job security and insurance that past promises are fulfilled.  She points out the necessity of government agencies to stay afloat long enough to make good on past promises.  The only "out" for government agencies is bankruptcy, and bankruptcy would hurt unions too. 

It has been argued that Unions helped "us" get into this mess, and Mrs. Fritz suggests that it should be the Unions that help "us" get out of this mess.

Kudos to the Sacramento Bee for continuing to highlight the unfunded pension crisis.