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From Detroit to Marin

The recent bankruptcy filing by Detroit is the tip of a much more serious iceberg as public-sector unfunded pension debt could easily exceed $1 trillion.

Union lawsuits and press statements claim pensions are guaranteed once a person works one day and the terms of the pension plan can never be changed — even upon death, as the pension then reverts to the surviving spouse.

To make that kind of defined-benefit plan sustainable, the taxpayer must be a guarantor of the indebtedness. Taxes must increase and/or public services decline.

Detroit proves why this "economic model" is not realistic. Detroit is saying that the taxpayers are not guarantors but merely providing collateral for the pension plans.

The distinction is huge.

Detroit's position makes sense as there is no mechanism under any economic theory that requires the taxpayers to sell all of their assets to pay for the pensions of their neighbors.

The bankruptcy court will address this issue very directly. I think the court will reach the correct conclusion that bankruptcy is specifically designed for this situation and is superior in its operations to any other law.

That is exactly what bankruptcy is designed to do — impair contracts.

Smart unions will either embrace this result or the municipal bond market will cease to exist. No lender will agree to be subservient to a pension debt over which nothing ever takes priority. If that happens, public-sector workers will be worse off than they are now.

If the bankruptcy court in Detroit holds the pension funds must be compromised like any other, unions will have an incentive to restructure the plans immediately to avoid bankruptcy.

Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans has urged our elected officials in Marin County to be more involved in state legislation to precipitate legal changes to enable them to assure a sustainable pension system. This has not happened.

Our legislators have done nothing substantial to correct a faulty system.

We hope that legal findings stemming from the unfortunate bankruptcies of Detroit, Stockton and San Bernardino will provide relief to the taxpayers and at the same time assure public employees that a bankruptcy that could wipe out or greatly impair their pensions can be diverted.

Michael Lotito, San Rafael, Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans


Blame Wall Street

The time has come for the mainstream media to stop referring to the activities and outcomes of the so-called financial crisis as a crisis rather than what it is — a well-executed deliberate crimewave perpetrated by specific individuals and organizations in order to steal resources from the working class and line the pockets of the wealthy.

A crisis is defined as "an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending; especially: one with a distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome". The example cited is in the definition is "a financial crisis."

Just because the government has refused to indict the perpetrators — due to their role as major political contributors — does not negate the fact that real crimes were committed.

The pundits seem to enjoy focusing on outcomes such as the public pension crisis, but consistently fail to clarify that these funds were in fine shape before to thieves of Wall Street stole half their resources.

It is time to tell the truth.

W. Campagna, Fairfax


Widen the highway?

Marin Supervisor Steve Kinsey's Marin Voice column is so unrealistic that one scratches one's head over the myopic ideas presented to him and others.

The concept that the housing proposed by Plan Bay Area "will be within walking distance of shops and employment" is a pipe dream.

How ironic when you consider some 120 workers lost their jobs in Corte Madera when the cup company was closed so the property could be used for building 200 units.

There won't be enough jobs and transit won't be close enough.

The only solution to Marin's transportation nightmare is widening Highway 101 and doubling the size of feeder streets.

Kinsey, like Supervisors Judy Arnold and Susan Adams, has the cart before the horse. I suggest that they see "Rebels with a Cause" and visualize what could have been.

Moe Greene, Mill Valley


Why voters turn to GOP

It is no surprise that the Marin Republican Party "passed" its support for gay marriages.

While on the committee some time ago, the group was split. There were 22 people on the committee and it was split, 13 to 9, the 13 favoring the more liberal position.

It would have been more correct to say, the "majority" of the executive committee favored supporting gay marriages; not the entire central committee.

This fracture made the Republican Central Committee all but ineffective. I was disappointed by this fracture and resigned when it became apparent the important work wouldn't get done.

But the good news for the Republican Party is, it has the Democrats.

Republican philosophy is hard to sell, and hard for the average taxpayer to understand — smaller government, lower taxes, family values and belief in God and the Constitution. Those values are not present in the Democratic Party.

Unions want more money from the Democrats so there is support for higher taxes. Democrats love big government because it gives them proportionally more power.

Not Republicans.

But I am not dismayed because the Republicans will again be in charge when the state and Marin County fail financially.

Detroit, and Vallejo have failed and they are run by Democrats. Michigan and Ohio, once run by Democrats, had to elect Republicans to get them running again.

So when the money is gone, those who wanted bigger government and higher taxes will wonder, what went wrong.

We who live in Marin know Democrats aren't listening to the voice of the people.

Get rid of Supervisor Susan Adams, then the rest.

New York City has a 6-to- 1 voter ratio in favor of Democrats, yets Republicans get elected mayor.

Ask yourself why?

Robert A. Casper Sr., San Rafael


Respecting our laws

The comments on "Pass immigration reform bill" (Marin Voice, July 29) do not address the following:

• It is wrong to break the laws of the country you are trying to move to. There are laws that govern the legal way to immigrate to the United States and they involve an application and waiting your turn. These people jumped ahead of all others who are waiting their turn patiently.

• You need to learn the language and get the equivalent of a high school education to be able to understand the country and read signs, legal forms and get a driver's license. When you immigrate legally there are steps to be taken that require learning English. It's not a good idea to drive a car without first reading the Vehicle Code and passing the driver's test. People get killed that way.

• Before the flood of illegal immigrants, the jobs they do were done by high school-age youths or non-college-educated citizens , a lot of these jobs were in construction. We need to have our citizens employed before worrying about people who came here illegally.

• I am a naturalized immigrant citizen and my parents had to wait for four years before getting their application approved to proceed, in spite of the fact that one of my parents was born in the U.S.

• Immigration reform may be required, but not to accommodate 11 million who broke laws getting here. Reform to allow people to come here legally, to find work in areas where workers are needed is a good thing.

Immigrants need to be regarded as desirable members of this society and not to be looked at as illegal second- class residents. This is done by following and respecting this country's laws.

Joe Grasso, San Rafael


Fire safety a top priority

The county's new open space vegetation management plan, as proposed and endorsed by a chorus of self-congratulators, does little to protect Marin in the event of a catastrophic wildland fire. Instead, the onus is placed squarely on the homeowner to provide personal "defensible space."

How realistic is that?

Sadly, the vegetation management report, prepared by noted botanist, Loran May for the princely sum of $389,000 places habitat over humans.

The plan sees fuel breaks as providing only "limited effectiveness." Really?

Anyone watching TV reports on wildland fires hears about the importance of fuel breaks in combating the really big fires that threaten whole communities.

But in the county's plan, fire safety seems an irritant in the way of ambitious plans for habitat restoration. The truth is our homes and safety could depend on construction of those 70 miles of new fuel breaks Marin County Fire Department would like to build. ($389,000 would certainly have helped to pay for this.)

On Oct. 5, 1995, the Marin IJ headlines reported:"Blaze Races to Sea / Point Reyes fire has quadrupled in size — 8000 acres burned, 48 homes destroyed."

Perhaps you still need convincing? The massive Oakland—Berkeley hills brush fire in 1991 consumed over 3,000 homes and apartments and killed 24 people.

The landscape there is much like Marin.

In terms of fire safety, the county's high-priced, botanist proffers patently bad advice. The major threat we face, other than earthquakes, is not scotch broom — it's the next fire.

Thus the highest management priority of public lands surrounding our communities should be to help protect us, and our homes and businesses, from the scourge of uncontrolled wildland fire.

William Binzen,Woodacre

Oyster farm lease expired

Thanks so much to Joe Mueller (Marin Voice, Aug. 7) for clarifying the ecology of Drakes Estero.

Facts have been twisted, and powerful allies enlisted, for the purpose of trying to stay in business, despite the fact the owner knew when he bought the oyster business that he had a few years before his lease was to be up, and he was to shut down the operation and allow it to return to its natural state.

It's always unfortunate to see hardworking people lose their jobs, especially in the current still unstable economy for workers.

The amount of money that's been spent on the legal challenge could likely have provided each of his workers a tidy severance package.

Diane Lynch, Tiburon