So now the ongoing saga of Movable Type has a new twist. The upgrade from 4.21 to 4.261 did not go smoothly. Apparently there was a significant change at 4.23, so I'm going to try to roll back to 4.21, and then upgrade to 4.23 as an intermediate step before trying 4.261 again. If anyone out there has experience upgrading MT, I'd appreciate any help you can offer. I'm at jsharf-at-jsharf-dot-com … [Read more...]
Developing Story: PERA Selling Assets?
In the past, I've commented about the difference between cumulative returns and average returns, especially when there's an outgoing cash flow to meet obligations. I have learned that Walker Stapleton is claiming that PERA, Colorado's Public Employees Retirement Association, which has fallen to 50% funded, is now selling assets to meet obligations. Evidently, PERA administrators have been making this statement off the record to during briefings. That's right: our public pension may have been reduced to eating its seed corn. Mr. Stapleton, whose campaign for State Treasurer will certainly make PERA administration a centerpiece issue, has filed a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request to see exactly what assets are being sold. … [Read more...]
Spinning Their Wheels (or, I…Am Not…a Spoke!)
At the beginning of Wednesday's session of the TABOR Negation Fiscal Stability Commission, Chairman Rollie Heath asked the commission members to introduce themselves. HD-6 Rep. Lois Court, who was a strong supporter of Amendment 59, and campaigned on the repeal of tax and spending limits, had this to say (I'm doing this from memory, but it's very close): I teach political science at a local community college, and I always tell my students that society is like a wheel, and the people are the spokes. And it's the job of the government to keep the wheel balanced. This statement followed a theme of the day: that the job of the commission is to determine what kind of society we want to have, and then figure out how to fund … [Read more...]
Slumming
Due to a security breach (since fixed), visitors to my own site, View from a Height, are receiving a message that claims that it's suddenly turned into the blog equivalent of Cujo. I've cleaned off the offending files and am reloading the new version of Movable Type, but until I can persuade Google that there's nothing to see here, Ben's graciously letting me co-blog here at his place. Ben started in on the Bell Policy Center's Wade Buchanan's comments to the TABOR Repeal Fiscal Stability Commission on Thursday, but I wanted to point one of the rhetorical devices that he used to justify once and future extravagance on the part of the state government. The title of this post actually applies to Mr. Buchanan's comments. During his … [Read more...]