Month: September 2013

(Update) Marriage Equality breaks out in New Mexico – State Supreme Court to decide

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

EqualThe New Mexico Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide once and for all
whether same-sex marriage should be legal statewide after several
counties recently began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian
couples, prompting a legal challenge. NM high court to hear gay marriage case next month:

The five-member state Supreme Court issued an order setting an Oct. 23 hearing in a case that finally could decide whether marriage licenses can be issued to gay and lesbian couples.

The
court took the step a day after New Mexico's 33 counties and county
clerks statewide filed a petition asking justices to determine whether a
state district judge in Albuquerque was correct last week in declaring
it's unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

More
than 900 marriage licenses have been issued in New Mexico since Aug.
21, when the Dona Ana County clerk decided independently that gay
marriage was allowed. Seven other counties have followed in granting
licenses to same-sex couples or planning to do so, several in response
to court orders.

"This is excellent news because county clerks will now know what the law is, and they'll know how to not just administer their offices but how to serve their constituents," said Daniel Ivey-Soto, a lawyer for clerks and a Democratic state senator from Albuquerque.

The quick hearing "indicates the Supreme Court is interested in clarifying the law," he said.

The
high court could issue a decision immediately after hearing arguments
from lawyers in the case or it could take longer to make a ruling.

The justices asked parties in the case to submit written arguments by Sept. 23.

(Update) 401(k)s – economic stratification and inequality, less retirement security

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last week I posted about the report by Lydia DePillis at Ezra Klein's Wonkblog, 401(k)s are replacing pensions. That’s making inequality worse.

Joan McCarter at Daily Kos adds, New
IRS report confirms upcoming retirement crisis:

The IRS recently released a first-time, and alarming, report
on participation in retirement savings accounts, showing that the fewer
and fewer workers are saving for retirement out of their paychecks, and
the amount they are saving is shrinking too, down 6 percent in real
dollars from 2008 to 2010.

David Cay Johnston, investigative journalist
and author, and specialist in economics and tax issues, was one of very
few in the traditional media to register the appearance of this report,
and it's got him worried.

[T]he number of Americans deferring part of their wages into 401(k)-type plans fell in 2009 and again in 2010.

Two-thirds of taxpayers with jobs saved nothing in retirement plans.

Among twenty-somethings, only 1 in 8 or so saved. […]

Overall, the IRS report and other official data show how government
policy that favors individual savings in 401(k), IRA and similar plans
simply are not meeting the needs of workers, or of American society.

An Obamacare cost calculator

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by David Safier

Want to know how much you, or anyone else, will pay for Obamacare premiums? Here's a great calculator from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been putting together lots of terrific information about how the new health care system will work. The actual cost of the health care is approximate because it will vary state by state, but the government subsidy a person or a family can get should be pretty accurate.

Say you're a family of 4, with two 30-something non-smoking adults and two kids, and you make $30,000 a year. If you're in Arizona or some other state that expanded Medicaid coverage (Thank you, Governor Brewer), you're covered. Without the Medicaid expansion, you could still get the lowest coverage, the Bronze plan, for free. The next level, the Silver plan, would cost about $600 a year, or $50 a month. Either way, you can't be denied for preexisting condidtions. That's as opposed to an estimated cost of $10,829 without the subsidy — assuming you have no preexisting conditions that would make it impossible to get coverage. If the same family makes $40,000 a year, the Silver plan would run about $2,000 — that's $167 per month — or you could get the Bronze plan for $112 per year, or just under $10 a month.

Connect The Dots: ‘The American Healthcare Crazy Quilt’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Andrea Witte from Connect The Dots will be doing two live presentations of the latest version of  “The American Healthcare Crazy Quilt”: WHEN: Saturday, Sept 14th, 9:30 am to 11:00 am WHERE: Bear Canyon Library, large meeting room                  8959 E Tanque Verde Rd (near Bear Canyon … Read more

Goldwater Institute declares war on public employees

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Union-fightIsn't it bad enough that we have a "vast rght-wing conspiracy" behind the public employee pension initiative aka the Initiative to Bankrupt the City of Tucson (Prop. 201)? Now the Goldwater Institute "Kochtopus" tentacle wants to extend this fiscally reckless amd irresponsible idea to to state and local governments in Arizona through a statewide initiative. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Initiative would tie government spending to pension funding:

A proposed ballot measure would effectively
bar state and local governments from increasing spending across the
board until its employee pension systems are adequately funded.

[The purposefully deceptively named] Responsible Budgets Act, which was filed with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office on Friday, would bar political entities with underfunded pension systems from increasing
spending, except for inflation and population growth. A provision in the
initiative defines “adequately funded” as 80 percent funded.

[I-02-2014 Responsible Budgets in Support of Proposition __ and Petition Serial # ____, full text of initiative: PDF]