Audit: NJ Turnpike Wasted Millions On Perks

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/traffic/traffic_news/audit-excessive-perks-for-nj-turnpike-employees-20101019-apx

And local governments are broke why?
It's time to audit and pare down every aspect of government in the United States, from the local level all the way to the Federal level.
As taxpayer I do believe "WE" have the right demand it at this point.

Auditors say the New Jersey Turnpike Authority wasted $43 million on unneeded perks and bonuses. In one case, an employee with a base salary of $73,469 earned $321,985 when all payouts and bonuses were included.

The audit says that toll dollars From the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway were spent on items ranging from an employee bowling league to employee bonuses for working on birthdays and holidays.

It took place as tolls were being increased.

The biggest expense uncovered in the audit was $30 million in unjustified bonuses to employees and management in 2008 and 2009 without consideration of performance.

Wall Street Is the New Tax Collector? Governments Relinquish Taxation Powers to Big Banks

http://www.alternet.org/economy/148537

Has Wall Street's investment bankers taken over the world?
Because this is just to bizarre.
It looks like local government can't be any more trusted than the Federal government, but then we kind of all ready knew that, from all those subsidies that they give to ball teams, and Walmart and Cabelas all created by your hard earned sweat and donated for a sure future loss.


Nearly a dozen major banks and hedge funds, anticipating quick profits from homeowners who fall behind on property taxes, are quietly plowing hundreds of millions of dollars into businesses that collect the debts, tack on escalating fees and threaten to foreclose on the homes of those who fail to pay.

The Wall Street investors, which include Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co., have purchased from local governments the right to collect delinquent taxes on several hundred thousand properties, many in distressed housing markets, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found.

Lawmakers: local govts. lost $1.7B due to Lehman

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6966881.html

The question is, why should the government( The taxpayer) have to reimburse the municipalities and local governments for the deliberate misconduct by the banks or the SEC?
It's time to make the banks and the SEC responsible for their own short comings in their excessive need to feed the greed on a prey that was all to easy to dupe, and one that should have never been seen in the cross hairs of their target goals.

Two lawmakers say Lehman Brothers' historic collapse cost school districts and local governments millions, forcing many to make major cutbacks.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said 40 municipalities nationwide lost around $1.7 billion after the firm went under. She is introducing legislation that would require the federal government to compensate those governments.

At a hearing Tuesday probing what led to Lehman's collapse, Eshoo said San Mateo County, which is in her district, lost $155 million.

Lehman's meltdown in September 2008 was the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. It threw global financial markets into crisis.

Another lawmaker said numerous governments suffered huge losses.

“These were school districts and local governments that made investments that they believed were conservative,” said Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo. “They trusted that federal regulators were keeping a watchful eye on companies like Lehman Brothers.”

The former chief executive for Lehman is scheduled to testify at the hearing, which will probe a bankruptcy examiner's report that the firm masked $50 billion in debt.

The examiner, Anton Valukas, however, criticized the company and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lehman, he said, “was significantly and persistently in excess of its own risk limits,” he said in prepared remarks. The SEC, meanwhile, “was aware of these excesses and simply acquiesced.”