Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Michigan Business Leaders Say Early Childhood Education Matters to Economic Growth

Michigan Business Leaders Say Early Childhood Education Matters to Economic Growth

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich., May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/-- A coalition of 100 business leaders from across the state is calling for greatly intensified state focus on early childhood education programs and strategy to ensure Michigan's children are prepared to compete in the 21st century global economy. The group, Children's Leadership Council of Michigan, made the announcement today at the Mackinac Policy Conference, where the members urged fellow business leaders and entrepreneurs to commit to support the Michigan Early Childhood Business Plan.
The plan calls on state policymakers and local school officials to:
  • Offer publicly funded preschool to all 4-year-olds who are eligible – Currently, Michigan has slots for only about half of the eligible 4-year olds. Approximately 38,000 4-year-olds are shut out of preschool every year.
  • Strengthen efforts to assure the healthy growth of 0 to 3-year-olds – The first 1,000 days are critical to a child's brain development. Right from birth, children must be raised by parents and other caregivers who have the supports they need to be their children's first and best teachers. To this end, the members support expansion of evidence-based programs for 0 to 3-year-olds and their families, particularly home visiting, for at-risk infants and toddlers.


 
 
 

   
    Michigan Business Leaders Say Early Childhood Education Matters to Economic Growth (via PR Newswire)
   

       A hundred business leaders statewide join forces to boost school readiness programs to ensure quality workforce MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich., May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/-- A coalition of 100 business leaders from across the state is calling for greatly intensified state focus on early childhood…
   

 

 

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Emanuel, suburban mayors join forces on pension reform - chicagotribune.com

Emanuel, suburban mayors join forces on pension reform - chicagotribune.com
 


 “Mayor after mayor, if they had a big box outside the doors in Springfield, are ready to tell them: ‘We’re going to drop the keys to city hall in that box. You guys have run the show for so long, maybe you’d like to run the city and village,’” Bennett said at a news conference at which Emanuel was joined by about two dozen municipal leaders. “That’s the financial crisis we all face.”

It was the third straight day Emanuel pressed the pension issue, following his Tuesday trip to Springfield to address members of the General Assembly and a Wednesday letter to the city employees who would take a pension hit under the austerity measures he has proposed.

Emanuel said lawmakers need to look past the pressure they’re getting from organized labor and make the tough decisions required to bring the state’s pensions into balance.

“I do think — and any mayor can add their voice on this — acting as if this is not difficult, but that if you just do what we’re doing now and that this is going to resolve itself, that is the most dishonest thing, the most irresponsible thing to do,” Emanuel said.

Emanuel said he isn’t willing to consider new revenue sources like tax increases or leasing Midway airport to help fund pensions because the structural problems with the system are too severe.

The Rise of the Supertemp - Harvard Business Review

The Rise of the Supertemp - Harvard Business Review
 by Jody Greenstone Miller and Matt Miller

Trevisani is a Wharton MBA and GE alum who now manages high-powered projects for Fortune 500 companies and advises executives on operational issues, change management, and potential mergers. He does all these assignments on a temporary basis, working as an independent contractor.
 
Let’s call Trevisani a supertemp. He and others like him belong to the “free agent nation” popularized a decade ago by the author and workplace guru Daniel Pink, but they inhabit its most rarefied precincts. Supertemps are top managers and professionals—from lawyers to CFOs to consultants—who’ve been trained at top schools and companies and choose to pursue project-based careers independent of any major firm. They’re increasingly trusted by corporations to do mission-critical work that in the past would have been done by permanent employees or established outside firms. New intermediaries have sprung up to create a market for such marquee talent. Supertemps are growing in number, and we think they’re on the verge of changing how business works.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Governments Belatedly Put Pension Deficits on Their Books - Bloomberg

Governments Belatedly Put Pension Deficits on Their Books - Bloomberg


The Governmental Accounting Standards Board, which decides how states and municipalities must keep their books, is set to issue the new rules next month. Any decisions made so far are “tentative and subject to change,” John Pappas, a spokesman for the Norwalk, Connecticut-based organization, said by e-mail. Pensions would begin using the rules for fiscal years starting after June 15, 2013, and employers such as school districts would follow a year later.
As currently set up, the changes would force pensions and municipalities to report the portion of current and future retiree obligations that exceed projected assets as a liability on balance sheets for the first time.

Widening Gaps

The new method also may widen the gap between assets and promised benefits by applying a lower discount to the uncovered portion. The rules would tie the measure to a 30-year, AA rated municipal bond, rather than a typically higher expected investment return.
The average AA+ municipal bond yields about 4.2 percent for 30-year maturities, according to a Bloomberg Fair Value index. The Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois has an assumed rate of annual return on assets of 8.5 percent, which is lower than its average of 9.3 percent each year during the past three decades, Dave Urbanek, a fund spokesman, said by telephone.
Under the new rules, the so-called funded ratio would fall to 53 percent from 77 percent for 126 plans, taken as a group, according to a November 2011 study from the Boston College center. The measure gauges assets as a proportion of obligations and was applied to both state and local pensions.

May Surprise Officials

“The liability will appear to be larger than it has in the past,” Cathie Eitelberg, national public-sector market director for New York-based Segal Co., a pension consultant, said in a telephone interview. “There could be some very surprised elected officials.”

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Budgets: Get a Unique Second Opinion Now

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Budgets--Get-a-Unique-Second-Opinion-Now.html?soid=1101086242761&aid=UjRAbAilfTI
 
By Fred Leeb

We help to 'tee-up' tough decisions by providing analyses and ideas for their review and approval.  We provide second opinions so they can be sure that they have gone the extra mile and obtained ideas from some of the best in the business.
   
We are turnaround specialists and our job for the last 25 years has been to:
  • Use our unique perspectives and experiences as highly successful turnaround experts in government, private industry and nonprofits to generate solutions that are both creative and practical    
  • Wring out more dollars even when everyone else says it's impossible and they already have cut to the bone
  • Find significant new resources or refocus existing spending to generate a surplus even when it seems like there is no money
  • Bring fresh and time-tested opinions from work in over 50 industries
 Please click on the link above to read the rest of the article.