| A good session for retirement sector
With the Washington Legislature winding down, retirement-industry experts were predicting last week that the industry would reap far better legislative gains than it had expected when the session began. Even those gains, though, would fall short of what the industry needs, they say. Budgets passed by both the House and Senate included about twice as much money for nursing homes and assisted-living facilities as the increases that had been proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire in her preliminary budget. Meanwhile, a bill that would protect senior citizens from living-trust scams has passed both chambers, as has a measure that would grant guardianship services to low-income seniors. This is a good start, says Gary Weeks, executive director of the Washington Health Care Association. Still, the additional money earmarked to fund nursing homes and assisted-living facilities wont come close to covering the Medicaid reimbursement shortfall that retirement facilities suffer, says Weeks.
Best Places to Work in the Federal Government
"Best Places to Work in the Federal Government 2007" reported that the worst workplaces among large agencies in the federal bureaucracy are the Small Business Administration, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Education. The 2007 rankings mark the third survey of engagement and satisfaction among federal workers. When the first rankings came out in 2003, the number-crunchers had hoped to create a blueprint for government leaders to improve employee satisfaction and in turn boost recruitment of "the best and the brightest" into public work. The results have been mixed. While the top and bottom three federal agencies remained the same in the 2007 rankings as in 2005, a handful of agencies have changed for the better. The Social Security Administration saw the biggest leap, from 21st out of 30 in 2005 to seventh this year.
A Regal Retirement for the Sun King?
As highlighted in our annual April Fool's Day prank, executive compensation is a hot-button issue of late. In addition to blanket legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, "say on pay" proposals have been filed at more than 60 companies this proxy season, according to Institutional Shareholder Services. Such proposals, which are on the ballot at companies such as Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Citigroup (NYSE: C), and Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO), seek to institute annual advisory shareholder votes on executive compensation schemes. Advisory, or non-binding, votes on pay have already been implemented in the U.K., Australia, and Sweden. These votes are far from a simple rubber stamp. In 2003, the first year of such votes in the U.K., shareholders balked at GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE: GSK) severance payment to its outgoing chief.
Brown 'blew big hole' in retirement funds
Gordon Brown was accused by the Tories today of blowing "a big hole" in pension funds with his "first and worst stealth tax". Moving a rare motion of no confidence in the chancellor's handling of occupational pensions, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, levelled a series of charges against Mr Brown. "In his first budget, this chancellor introduced a stealth tax on pension funds which his own civil servants warned him would blow a big hole in their finances. .
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