Voices From The Readers – October 25, 2019

Voices From The Readers – October 25, 2019

Lower Assumed Growth Rate Needed With Funds

Editor:

The “Tallest Midget in the Forest,” a metaphor, will be used to describe the Worcester County Public Education System and to unconditionally support any opposition Superintendent of Schools Lou Taylor may feel is appropriate to Maryland state’s intrusion into our county’s public education system with the Kirwan Commission. One should not be fooled by its Orwellian, doublethink name, the Commission of Innovation and Excellence in Education. This intrusion should be opposed even if it means refusing state funding.

The same metaphor, “The Tallest Midget in the Forest,” will also be used to describe the Ocean City pension funds’ recent lack of performance and to support Councilmen John Gehrig and Mark Paddock who have brought up why concerns over shortfalls in present fund performances should be a concern for future underfunding.

On a recent Saturday, I was at Food Lion, North Ocean City, waiting to be checked out. The young lady cashier, a product of public education in the county, was standing there perplexed unable to ring out my four items. She had just sold a pack of cigarettes to another young lady in front of me in line. Anxious to get rung out, I asked what the problem was. “Sir”, she said, “I am not sure she was 21, she was born in 1997,” referring to the prior customer and the change in the legal age to buy cigarettes. “Even if she was born the last day of 1997 she would be 21,” I said. The young lady looked relieved and wrung me out. Today, in Mathematics, scores on the International PIA Test, given to 15-year-olds, show the United States performance has declined. We now rank 34th in the world. When I graduated in 1967, we were number one, peerless in public school world rankings.

Worcester public schools today rank among the highest in the state. Any attempt to change county public education by a state committee should be opposed. Although there is always room for improvement, Lou Taylor and his staff are doing a better job than any jurisdiction in the state and should be emulated not changed. The Board of Education should support our present system, recognizing our relative superiority and not buckle under to pressures from a state commission, particularly when that commission is solely composed of individuals from inferior education systems, even if it means refusing state funding.

Ocean City as the largest payer for public education in the county and should also support our present county education system in opposition to any state intervention.

Just because Ocean City pension funds are purportedly better funded than other funds is not a good reason to not be concerned. Our employees fund is estimated to be 86% funded and our public safety fund is estimated to be 82% funded compared to the national average of 73% funded. They too are “The Tallest Midget in the Forest.” The problem is these numbers of 86% and 82% are estimated from assumed growth rates a year of 7%. When you look at actual past growth rates, you can cherry pick time frames to measure the funds’ annual performance, for example 10-year averages or 15-year averages, when fund annual performance was higher. However, if we base our future estimates for fund growth on the long-term past performance, it would be significantly lower.

Five years ago, I had numerous arguments with former Finance Administrator Martha Bennett in her office and in public on this very problem of overestimating fund growth. It is a national problem and the main reason analysts predict shortfalls in the future but politicians across the nation seem not to care. The council at that time voted to reduce the future estimated growth rate of the two funds from 7.5% to 7% annually.

I went back and calculated the average annual growth rate for our funds over 30 years and found it was 3.6%, not 7%, significantly less than we are currently assuming. If we lowered our assumed annual growth rate to 3.6% the long-term average two things would immediately happen. The estimated funded amounts currently at 86% and 82% would drop to below 50% and the annual obligation of the city to the funds would double, placing political strains on other spending. Yes, the lower the future annual estimated the higher the annual contribution. Politicians across the country have resisted putting more money in to their pension funds choosing instead to stay with unrealistic performance projections.

If we end up in ten or twenty years severely underfunded it would be due to our failure today to have a more realistic, more conservative annual growth rate today, closer to our long-term experience of 3.6%. Being the “Tallest Midget in the Forest” should not give us false comfort regarding the Town’s retirement funds. Mr. Gehrig and Mr. Paddock are right to be concerned and the Counsel should listen. Promptly lowering the assumed growth rate to 5% would cost the city about 60% more a year but could shore up this future potential insolvency.

I have written on this and advocated for a lower assumed growth rate in the funds for years. Now with Mr. Gehrig and Mr. Paddock supporting it maybe it will get some traction. The rub is it would require frugality in other areas.

Tony Christ

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Collection Has High Hopes

Editor:

In an effort to help fulfill the final wishes of the late Anna Foultz, volunteers from Star Charities and many community organizations are planning to make this the biggest collection of Holiday Gifts for Soldiers, a project started by Carl and Anna Foultz.

Some containers are already available and more will be placed around our area and at the meetings of community organizations, along with Ocean Pines Administration Building and Community Center. Containers will have a poster identifying them as the place for your donations. Gifts will be collected until Oct. 31. Volunteers will collect the containers and gifts, taking them to a central location organized by Barb Peletier of Star Charities. The National Guard will pick up your donations from the central point which they hope is bulging with gifts by the end of this drive which is also the final activity of Star Charities All Volunteers.

A list of the most requested items will be posted on each container and includes baby powder, foot powder, chewing gum, powdered Crystal lite ice tea or Gatorade, Slim Jims, nuts, games like checkers, backgammon, chess, dominos, tooth paste and brushes, feminine products, white or black cotton socks, feminine products, small paperbacks, sealed and non-perishable snacks, etc. No perishable items, glass, hotel samples (as they are not marked with ingredients that might cause allergies) and no pork products should be placed in the containers.

To quote Anna, “Do your part to help the Heroes who keep America free and God Bless all of you.” For more information about Holiday Gifts for Soldiers, contact Barbara Peletier at 443-896-4914.

Carol Ludwig

Ocean Pines

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Purple Effort A Success

Editor:

As the Events Coordinator for Worcester Goes Purple, I would like to personally thank the Worcester County government, town governments, businesses, the recovery community and every Worcester County Citizen who has participated in Worcester Goes Purple for September 2019, National Recovery Month.

For me this has been a truly amazing and emotional journey. I have met so many wonderful people that I now call my friends. There have been many highs and lows. Holding the hand of a mother who lost her son during a candlelight vigil, having a sister tell you that she lost her brother three weeks ago to a drug overdose, listening to a parent in the depths of despair describe the havoc that their child in active addiction is making in their family, hearing stories of shame from family members that think it is somehow their fault and then having a guy in recovery tell you with the biggest smile that he has been clean for 113 days.

Worcester Goes Purple will only become bigger and stronger in the months to come. We need your help. Each one of us can make a difference by keeping the conversation going. No one agency or person can solve this epidemic themselves. It does truly take a community. Thank you again for making Worcester County a place that we can be proud to call home and share hope and recovery from addiction with everyone.

Debbie Smullen

Berlin

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Supporters Appreciated

Editor:

On behalf of the Board of Directors, staff and most importantly, the children we serve, The Cricket Center would like to publicly thank the following supporters.

Bike Week: Kathy Michael, Chase Michael and Lisa Layfield (Ocean City Chamber of Commerce)

Wine on the Beach: Christina Stokes extended her support again this year

Bliss Salon Cut-a-Thon: Gina Shaffer and Cassandra Pike generously donated their time, talent and salon to help us

As a result of their generosity, $28,500 was raised and donated to The Cricket Center.

The CRICKET (Child Resource Intervention Center Kids Empowerment Team) Center is a child-friendly, safe and neutral location in which local law enforcement and Child Protective Services investigators may conduct and observe forensic interviews with children who are alleged victims of crimes. The Cricket Center provides child and non-offending family members support, crisis intervention, trauma-based therapy and medical intervention.

The Cricket Center is Worcester County’s only Child Advocacy Center (CAC) and fully accredited by the National Children’s Alliance.

Without the support of our local community it would be incredibly difficult to fulfil our mission to create a community response in which abusers are held accountable and children and families experience hope and healing.

Thank you to all who came out to support us and we look forward to your attendance at our 4th Annual Evening at The Hobbit on Oct. 27.

Wendy Myers

Berlin

(The writer is the executive director of The Cricket Center.)