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As of March 31, 2010, the System had contractual commitments totaling $6.626 billion to fund future private equities and $4.709 billion to fund future real estate investments

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Compliance and Other MattersAs part of obtaining reasonable assurance about whether the System’s financial statements are free of material misstatement, we performed tests of its compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements, noncompliance with which could have a direct and material effect on the determination of financial statement amounts. However, providing an opinion on compliance with those provisions was not an objective of our audit and, accordingly, we do not express such an opinion. The results of our tests disclosed no instances of noncompliance or other matters that are required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards. KPMG LLP 515 Broadway Albany, NY 12207 KPMG LLP, is a Delaware limited liability partnership, the U.S. member firm of KPMG International, a Swiss entity.
58  Financial New York State and Local Retirement System
2010
I
ndependent Auditors’ Report on Internal Control (continued)
Wenoted certain matters that we reported to management of the System in a separate letter dated July 12,2010. This report is intended solely for the information and use of the Trustee and management and is not intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than these specified parties

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Since 1986, the Fund has generated additional income by lending a portion of its assets to
qualified counter-parties. Fixed income, domestic equity and international equity securities are available for loan. The Fund’s securities lending program earned $54 million in revenue for the year.

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New York State
Mortgage Pass-Through Program
Since 1981, the Fund has purchased New York only mortgage pools through the New York State Mortgage Pass-Through Program. Investing in these mortgages has allowed the Fund to assist in providing home ownership opportunities for more than 80,200 New York State residents. Since the program’s inception, the Fund has invested over $9.7 billion in New York only mortgages.
Under the current structure, Federal Agencies create and insure pools of single-family mortgage loans originated by traditional lenders, most of which are located in New York State. During the past year, the Fund purchased $499 million in mortgages, which assisted approximately 2,500 New Yorkers in purchasing homes.

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Affordable Housing
Permanent Loan Program
Since 1991, the Fund has played a major role in improving the lives of thousands of residents while strengthening their neighborhoods. Through programs with the Community Preservation Corporation and the JP Morgan Chase Community Development Corporation, the Fund has been able to provide moderate-income and low-income families across the State with the opportunity to rent affordable housing. By purchasing permanent mortgages, the Fund provides for the production of affordable new multifamily housing and the revitalization of deteriorated or obsolete housing units. Special housing for the State’s senior citizens and other constituencies with special needs is also part of the program. Since inception of this program, 11,776 units have been completed.
As of year end, the program has over 3,100 units in the pipeline — a 19 percent increase over last year — and has invested $442.5 million in mortgages.
During the last year, the Fund invested in affordable housing throughout the State, including Albany, Dutchess, Niagara, Onondaga, Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, Saratoga, Ulster and Westchester Counties.

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Helping NY/
Equity Real Estate Investments
The Fund invests in New York State commercial real estate properties through a mix of investment structures such as joint ventures, commingled funds and club fund investments. The Fund owns shopping centers, office buildings, residential properties and hotels. Through these investment vehicles, the Fund has been able to acquire, develop, re-lease and reposition properties that are in need of upgrading with the goal of increasing property values.
This portfolio of New York properties has been negatively impacted as has the entire real estate portfolio, due to the global economic crisis.

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Representative investments and platforms in this New York portfolio include the development and
stabilization of a 361-unit rental apartment building that set aside 20 percent of the units for affordable rental housing pursuant to NYC’s Housing Preservation and Development’s 421-a program. They also include investment in the Excelsior Real Estate Funds, an investment fund that makes value-added investments in New York State. Excelsior focuses on multifamily, office, senior housing, retail and other primary property types and is designed to invest in ground-up development, redevelopment and repositioning of commercial property throughout the State.
The Fund has also invested in the development of workforce for-sale housing in the New York State
and Tri-State regions.
Together with the New York City pension funds,
the Fund invests in a club fund with a mandate to invest across all real estate asset classes, including office, multifamily residential and retail within the five boroughs.
New York Business
Development Corporation
The Fund provides the New York Business Development Corporation (NYBDC) with funds to make loans to small businesses for working capital,
equipment or real property. NYBDC has a goal
of making at least 25 percent of its loans to women-
or minority-owned businesses. With its focus on
small business lending, NYBDC can frequently
offer more favorable terms than other lenders.
Since the

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New York Business
Development Corporation
The Fund provides the New York Business Development Corporation (NYBDC) with funds to make loans to small businesses for working capital,
equipment or real property. NYBDC has a goal
of making at least 25 percent of its loans to women-
or minority-owned businesses. With its focus on
small business lending, NYBDC can frequently
offer more favorable terms than other lenders.
Since the program began in 1987, NYBDC has made 892 loans totaling $263.9 million to businesses that employ over 18,000 New Yorkers. Last year, NYBDC made 37 loans totaling $15 million.

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ExxonMobil • — The Comptroller filed a proposal asking the company to amend its
Equal Employment Opportunity policy to explicitly ban discrimination based upon
sexual orientation and gender identity.
AIG• —

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A bill that alters public pension benefits must be initiated by the State Legislature, approved by both the Assembly and Senate, and signed into law by the governor. The pages in this section provide summaries of recent state laws that impacted NYSTRS benefits, as well as information about pending legislation of interest to members.

New York State Legislature
New York State Assembly Bill Search — Follow the progress of bills through both houses of the State Legislature.

New York State Senate — Site includes live video feeds from sessions of the State Senate.

Quoted from bumblethru

Your post hit on an option.....home schooling. I have met many families that home school their children and I  must say that these kids are much brighter, politer, more social, if you can believe that, but true.... and yes even a bit more religious/morals/values than public schooled kids.

Perhaps there could be some incentives made through taxes/deductions to encourage more parents to take on the task of home schooling.

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TREASON: "Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason." Sir John Harrington, 1561-1612
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The Who and How they Own and Control it All!

by Walter Burien

December 15th 2009





I will note that the most important fact the people need to know is that in collective totals government (thousands of individual government entities) owns by stock ownership; bond participation; and equity participation most of the large public traded companies such as technology; pharmaceuticals; energy; banks; insurance; and war industry groups through collective ownership (in many a case 71% to 83% ownership)

There is no one individual government entity that will call the shots for these companies (even though some carry more clout than others) but there are private associations that network thousands of local and federal government accounts that have been assigned representative proxy vote rights for the thousands they represent and here is where the control rests.

By proxy vote representing the "collective" primary shareholders they can exert pressure for that company to do as told and if not they can remove the board of directors by representative proxy vote. On the other hand they can network millions if not billions of dollars of government investment capital for direction and investment with any company.



So, no matter from which side you look at it, the control factor is there.. Do a search for what financial consulting "private associations" with nice government sounding acronyms your many different local governments belongs to and the patterns of control will start coming into view.



For the CAFR local government's Annual Financial Report, the two primary private associations that call the shots by direction and consult are GFOA (Government Financial Officers Association) and GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board). Find the common denominators for your local government pensions (which in collective totals are in the trillions of dollars) and here is where the collective power is exerted.

Local and federal entities are restricted from owning individually more that 5% of any company, but by networking their 5% with hundreds if not thousands of other local and federal investment portfolios through these private associations, they bypass any restrictions per monopoly and exerting undue influence on the companies they collectively own. Understanding this is VERY important to comprehend how the undercurrents of control are exerted.



On another note, most people don't realize the Democratic and Republican parties are 100% "private associations" designed from the get-go to have their people placed for access to the massive capital flow running through government. (Standing at 15 trillion dollars collective gross income generated each years for local and federal as of 2007 from all sources).  

You have to ask yourself "What is the intent of these private associations and our government officials?" Is it to make your life better or to enrich themselves giving the "impression" they are there to make your life better.. Well, it does not take to high of an IQ to see the end result of their intent played out in final result. Easy money has brought us to a point of massive theft. Not just of our property and income but also in our environment to maintain a healthy and good life-style.



It does not matter if 95% of us have good intent, when that 3% factor can steal it all in obscurity maintained, there is a slight tad bit of a problem for us all. The new CAFR1 documentary soon to be released will address this problem and offer definitive remedy that can be applied to correct this circumstance, and improve vastly the economy we are living in. (Worldwide application will apply here also)

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HOW WAGES ARE SET

Individual workers compete against workers. "I'll work for less," says a worker. Individual employers compete against employers. "I'll pay more," says an employer. Out of this competition arises an array of wages.

The concept is simple, but it is not widely understood. That is because high school and college textbooks in economics and history, written mainly for tax-funded institutions, do not present an economic analysis of wage formation that begins with individual decision-making. They do not begin with the decisions of individuals. They begin with aggregates. This is the Keynesian model. Collectives determine the economy; individuals do not – not where it counts, anyway, which is at the margin.

The proponents of government-licensed coercion by trade unions, which includes all members of textbook-authorization committees, paint the free market as a place where collectives called employers compete against collectives called workers. Economic analysis does not support this theory of wage formation, but the proponents of legalized trade union coercion have always ignored economic analysis. They accept the position of the unions' public relations departments.

Textbooks describe employers as trying to drive down wages. They never present employers as acting on behalf of customers. The employers are presented as exploiters of labor in general. But how do they exploit labor in general? By offering jobs to specific workers at specific wages. Some worker says, "I'll work for less." Some employer says, "You've got a deal."

The textbooks do not mention the worker who is willing to work for less, but who is prevented from doing so by a union contract. They mention only the exploiting employer who somehow forces workers to accept low wages when there is no union. But he can do this only because there are takers of his offer. When one worker fills the job slot, another worker must look elsewhere. This is competition. It is basic to every area of life, beginning with marriage.

But the process also works the other way. When an employer offers too little, another employer can lure away workers by offering more. In the history textbooks, this is always presented as the result of the successful bargaining of a union. The textbook does not discuss what happens to the non-union members who are not permitted by law to make competitive bids.

Elizabeth Warren has no clue as to how the labor market works. She also has no clue about how the debt markets work. She blames the bankers for the extension of credit to consumers. Oh, woe! The poor, exploited consumers!