"It also cited talk of bankruptcy by City Attorney Mike Aguirre and mayoral candidates..."
When they start to use the word "bankruptcy" you know it is inevitable. Maybe the State of California will eventually get the message that runaway spending is not a good policy unless you are willing to pay the confiscatory taxes that are needed to support it.
I can just imagine when all the baby boomer government workers retire. At 80% of their highest earning year of course.. and maybe the killer full health benefits through old age for them and their family.
Its sad but in some areas if you literally eliminated say schooling, it wouldn't dramatically reduce the education budget.. As in some cases 50% of the budget is pensions, and most of the rest of the teachers and administrators are near retirement, so would get pensions anyway.
And maybe more worrying its also in things like the CIA.
Only one of the serious candidates (Pat Shea) is saying bankruptcy. He was involved in climbing Orange County out of its fiscal meltdown in the 90's and his wife Diane was the one on the pension board that blew the whistle on San Diego's fraudulent practices. The others are rearranging deck chairs or saying "golly gee, I don't know enough yet but elect me anyway."