Posted on 05/09/2008 7:54:33 AM PDT by SmithL
The question you have to ask about the officially bankrupt city of Vallejo, and other California cities with similar financial profiles, is this:
Didn't you know something was wrong when you realized you were spending 75 cents of every dollar in the general fund on public safety costs?
In a broader sense, how can any city anywhere make a legitimate claim of vibrancy when so many essential social services are shortchanged?
It seems we're about to find out in Vallejo, a city with a population of 117,000 whose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its finances.
In the meantime, a city already well-known for its lack of basic municipal services, such as filling potholes, seems certain to be in for even leaner times.
Some residents, already up in arms about the city's bankruptcy, don't expect things to get much worse, mainly because city services have been slashed to rock-bottom levels already.
"I think it will be more or less the same," said Vallejo resident Marc Garman, whose Web site, ibvallejo.com, has become a public forum for the city's governmental collapse.
"We have a dearth of services right now," he said.
Even before the council voted on the bankruptcy, Vallejo city officials drastically cut funding to a variety of social services, including those for senior citizens, libraries, museums and the city pool, along with laying off city planners and public works employees.
Vallejo's two county library branches will continue to operate, although probably with reduced service hours to the public, said Ann Cousineau, Solano County's director of library services.
...In addition, services for the city's senior citizens face a minimum 20 percent cut from the current budget of $500,000 a year.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
That is illuminating, thank you.
Won't matter. They will just be replaced with a new group of bums.
The problem is that citizens looking to govt to fix everything they don't like.
That guarantees you will always have bums, and lots of em.
I did a quick addition and that’s about $10.2 million just on the list you posted.
What do you call the entity of Ashford in Kent (UK)?
HF
I’m sure these high salaries have nothing to do with a decent portion of them going to union dues, and then transfered to democrat election campaigns.
Should have seen it coming, just like all the CA liberals “should see it coming” that the entire State of CA is headed for insolvency. But either they are blind, or they simply don’t care.
Thats about 100 dollars a taxpayer, just for those guys. Sheesh.
It is not unthinkable that our federal gov’t will spend 75% of each dollar on entitlements if they meddle any further in health care.
Don’t worry though..... they will just keep borrowing money to ensure no other services or obligations are cut.
San Francisco Bay area, right next door to Marin County.....big saleries are the norm....(also illegal immigration)
LOL!
Our beloved leader Gordon Brown probably calls it "collective tax-farm #1447" but to the rest of us Britons it's just a town, albeit a very fast-growing one.
or ...salarie, if you wish :^
Each State defines what consitutes a city differently as well.
“Can you share the link with us?”
Sorry, no link!
That's almost the cost of two firemen/firepersons !
Thanks for the info though, as it does help to put things in perspective.
Very true - making $150 grand in the Bay Area is like making 70 grand in flyover country...but that’s still a large list of high salaries for a small city like that.
http://agency.governmentjobs.com/vallejo/default.cfm?SearchLetter=F&action=agencyspecs&AgencyID=1108
That is the City of Vallejo’s HR page which lists salaries of firefighters. Looks like they actually make about $81k a yr base salary. The newspapers in California are famous for taking the top income earners in a department and posting it as if it is a regular salary, it is not. Most of the top incomes are made via overtime. The papers never mention it though.
“City” refers to the form of government, not the size. There are also towns and villages, but you can have a village bigger than a town and a town bigger than a city.
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