[absalom01]

This guy is a few cards short of a full deck, I'm thinking....

This caught my eye:
The California city of Vallejo (117,000 inhabitants) has just made history by opting for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the result of tax erosion from a 26pc fall in local house prices.

Yeah, right. It's not a revenue problem, it's a spending problem.

From a local source: (http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/15978)

"The city of Vallejo just fired one huge warning shot for a situation that is going to play out nationwide. Here are the issues.
City and state governments have negotiated salary arrangements that are not affordable. City and state governments have guaranteed pension benefits to teachers, fire fighters, police, and other city and state employees that cannot possibly be met. Taxpayers cannot possibly afford higher taxes to pay bloated pension benefits of government workers in sweetheart deals. "

[the invisib1e hand]

before spreads spiked, they were probably on the “casual” side of an interest rate swap.

[muawiyah]

The city signed contracts and had an obligation to do so in good faith or risk having its officers go to prison.

They screwed up and now think a bankruptcy judge will let them off the hooks. State compensation laws will put those same employees at the head of the line as city hall and the police cars are put on the block.

Taxpayers should have bothered to examine the issues and vote responsibly. Instead, they let the schmooze idiots take over, and this is the mess you get when that happens.

[muawiyah]

The city signed contracts and had an obligation to do so in good faith or risk having its officers go to prison.

They screwed up and now think a bankruptcy judge will let them off the hooks. State compensation laws will put those same employees at the head of the line as city hall and the police cars are put on the block.

Taxpayers should have bothered to examine the issues and vote responsibly. Instead, they let the schmooze idiots take over, and this is the mess you get when that happens.

[RSmithOpt]

So, as usual, folks running things on the Left Coast have a hard time to cutting their spending. Seems to me, the city of Vellejo has the ability to slash its spending, however, guess degrees in Biology, Sociology, The Fine Arts, Geography, Ancient World History, etc., do not have enough math background to assess numbers accurately.

Once again the worlds of Utopia and Reality have a massive train wreck.

Surely with all the PC's and main frames the city of Vallejo uses to run its business can produce numbers that reflect outlays vs incomes on a monthly basis.

Hmmmm...council members too busy with 'Team Building' Retreats on the taxpayers dime to look at the balance sheets???

Yup, Chicom Chia Pet plastic junk is a good investment with flowers and illegal alien freebies.