Mister, we could use a man like Gerald Ford, again!
Posted on 03/07/2012 10:00:02 AM PST by doug from upland
Hey, these cities must not have heard.
We are in a roaring recovery!
Mister, we could use a man like Gerald Ford, again!
“The public employee pension plan is nothing short of a Ponzi scheme. But no one will be arrested.”
Corrected
Since the ‘reforms’ enacted in the early 80’s, almost all employee pension plans are nothing short of a Ponzi scheme. But no one will be arrested.
And if you look at all these states and cities it is very likely that their budgets are currently much larger than they were 10 years ago, particularly on a per capita bases, yet they are now “cut to the bone” when somehow they managed before...
Nice to see Paterson, Newark, and Camden NJ on the list. Socialist toilets brimming withour permanent underclass...Hey Newark, how did that Prudential Arena work out for you? Really had to build another one while there was nothing wrong with the Meadowlands (which despite Essex County’s objections, is still open for business); not a lot of hockey fans showing up to watch the Devils downtown?
It’s all about buying votes.
Don’t forget Birmingham, Alabama
San Fran has the same annual budget as Chicago with a fraction of the population. Speaks volumes.
This piece is over a year old and none of the listed cities declared bankruptcy in 2011.
Why post it now?
Within a short time of building the “Newark Bears” stadium, the residents were complaining about the type of jobs it brought; they didn’t want to sell popcorn, etc.
I understood their point, but at the same time they shouldn’t be biting the hand that feeds; without similar government infusions of cash, Newark would look like Mogadishu (and some of the outer edges do).
Construction jobs like these stadium boondoggles make me sick: The roads and bridges are rotting away (here at least), it would be a better use of money to fix those before stadiums.
Newark is that bad? I had a connecting flight through there ~8-10 years ago, so I didn't get to explore the area. Apparently, I didn't miss much. The mayor, Corey Booker is supposed to be good. Any thoughts on that?
It’s because of pension and benefit costs skyrocketing over the past decade - I suspect that if you compared expenditures of what you would consider to be important government services like emergency services and infrastructure, money going there is actually lower then in years past, and the bulk of the money is going to meet retired employees pension demands instead.
Turn the page to Chapter 9?
Booker is a step up from his predecessor, a thug named Sharpe James who went to prison after ruling Newarks for years. The government took decades to prosecute him, when he was living far beyond any legitimate lifestyle (when asked how he bought a yatch and shore house, his response to the reporter was, “There’s nothing wrong with a black man in America owning a boat or a house”). However, Booker is the same in holding out his hand to the county, state, and federal governments for more money (by which I mean OUR money); he is a leftist who thought he could change things, but old patterns persist. The construction money would certainly be better spent improving the roads & bridges in the area.
Newark is a little better than Detroit because there is still a vibrant downtown (some big companies, along with the schools abd hospitals), but you can’t stay when the sun goes down - it is a “9 to 5” vibrant, then all of the working people flee from the downtown. Crime is under- or unreported, though they couldn’t hide the fact that their murder rate had gone up a couple of years ago (buses and billboards screamed “STOP THE KILLING”, much to Booker’s chagrin; he was elected in part to reduce the crime).
Newark is rapidly becoming more Hispanic (like most of NJ’s cities), and that is where there hope lies; there is no assumed right to other people’s money, and the people in general are harder working (the Hispanic areas of the city are faring better than the “other” areas, with lots of businesses). It may take a few more years, but Booker may end up being the last black mayor of Newark.
In Ohio we voted down the proposition that may have saved these 216 firefighters in Cincinati. It’s good to know we have money for that street car, bilingual signs downtown and city worker benefits for same sex partners.
These are the first dominoes.
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