Posted on 11/14/2008 4:12:37 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
Mayors of three cities hit hardest by the economic crisis — Philadelphia, Atlanta and Phoenix — asked the federal government Friday for a piece of the $700 billion bailout package, saying they need help just like financial institutions.
Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia said he wants "to make sure that cities and metro areas are at the table, that their voices are being heard, that our challenges and problems are well understood, so that we can get relief."
The mayors proposed providing loans to help cities pay pension costs. They also want $50 billion in loans for infrastructure investments and additional one-year loans to cities that are unable to borrow cash because of tight credit markets.
"The future prosperity of this country is tied directly to our ability to provide basic services and quality infrastructure to our citizens," Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote in a letter to Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. "We are at serious risk in failing in that most basic public responsibility."
President-elect Barack Obama has also called for some sort of aid to state and local governments so they do not have to raise taxes or lay off workers while the federal government tries to revive the economy. But he has not proposed or endorsed a specific plan.
Also on Friday, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said he planned to make a separate request for $14 billion of the bailout package to pay for mass transit improvements and expansion of the area's clean-technology businesses.
"If the federal government is going to be doling out money, we'll be asking for our fair share," Reed said. "As the 10th largest city in the country, we should at least get 2 percent. That would be fair."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
City Council Wants $10B Bailout For Detroit
DETROIT - The Detroit City Council voted on a non-binding resolution Wednesday that asks for a $10 billion bailout for the city.
The resolution was not on the city council’s agenda and was brought up at the end of the meeting by Council President Pro Tem JoAnn Watson.
Watson said the city needs the funds to spread offer more employment, improve transportation and rebuild the crumbling housing industry in the area.
They make idiotic concessions to the unions that fill their campaign coffers and then they want out of state taxpayers to pay the bill for the pensions. Outrageous. Of course the congress will give it to them. We are so screwed in this country until we overthrow the congress and lock them all up.
I think the back of the line is now in Louisville, Ky and extends to Washington.
Three little kittens, they lost their mittens....
three blind mice (rats)....
see how they run.....
“No Way, ‘Ay!” (/The Brews Bros.)
Thanks jorge you and Paulson sure have laid one in this country.
When you give away your future, it eventually catches up. The pensions and pay structures need to be roled back and the unions abolished.
Socialism is a slippery slope.
This whole bailout thing is becoming surreal! Mismanaged huge cities, very blue ones, choose to buy votes and expect the red part of the country to pay for it. Meanwhile here in Oklahoma two of our largest banks told the Feds to kiss off, they didn’t want nor need their money, their investments were solid. I guess the stupid folks out here in flyover county, clinging to our guns, our bibles and our self sufficiency are truly to be pitied, we have to bail the very people who think so poorly of us.
Every state and local government in the US is well aware of the trouble they are in and the trouble that lies ahead. They should already be cutting and slashing to the bone. Of course, substantially reducing government is simply “not an option” for most of them. They will just put a hand out for the handout.
I don’t know who runs Phoenix, but those Democratic idiots who ran Atlanta and Philly deserve nothing, nada, zilch.
And to the stupid citizens of those cities who voted for them, simmer in your own cesspool that you made by voting for these jerks. You never learn and you never will, so why should I, as a taxpayer, pay for your stupidity?
In fact, if you’d just disappear off the face of the earth, I’d be very happy. I’ll just go to Phila. and get my photos out of Temple Un.’s sports hall and one very special fossil from the Geology Dept., then, drop dead.
Stop paying for services and other goodies for Illegal Aliens,
lower city employee salaries/perks,
stop printing official papers in multiple languages,
scrub all unnecessary "feel good" programs.
etc.,
Anyone know what the common denominator of all 4 of these major cities is?
Who ISN’T asking for a bail out....besides you and me???
Just wow.
Big cites are an epic failure. The socialist democrat polictics that sustain them creates a permanently-dependent underclass while simultaneously keeping the cost of living artificially high. You’d think people would have figured this out by now.
Give me a break!
They can do it just like the rest of the cities do. Cut the pothole fixin to a minimum and defer snow removal until after the 4th of July.
Just like my employer is doing. They're trying to avoid layoffs (among other things) but recognize that they have to take measures NOW to succeed.
Just a wild guess. They are all democrat run.
Hehe, silly mayors, they actually think this money is for anyone other than Goldman Sachs? Grow up.
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