Posted on 07/11/2012 6:16:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
San Bernardino’s City Council voted to become the third California city this year to file for bankruptcy, as it struggles with declining tax revenue, growing employee costs and accounting discrepancies in its ledgers.
The council voted 4 to 2, with one abstention, last night to authorize a filing under Chapter 9 of U.S. bankruptcy law. The city of 209,000, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, is so broke it can’t make its Aug. 15 payroll, interim City Manager Andrea Travis-Miller said.
“If the employees are not paid on Aug. 15, on Aug. 16 there will be a mass exodus of city employees,” City Attorney James Penman told the council before the vote. “People are not going to work when they don’t get paid. Most of our employees will not show up to work. That would include police, fire, refuse, everybody. The city will virtually shut down.”
A San Bernardino filing would follow Stockton, a community of 292,000 east of San Francisco, which on June 28 became the biggest U.S. city to go into bankruptcy. Mammoth Lakes, a mountain resort of 8,200, filed for protection from creditors on July 3 saying it can’t afford to pay a $43 million judgment, more than twice its general-fund spending for the year.
The Chapter 9 filing would allow the city to suspend payments to creditors while it seeks court approval for a plan that balances its revenue with its debt. Travis-Miller said a filing could take a month to prepare.
Confronting a $45 million budget shortfall, San Bernardino is facing insolvency because of accounting errors, deficit spending, pension and debt costs, and lack of revenue growth, according to a June 26 budget analysis posted on the city’s website.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
So goes California...so goes the nation. Sad!
This should be great for business.
Not to mention all those small business’s contracted by the city that won’t get paid.
Hey Obama. Let’s raise taxes and do away with the Bush tax cuts. Lets raise the cost of Medicare too , and lets not forget bringing in more illegals to add to the cost.
America on the right track.
The right track to bankruptcy.
My personal belief is that law enforcement ought to be a do-it-yourself affair. With enough George Zimmermans, I think crime rates will be low -- but local governments have to accept that citizens will have to do a lot to protect themselves without risking prosecution.
Welcome to the real world, mr. City Attorney, where businesses fail and go bust when run by idiots, incompetents, or because of bad luck.
Fire the ones that don't show up, figure out a sustainable budget, and hire new ones. Fire the incompetents who made accounting errors. Live in the real world, and learn from the pain.
But alas, that's not going to happen. Some corrupt scheme of higher taxes, fees, strikes, bailouts, debt, bonds, whining, cries of racism, unfairness, et cetera by democrats will make the situation worse.
If you want to know how to do that, pick any county in WV that has only one stoplight. Services are minimal along with the taxes.
The only way to minimize government is to choke the cash flow. Otherwise politicians will always use the money to pander to the public.
This is just the beginning. First the cities, then the counties, an then the state.
Municipal workers may or may not show up for work. Homeowners and honest working citizens will be sitting ducks for criminals. I would fire any worker who didn't show up but I don't know what the legal restrictions are.
Businesses that supply the City will by denied payment. Some will probably lay off workers or close down. Home values will decline. Revenues will decline.
There are several other cities in California and other states in the same situation.
The State of California is effectively bankrupt.
The house of cards is falling apart. Once people realize how bad the situation is and stop lending to cities it will get much worse.
Hey, I got a great idea. Lets spend a 100 billion on a railroad. That oughta fix the problem.
—My personal belief is that law enforcement ought to be a do-it-yourself affair. —
I tend to agree. I sometimes wonder what homeowners in communities in Denver that were in the path of the fire would have done if there were no firefighters. Or how about the brush fires in California that consume so many homes?
Remember the single house that survived in one neighborhood because of the roofing compound it used? And what about doing all you can to remove combustibles around all the homes as the fire approaches? Imagine everyone in each neighborhood working to make the neighborhood effectively “hardened against” the fire entering it.
I’m just thinking out loud here. But the bottom line is as people become dependent, they lose the ability to think for themselves and even entertain the notion that they may have some power to prevent catastrophe.
I lived in Pinetop, AZ over a winter in the early 70s. It’s a mountain community at 7,500 ft and gets LOTS of snow. When the money ran out, they simply stopped plowing the roads around March. Fiscal prudence used to be the rule of the day.
Brown&Co.just need to raise more taxes that will fix everything like it has worked so well in the past.
/s
Just a few years back this was the fastest growing county in the nation.
Of the top 10 employers in San Bernadino, only TWO are Private business. The largest Private Employer is a GROCERY STORE CHAIN, Stater Bros.
The other is a hospital.
HELLO PEOPLE....
Democrats ran out the private businesses!!
Of the top 10 employers in San Bernadino, only TWO are Private business.
The largest Private Employer is a GROCERY STORE CHAIN, Stater Bros.
The other is a hospital.
HELLO PEOPLE....
Democrats ran out the private businesses!!
“If the employees are not paid on Aug. 15, on Aug. 16 there will be a mass exodus of city employees,” City Attorney James Penman told the council before the vote. “People are not going to work when they don’t get paid. Most of our employees will not show up to work. That would include police, fire, refuse, everybody. The city will virtually shut down.”
Well, there’s always “the Scranton Solution”...
That is, reduce each and EVERY employee on the city’s payroll to the minimum wage...
Boy, are the democrats going to regret that the mayor of Scranton ever thought THAT one up!
The place is stuffed with illegals.
” The place is stuffed with illegals.”
Bout time somebody nailed it : )
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