Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Impending bankruptcy threatens California cities
The Corsair ^ | 9/27/12 | William Duggan

Posted on 09/29/2012 8:30:17 AM PDT by Kartographer

But faced with re-election or difficult labor negotiations, some leaders are content to turn a blind eye to deep structural problems, according to Caravalho. “It just gets too hard,” Caravalho said. “Some officials just don’t understand a city budget. They’re not always transparent, and maybe that’s on purpose.” Even during the course of bankruptcy, sometimes little is done to change policies or politicians that contributed to fiscal emergencies in the first place. “I don’t know if executives have enough to lose,” Caravalho said. In the end, Cole summed up the fundamental problem facing California’s cities by invoking former President Clinton’s remark about simple arithmetic at this year’s Democratic National Convention. “There are diverging trends of revenue and expenses,” Cole said. “[Without reform,] the California we are living in will be poorer, grimmer, and more unsafe than it is today.”

(Excerpt) Read more at thecorsaironline.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: california
The NEW ballad of Jed Clampett
Come and listen to a story ‘bout a man named Jed
Poor oil entrepreneur barely kept his family fed
Then one day he was working for some food,
And up through the town come a bumbling clown
(Brown that is, take a toke, what a joke)

Well the first thing you know old Jed’s taxes are to much to bear,
Kin folk said Jed move away from there!
Said Kalifornia is no place for you to be
So they loaded up the truck and they moved from Beverly
(go’n back to the Hills they are, fish’n holes, country and western stars)

Well now it’s time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin
They would like to thank you folks for kindly dropping in
You’re all invited back again to their new locality
To have a heaping helping of their hospitality
(Redneck Hillbillies, is what the press call ‘em now,
Clingers of bibles and guns and to Obama no bow!
Nice folks Y’all come back now, ya hear?)

1 posted on 09/29/2012 8:30:21 AM PDT by Kartographer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kartographer
Ever have a relative who ruins his life in the knowledge that he has family to save his sorry ass when his health and finances are finally and totally depleted?

Work hard like a dumb bastard to support the shiftless bastard who laughs at your dumb bastard ass? What else can you do?

2 posted on 09/29/2012 8:39:56 AM PDT by Happy Rain ("Mitt who? I'm voting for Ryan.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kartographer

Kalifornia is in a death spiral. It will not take many more election cycles before it becomes fully integrated with Mexico.

Bankruptcies will become commonplace for the cities there. Poor people and state dependents don’t have any money of their own. The elites will get all they deserve IF they stay. Eventually even they will have their guts full as the peasants takeover accelerates over and over.

We all know this of course.

A builder friend of mine keeps saying that he has never done a remodel or built a house for a poor person.


3 posted on 09/29/2012 8:44:53 AM PDT by Sequoyah101
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kartographer

California is living proof that this State has the most ignorant asses in the Country and they are all Democrat hard core leftist communists.


4 posted on 09/29/2012 8:46:38 AM PDT by Logical me
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Logical me
"California is living proof that this State has the most ignorant asses in the Country and they are all Democrat hard core leftist communists."

And when the whole state goes bankrupt where do you thing they will go looking for another bailout? And that's going to be a really big battle that we have to fight tooth and nail with every weapon at out disposal.

5 posted on 09/29/2012 8:52:51 AM PDT by circlecity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Kartographer
Lenin said we will sell them the rope we use to hang them...

...we will bail out the bankrupt Leftist states like California thus putting our necks that much quicker in the Cloward/Piven noose...

...word from the upcoming American Gulag.

6 posted on 09/29/2012 8:55:59 AM PDT by Happy Rain ("Mitt who? I'm voting for Ryan.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: trussell; Kartographer

ping for rotf!!


7 posted on 09/29/2012 9:06:07 AM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sequoyah101
Kalifornia is in a death spiral.

Yes, so thank goodness the Democrat state legislature is rushing to pass laws dealing with the really important stuff like circumcision, Feng Shui building codes, plastic bags, Happy Meals, faggot history for kindergardners, etc., etc.

8 posted on 09/29/2012 9:16:42 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kartographer
California. Impending bankruptcy. Who knew.
9 posted on 09/29/2012 9:29:33 AM PDT by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kartographer

10 posted on 09/29/2012 9:49:40 AM PDT by SkyPilot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All
Where do Califunians dig up the people they elect?

CONGRESSMAN COLLUDED IN THE BILLION DOLLAR SUB-PRIME DEBACLEThe Congressional Hispanic Institute, Inc, is an entity organized by Cong Joe Baca (D-Cali) in his capacity as head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Cong Baca created "HOGAR" (Spanish for home) in 2003 to work with the mortgage industry, lender and banks and latino community groups to increase mortgage lending to what savvy observers considered to be unqualified Latinos.

"HOGAR" colluded w/ Cong Baca in what was to become a massive bilking of taxpayers. Cong Baca calculatedly hyped the fact that the national Latino homeownership rate was 47%, compared with 68% for the overall population.

HOGAR was coached to call the figure "alarming," and to say "a concerted effort was required to ensure that by the end of the decade Latinos will share equally in the American Dream of home ownership."

HOGAR and Cong Baca conned the public, failing to note that most of the "dreamers" were illegals, citizens of Third World countries who had violated US borders.

Predictably, HOGAR colluded w/ co-conspirators which included:

(a) shaky mortgage companies that ran into big trouble;

(b) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both now under federal control after billions in taxpayer bailouts;

(c) Countrywide Financial Corp., sold to Bank of America Corp;

(d) Washington Mutual Inc., taken over by the US government and sold to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; and,

(e) New Century Financial Corp. and Ameriquest Mortgage Corp, both now defunct, killed by defaulted subprime Latino mortgages.

HOGAR's ties to the subprime mortgage industry were substantial. Bribery and self-dealing were rampant:

<><> Companies that donated $150,000 to Cong Baca got the right to have their own research fellow who would conduct fraudulent studies, which were cunningly used by industry lobbyists to pump lending.

<><> Bribery and extortion in the form of $100,000 annual donations to Cong Baca, for which HOGAR provided phony news releases from Cong Baca's Hispanic Caucus promoting a lender's commercial products to the Latino market,

<><> The most shocking example of bribery well-substantitated by Hogar's literature..... HOGAR announced it worked with Freddie Mac on a self-serving two-year examination of Latino homeownership in 63 congressional districts.

The "study" found Hispanic ownership on the rise thanks to "new flexible mortgage loan products" that the industry was adopting at the urging of Cong Baca's collusive coterie.

<><> HOGAR conned lenders into even more lenient down-payment and underwriting standards.

<><> As the subprime debacle unfolded, HOGAR declined repeated requests for comment despite the economic havoc their activities precipitated.

The mortgage schemes demonstrated the criminal activities of border violators with multiple identities---perhaps violent, terrorist-connected foreigners---colluding and conspiring to defraud private companies and public entities. And mortgage racketeering enterprises which employed sub rosa finance and business practices to carry out deceptions and frauds.

The alleged ring of swindlers---a Congresman, individuals with multiple identities, banks, insurance companies, mortgage nrokers--might be charged with cheating the US govt, taxpayers and bank share holders out of hundreds of millions of dollars via an elaborate web of mortgage and bank frauds.

The mortgage Dreamers used multiple phony identities, fraudulent Social Security numbers, purchased from identity forgers in order to obtain govt-subsidized benefits.

L/E will find that individuals with multiple identities obtained fraudulent mortgages then flipped the houses at ever-higher prices to family member who then absconded to foreign countries, sticking banks (and taxpayers) with hundreds of millions in fraudulent mortgages.

BACKGROUND A Wall Street Journal investigative report related that, according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council examination of the borrowing spree, uncovered financial schemes by low-income housing groups, Hispanic lawmakers, a congressional Hispanic housing initiative, mortgage lenders and brokers, all colluding in fraduent schemes to increase homeownership among Latinos with forged documents which enabled massive fraud.

This was not simply the mortgage market at work. It was fueled by avarice, greed, and Congressional enabling fraudulent practices. In 2005 alone, mortgages to Hispanics jumped by 29%; Latinos with multiple fraudulent identities in low-paying jobs obtained subprime mortgages for prime properties---soaring to 169%.

(Research provided by Wall Street Journal. Some material excerpted from the NY Times.

11 posted on 09/29/2012 10:44:48 AM PDT by Liz ("Come quickly, I'm tasting the stars." Dom Perignon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: All
(CALI) Montebello officials find 2nd off-the-books bank account / LAT / February 17, 2011

Montebello, Cali govt officials said they discovered yet a.n.o.t.h.e.r secret off-the-books bank account that once contained nearly $1 million in city govt funds and now has only $5,000.

Interim City Manager Peter Cosentini told The LA Times that officials do not know why the secret account was created, why it was never recorded on the city's general ledger or what happened to the govt money that was transferred out. Cosentini said one signator on the secret account was former City Manager Richard Torres. That is not in keeping with city policy, which generally requires the treasurer to be a signator, not the city manager. The bank holding the secret account refused to disclose to the city who the other two signators are.

These revelations about a secret Union Bank account follow news of an off-the-books account at Banco Popular that officials discovered a few weeks ago. That account contained about $240,000 govt monies; officials also discovered records that indicated tens of thousands of govt dollars had been transferred out. They do not know to whom or why.

City govt's official banker is Bank of the West. "We will get to the bottom of this," Cosentini said. He said officials have asked for bank statements and records and are hoping to reconstruct what happened. They have also queried every member of the govt finance department to ask if they know of any other off-the-books accounts.

The Union Bank account came to light when an employee spontaneously alerted the finance director. Officials found out about the Banco Popular account when the bank contacted city govt because the account had been dormant for a while. "It is proven that there is govt money that we cannot account for.

Why were these govt accounts off the books?" City Councilwoman Christina Cortez said, adding that she wants a "forensic audit of everything" in the city.The news about the secret accounts comes as Montebello struggles to close a deficit that could force officials to make deep service cuts and lay off employees.

BTW, criminal probes have begun in San Bernardino agencies for possible govt fraud.

=============================================

Here's how pols loot and pillage the govt in Illinois: Dixon, Ill's dumb accountants, mayor and council failed to miss $53 million govt monies stolen by an insider---the Dixon, Ill govt comptroller.

The dumb*** Mayor never figured there was a secret bank account into which the Comptroller deposited govt funds. Trying to explain how that much money could disappear unnoticed, braindead Mayor James Burke said Dixon has struggled financially because "the state" is far behind on income tax disbursements to munis.....(now there's a red flag is there ever was one).

How Comptroller Rita Crundwell could sustain such an extravagant lifestyle on an $80,000 salary was mostly attributed to her success in the horse industry, the dumbest Mayor in the world stupidly said. "She definitely was a trusted employee, although I've had some suspicion for quite a while just because of her lifestyle," Burke said in an interview.

A Chicago-based corruption watchdog, the Better Govt Association, called Dixon a wakeup call for state and local officials to put in place better safeguards, especially in smaller towns that lack rigorous oversight.

"Tens of billions of our tax dollars flow through 7,000 plus units of government in Illinois every year. And we can only watch a few of them," said the association's president, Andy Shaw. "Most of them don't have inspector generals. Most of them don't have auditor generals. Most of them don't have watchdog groups looking closely.... It's ripe for rip-offs."

===============================================

Here's an astoundingly brazen larceny -- $5.7 million was electronically emptied out of the coffers of Columbia University into an employee's bank account. Now, several university employees are on trial----accused of funneling the stolen millions into the Bank account of alleged mastermind George Castro, 49, in collusion w/ two workers in the university's accounts payable dept..... allegedly altering a routing code and other info connected to payments slated to go from the university's medical center to an affiliate hospital.

The money never reached its destination. "Within six weeks, over $5 million meant for New York Presbyterian Hospital found it's way into the employee's Bank account," prosecutors said.

when nabbed, one university employee was carrying bags of money -- $200,000 in cash -- into his new $80,000 Audi as cops busted him outside his Bronx residence..... he and his co-defendants had at that point thrown hundreds of thousands of stolen dollars into failed day trading investments. One accounting dept insider pled guilty to grand larceny and is hoping to avoid jail by testifying against the four defendants and his accounts payable co-conspirator.

SOURCE http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/columbia_thieves_argue_just_appeared_92qi6lln0jET37UTxcSjqI#ixzz216mFvb64

12 posted on 09/29/2012 10:46:46 AM PDT by Liz ("Come quickly, I'm tasting the stars." Dom Perignon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: SkyPilot
"California. Impending bankruptcy. Who knew. "

How long has it been impending for now? Never seems to happen. We should invent a name for the process. How about "kicking the can down the road"?

13 posted on 09/29/2012 11:33:23 AM PDT by I am Richard Brandon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: I am Richard Brandon
This is the 5th or 6th California city to actually declare bankruptcy. The entire state is not far along. Illinois is in even worse shape.

I believe that these states will go bankrupt before the Federal government will, because they cannot print money. What they have done is manipulate municipal bonds and cooked the books for years. IT cannot continue. In fact, all it would take is a small tremor, and the entire municipal bond market Ponzi scheme could collapse.

I also believe that the powers that be can keep the shenanigans going for about 2 more years, maybe less. After that, God help us all.

14 posted on 09/29/2012 12:02:57 PM PDT by SkyPilot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Kartographer

California should elect more democrats and rise taxes that will fix everything /s


15 posted on 09/29/2012 12:31:00 PM PDT by jpsb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson