Posted on 06/03/2009 9:32:47 PM PDT by SmithL
The Assembly today approved a union-backed bill that would prohibit cities and counties from filing for bankruptcy without state approval.
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Unions want the state to weigh in on bankruptcies because the filings could void union contracts cities and counties have with workers.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
We have been totally had, the public employee unions now have all the power.
The Fire union in Oceanside is funding a recall against a councilman because he isn’t friendly toward increasinf their pensions as iff they don’t get way too much already.
5,115 retired California government workers receive pensions in excess of $100,000 from CalPERS. They're all listed here.
http://www.californiapensionreform.com/calpers/
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There were more than 38,000 CA state employees who made over $100,000 in 2007. View those salaries here:
http://b2.caspio.com/dp.asp?AppKey=92721000f5a6h1f9a6j5j3d3f5d5
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You can view the same data for many northern CA cities and counties here. Scroll down to the links under "Salaries":
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By what right does a state have a say in a townships finances?
I would think that if it was a chartered municipal corporation, it could file for bankruptcy. I would think that “General Law” Counties could not. It was always my understanding that these were creatures of the state and the state would be ultimately liable for their debt as they are not a separate corporation.
Even if this bill passes and is signed by Arnold (a big “if”), it won’t take effect until next January 1, 2010. Only urgency bills passed by a 2/3 vote take effect immediately. So if this becomes law, we’re likely to see a rash of municipal bankruptcy filings in November and December, to beat the deadline.
It is interesting to watch an empire collapse.
I told my nephew, in the min-1990’s at a computer swap meet to “soak in the experience” becuase it was a very temporary phenomenon to be replaced by the commoditization of computers.
Same with current events. We are seeing an historical attempt, by a collapsing empire, to prevent the inevitable. The chain of events cannot be stopped. That point was crossed years ago. The only thing left to do is prepare for survival of what DOES happen.
The country is like a family that has finally maxed out it’s last credit card, cannot get any more, and the eviction notice has just been nailed to the door. Short of selling drugs, prostituting your wife and daughters, or ripping off your neighbors, yer stuck.
Obviously, none of these efforts will work in the long or even medium run, and will only make things worse (s propping up fannie, freddie and AIG did) when this finally plays out.
My but the next five years are gonna be interesting.
I just keep remembering the posts about Vallejo here a year or so ago. It was clearly the “first” and the only question was, how many others would follow?
I’m reminded of a black humor joke about the beggar who was asked how he came to become bankrupt. “Two ways,” he said, “gradually and suddenly.”
What happens when an entire city council sort of just skips town and nobody writes payroll checks to city employees, and accounts simply dry up.
Who do you sue?
And if it is the citizens, what if those that own their homes simply walk away, and renters, well, whadayagonna do to them?
Man, this is really getting interesting.
This whole thing reminds me of sitting in a corporate lunchroom in downtown Detroit about 7 years ago. The street below had several boarded up businesses, a few going out of business and one that seemed to be in business.
Every single person walking down the sidewalk was a “street person” and all of them checked the trash can for goodies. There was nobody there that could put any goddies, much less trash, in the cans.
If you have no tax revenue and the state won’t let you file bankruptcy, your employees still won’t get paid. The town will basically just go into anarchy and dry up. Then the state gets involved, but if it has to get involved in too many towns, it will suffer the same fate, and so on...
Absofrickinlutely!
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