Posted on 02/04/2010 9:45:28 AM PST by blam
It Begins: Cash Strapped Cities Begin To Crumble
John Carney
Feb. 4, 2010, 10:25 AM
Our nascent economic recovery may come too late to save many American cities from bankruptcy, which in turn will deal heavy losses to municipal bond investors and the companies that insure munis.
The latest fright comes from Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. The city is considering seeking bankruptcy protection—as well as tax hikes and asset sales—to address $68 million in debt service payments due this year.
Harrisburg does not stand a chance at making its payments. The $68 million in debt service payments is four times what the city expects to raise through property taxes and $4 million more than the city’s entire operating budget.
Ironically, the debt burden that is trashing Harrisburg was incurred to build a waste incinerator.
Bloomberg reports:
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
But there are plenty of rats & vermin (demoRATs) roaming the streets. I would rather have the goats and actual rats & vermin as opposed to the socialist commie pig demoRATs.
Amen! Got multiple pieces & lotsa ammo!
Detroit - the quintessential liberal Democrat experiment.
It’s interesting that I have seen two separate shows on post apocalyptic urban survival techniques in the past two weeks. One by Rudy Reyes of Generation Kill fame and the other by Bear Grylls. The interest level for this scenario is picking up.
It was probably sold as being capable of handling waste from towns miles around, and generating electricity and heat to offset the costs.
One PennLive commenter describes it as the “Ninth Boondoggle Wonder of the World.”
From December 2006:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=43038&page=84
Harrisburg’s trouble-plagued incinerator holds disposal contracts with Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties. Dauphin County pledged its guarantee behind a part of the $125 million in bonds floated to renovate the plant.
The overhaul was supposed to turn the incinerator into a model of efficiency, capable of consuming 800 tons of trash daily and generating steam and electricity for sale.
Instead, the plant was four months late coming on line this year and has performed nowhere near its rated capacity, missing its first-year revenue projection by $14.3 million.
So, 125 Million wasn’t for the plant, it was to RENOVATE the plant. Yet the outstanding debt is now 188 million. How did we get there? Balloon mortgage? Negative Amortization? No, they just didn’t pay their note last year, and apparently won’t pay it this year.
Yeah, they can have my IRA the minute they come for it: I invested in firearms. Excellent return BTW.
Have you read Fernando Aguirre’s “The Modern Survival Manual,” based on the 2002 Argentine financial collapse?
Not yet. I’ve been perusing his blog entry about it though. Interesting stuff.
You got that right!
GOOD THREAD BUMP! Thanks to every poster...from the humorous, to the survivalist...and all in between.
“the LA governor prohibited aid and ice and food trucks sitting on the LA border after discussion with the DNC.”
“NEVER LET A GOOD CRISIS GO TO WASTE”
Obama White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel
Wider Powers for U.S. Forces in Disasters Are Under Review
The White House would like to dispatch troops faster and give them law enforcement duties.
Katrina’s Aftermath
September 11, 200
Peter Gosselin and Doyle McManus, Times Staff Writers
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/11/nation/na-posse11
WASHINGTON — A senior White House official said Saturday that in the wake of the hurricane that demolished part of the nation’s Gulf Coast, the Bush administration was studying whether to expand the president’s powers to deploy the U.S. military in natural disasters.
Dan Bartlett, counselor to President Bush, said that the administration was reviewing whether to increase the president’s power to dispatch troops at the outset of a disaster and to give them law enforcement duties.
“There’s agreement that this is something that has to be studied,” Bartlett said in an interview.
The administration’s interest in expanding presidential powers to deploy the military on United States soil stems partly from its frustration over the inability to negotiate an agreement on chain of command with Louisiana’s governor in the first days after Hurricane Katrina struck.
The administration has been widely criticized for what was seen as its failure to send enough troops to Louisiana in the early days to maintain order.
One senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the issue, said that two days after the storm hit, the White House proposed a single chain of command for troops who would be used to secure New Orleans.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco REJECTED THAT PROPOSAL, the official said.
Blanco has said that though she wanted the assistance of federal forces, SHE DID NOT WANT TO RELINQUISH COMMAND of the National Guard to the federal government.
The official said the administration WAS NEVER ABLE TO REACH AGREEMENT WITH BLANCO, but ultimately was able to establish a de facto single chain of command because Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, had a close working relationship with Maj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau, the adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard.
As the two worked to restore order in New Orleans, “they were attached at the hip,” the administration official said.
“By sheer force of personality and because of the mayor’s and governor’s praise of Gen. Honore, he through practice put into effect a single chain of command,” the administration official said.
“Maybe a miracle will happen and we will get a Congess full of conservatives who will actually impeach his [Obama’s] worthless ass.”
Don’t you think Obama and the DNC know this?
What makes you still believe that there will even be mid-term elections or, for that matter, elections of any kind EVER AGAIN with the pace at which things are deteriorating here in China-Owns-It-All USA?
As the welfare state collapses, chaos will spread.
I read a very long article about this today.... twice. The article mentioned that the mayor after EIGHTEEN years had just left office, but nowhere in the article did it ever mention his political party. I read it again... nada.
I had to google the man to confirm he was a Democrat.
I did look at those videos....nobody can really understand how bad it really is there unless they look.
My gosh it looks like the city got bombed! Like out of a movie...it’s beyond describing. I spent a good hour just looking and listening...leaves you speechless.
nothing will change...
instead of large layoffs of overly paid govt workers with huge pensions, the govts will pretend that THAT is not the problem, but as we all know....IT is the problem.....
lay off police....lay off a large number or make the union agreed to drastic cuts in benefits and pensions.....and keep the pay sane....
do that to all depts and the problem would be solved....
of course they knew the cost....they probably kept it hidden so the damn thing would be passed by the voters.....
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