And with Hartford that "future", along with the ballooning debt payment, has arrived. (Can you repossess a city?)
Posted on 09/08/2017 7:22:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hartford, the capital city of Connecticut, will likely seek to file for bankruptcy if the state does not have a budget in place in 60 days, Mayor Luke Bronin warned on Thursday.
The cash-strapped city, like others in the state, has been waiting for clarity on how much state aid it will receive in the budget, which is more than two months overdue.
In the absence of a budget, an executive order from Governor Dannel Malloy is guiding state spending, but it severely restricts expenditures.
If no state budget is finalized by November, Hartford will be unable to meet its financial obligations, according to a letter Bronin and other city officials sent to lawmakers.
“We do not have the tools at the local level to solve this problem alone,” Bronin said in a televised press conference.
The city must ask the state for the authority to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. Malloy told Reuters last month that he would support such a filing “if it’s the best way to handle their difficulties.”
Connecticut lawmakers have been unable to strike a biennial budget deal with each other and Malloy, in part because they disagreed over a labor contract, which is now settled.
They also disagree about whether to raise revenue and force teacher pension costs onto local governments to help close a $3.5 billion, two-year state budget deficit.
Bronin is asking the state to fully fund its payment-in-lieu-of-taxes formula, which provides money for the huge number of city properties that are non-taxable, including state-owned buildings and colleges.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Incredible.
So all those people who provided goods and services to the city will be filing bankruptcy shortly after that. Most can not afford to receive pennies on the dollar.
It depends. This article is about as clear as mud. Hartford is indeed in debt up to its eyeballs, but last I knew it could still make its debt service payments. Now, for long term, bankruptcy is the only way to get a handle on their finances, but this article makes it sound as though the city’s hankering for a bailout instead.
Connecticut doesn’t really have much in the way of County Government, so a LOT of the school financing comes from state taxes. The governor plans to slash the school funding outside of the urban blight areas (Hartford/New Haven/Bridgeport/Waterbury, etc.) to ZERO, forcing a crisis on towns that have good management/governance and reasonable taxes (for CT).
I don’t know about this. They seem to have money for all sorts of stuff. What is the big deal??
Yeah, because they keep taking it from ME.
And, all the crap they buy, I have no use for.
“The governor plans to slash the school funding outside of the urban blight areas (Hartford/New Haven/Bridgeport/Waterbury, etc.) to ZERO, forcing a crisis on towns that have good management/governance and reasonable taxes (for CT).”
Correct. I live in one of those towns. Our schools are actually first-rate. To maintain this standard we are bracing for the double digit percentage increase in already very high property taxes. People will leave.
The big deal? Hartford is over $400,000,000 in debt.
Malloy is not running, so he doesn’t care. His replacement will have a big problem to deal with.
The dems will use this to suck money from the surrounding towns.
Suburbs, prepare to pay for Hartford’s failures.
“...this article makes it sound as though the city’s hankering for a bailout instead.”
Exactly. This is what it’s come to...a government waiting for a government to come to their rescue.
The old from each according to their ability to each according to their need.
Worked well for Venezuela.
Just read in another article that Hartford is one of many cities that is trying (or will be) to attract Amazon for their new HQ2....guess not being able to balance a budget and/or pay your outstanding debts does not bode well for a big company to want to locate there - not to mention CT’s oppressive taxes.
=8-0
“We’re running out of money, you need to pay more”
[picture of world’s smallest violin for Malloy, Murphy, Himes to play at next town hall]
This is an easy problem to fix for both the city and the state—all that it requires is political courage.
Malloy and Bronin just need to hold a joint press coverage and announce that Hartford and other CT cities have revoked their sanctuary city status and will turn over all illegal immigrants to the INS.
That will save the state one billion dollars a year.
They will _never_ do it. They would rather declare bankruptcy.
The bond-holders should demand it—no negotiations until it is done!
People may not be able to leave if they can’t sell their homes because nobody wants to move to CT.
And with Hartford that "future", along with the ballooning debt payment, has arrived. (Can you repossess a city?)
What’s breaking Hartford and CT isn’t illegals, though they are an additional burden. It’s public pensions and bennies.
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