[Bruce Campbells Chin]

The one counterexample I can think of is Detroit, where bankruptcy got them off the hook for a lot of these pension costs. This freed-up money for them to do things like turn the streetlights back on and demolish abandoned buildings.

That's a good point. Bankruptcy may be the only thing that can break the toxic political stranglehold the Democrat politician/municipal worker cabal has on so many cities. Detroit didn't elect a Republican, but they did elect an outsider white mayor from the county that wasn't part of the city worker cabal.

[Buckeye McFrog]

In response to Detroit’s bankruptcy many blue states rushed to pass amendments to state constitutions to prohibit such bankruptcies in the future. So Illinois is pretty much scrooooood.

In Pittsburgh the city’s finances were under a form of state receivership similar to Chapter 11, until the uber-Liberal Tom Wolf got elected Governor. He quickly ended the oversight and they are free to make non-viable pension commitments again.