Whipped Cream Difficulties

The fiscal brink, that is.

From today’s LAT:

Facing the same financial stressors that pushed San Bernardino toward bankruptcy, cities across California are slashing day-to-day services and taking other drastic actions to skirt a similar fiscal collapse.
For some, it may not be enough.

The major examples cited by the LAT are:

• Vallejo, which filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2009, because “salaries and benefits for its public safety workers were eating up too much of the general fund”.
• Stockton, which filed last month “after it was unable to come to agreement with its employee unions and creditors on a plan to close a $26-million gap in its general fund”.
• Mammoth Lakes, which filed earlier this month because of a $43 million court judgement.
• and San Bernardino, which “couldn’t close a $45.8-million budget shortfall and would be unable make its payroll this summer”.  As noted previously, the city is also claiming that budget figures had been falsified for 13 out of 16 years.

[San Bernardino Mayor Patrick] Morris, a former judge elected on an anti-gang platform, says the city may have to dissolve its Fire Department or portions of the Police Department, an unavoidable reality when public safety accounts for nearly 75% of the general fund budget. The city would then contract with county and state agencies for those services.

Have you ever noticed how it is always the police and fire departments that they threaten to cut first? You never hear them say “We’re going to cut the budget for big-screen TVs and office furniture”. Always the cops and the firefighters. In this case, that may make sense, especially if they can contract out the services cheaper. But:

Steve Tracy, a fire engineer and spokesman for the city firefighters union, said San Bernardino’s labor groups already gave up $10 million in concessions. He blamed the financial crisis on the mayor and former city manager spending money on such pet projects as a new downtown movie theater.

And is filing for bankruptcy worth it? Let’s ask the people of Vallejo:

The Bay Area city of 112,000 was forced to shut down two of its fire stations and today fixes just 10% of its crumbling roads. Its workforce, including police and firefighters, is about half its pre-bankruptcy size and those people left are “insanely” overworked.
Meanwhile, Vallejo spent $10 million on legal fees. It ended up with employee contracts that Osby thinks the city could have struck more cheaply if it had stayed out of bankruptcy court and turned to the bargaining table.

Municipal pensions may be a growing crisis, and there’s certainly some evidence in the LAT‘s coverage to support that. But of the four major examples they cite, one dates back three years, one involves a court judgement against the city, one may involve falsified financial information provided to the city…and that pretty much leaves Stockton, which might be worth more investigation.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2012 at 7:32 am and is filed under California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.