How Bankrupt is Your City/County/Town?

[RallyeMike]

With news of another major CA City declaring Chapter 9, I wonder just how many here live in municipalities that are under water?

My own town of 6,000 is going under..... Being small, the budget issues are not terribly complicated: The State voted in by initiative a maximum 1% property tax increase each year, and cost inflation has run an average of something like 3-4%. After nearly 10 years, that has become a big hole. They have laid off a large part of the staff and made what I consider serious and well-planned cuts, but you just can't lose 2% per year forever. Toss in major property devaluation the last 3-4 years, and, well, that pretty much iced the cake.

The plan is to vote on a mil rate increase just within our town in November. Not passing means un-incorporation, and then who knows what...



 

[Chryco Psycho]

well in an unusual situation the Province of Alberta runs a balanced budget & has a bank account & lends out $$ making money on interest , the province axctualy runs like a business , what a weird idea 

[Patronus]

I don't think there's any place in the country doing as well as Boulder,Colorado. The only depression in Boulder is finding a place to park!

[HANDM]

I'm in moraly bankrupt washington state, does that count?

[Charger_Fan]

I've heard the entire state is going under...sorta like a slow-motion Titanic...one city at a time. Glad I'm on dry land.
Gee, one has to wonder what 60 years of Marxist-Leftist-Political-correctness-bullshit mentality has done to bring the greatest nanny state in the Union to it's knees, and in such (relative) short order. 

[Old Moparz]

I'll copy & paste the joke I posted that got locked. Seems like it was pretty accurate after all.   

----------------------------------------------------------------------

California:

The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out, bites the Governor and attacks his dog.           

1. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and then realizes he should stop; the coyote is only doing what is natural.

2. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.

3. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.
       
4. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.

5. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is free of dangerous animals.

6. The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote  awareness" program for residents of the area.

7. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.

8. The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack somehow and for letting the Governor attempt to intervene.

9. Additional cost to State of California : $75,000 to hire and train a new security agent with additional special training re: the nature of coyotes.

10. PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files suit against the State.


Arizona:

The Governor of Arizona is jogging with her dog along a nature trail. A Coyote jumps out and attacks her dog.
               
1. The Governor shoots the coyote with her State-issued pistol and keeps  jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.

2. The Buzzards eat the dead coyote.


....and that, boys and girls, is why California is broke.

[TK73]

I've heard the entire state is going under...sorta like a slow-motion Titanic...one city at a time. Glad I'm on dry land.
Gee, one has to wonder what 60 years of Marxist-Leftist-Political-correctness-bullshit mentality has done to bring the greatest nanny state in the Union to it's knees, and in such (relative) short order.  

You do know if you don't like where you live, MOVE

[Charger_Fan]

You do know if you don't like where you live, MOVE

I live in Utah, no sinking Titanic here. For an example of how California is not, I doubt you would ever see California make a common sense move like THIS.

Great joke Bob, I haven't seen that one for a while.

[skip68]

That joke is funny but truth is in it.  Toooo much government in CA.  With all the fees and fines and permit cost there's no reason for CA to be broke other than wasting money and spending all the budget money so they can keep getting it. Tell me something CA ......  WHY DOES THE GUY CLEANING THE PARKS "LANDSCAPER" NEED TO DRIVE A $40,000 TRUCK? 

[Indygenerallee]

California is done for, you could not pay me enough to live there! I always get a kick out of the gun magazines and all the ads say legal in all states except CA, Should say the USSR!!! Good luck Commiefornia......

[Mytur Binsdirti]

California is done for

[Todd Wilson]

Our city seems to be doing ok as far as $$$ goes. They do stupid stuff though. They say money is tight and they just cant seem to do something  and then they turn around and spend thousands of dollars on putting bike lanes on the sides of all the roads. We spent like 20g on flowers last october to decorate the hiway coming into town. They thought we needed to have this pretty area of the highway coming thru town. Then they spend the $$$ to redo the flowers and about 5 days later we got our first freeze of the winter.

Now our school district I think has seen some tight tight times. But what is interesting to me is they have closed down several skools  and then put add on's at other skools. I understand this and its fine with me but when they do this they really go wild on all this land scaping and stuff which add's a terrible cost in construction. Then the upkeep of all this has to take a lot of $$$. Heck we got big fancy water fountains spraying outside. Lots of landscape rock and stuff. All the skools now have under ground sprinklers on the lawns. These skools have been there for 40-50 years. Grass has always grown so why do we need underground sprinklers?!?!?!


Todd

[learical1]

California is done for

New season and coach for the Sun Devils.  I hope they do better.

[bull]

You can't spend more than you make? That's weird.

[chargerboy69]

You can't spend more than you make? That's weird.

There is a shining city upon a hill that has not got that message.

[John_Kunkel]

....and that, boys and girls, is why California is broke.

Naw....it can be summed up in one word, "entitlements".  The cities/counties/states are broke because they're paying people to do nothing.

[chargerboy69]

....and that, boys and girls, is why California is broke.

Naw....it can be summed up in one word, "entitlements".  The cities/counties/states are broke because they're paying people to do nothing.

Post Of The Day.

And there it is, the perfect answer. 

[Todd Wilson]

....and that, boys and girls, is why California is broke.

Naw....it can be summed up in one word, "entitlements".  The cities/counties/states are broke because they're paying people to do nothing.

Post Of The Day.

And there it is, the perfect answer. 

[RallyeMike]

Thank you Todd Wilson for responding to the topic of this thread.

Naw....it can be summed up in one word, "entitlements".  The cities/counties/states are broke because they're paying people to do nothing.

The budget of my town is small enough to see everything and clearly understand the problem. There are no free rides bankrupting my town because there are no municipal-funded social programs in a town of this size. My town is going broke because of ridiculous blanket Tea Party-like "solutions" like state-wide caps on property tax increases that are lower than inflation. No doubt, yes, because people are fed up and are punishing all government in one fell swoop rather than coming up with workable solutions to the problems.

[mauve66]

one of the cityies here, henderson-las vegas-north las vegas, i forget which, about 8 years ago spent $75K on a study to find out how to save money, i would of showed them for $74999.99 juast to save them some money,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Fred]

Our Shire is doing just fine, they will never go under. They're bankrupting me so that they can stay afloat.
The more money they need, the more our rates go up and more often than not they need money so they can send their staff to holiday spas so that they can de-stress.
If anyone needs de-stressing it's us schmucks they're taking advantage of!!

[68X426]

I am California.  

The local city is hanging in there. So is the county, lots of tough decisions made and generally fiscally sound.

Then comes California state government .... and there it goes.

Whoever said CA is a blue state, no way, it is red.

Peace to all brother comrades.

[bull]

Thank you Todd Wilson for responding to the topic of this thread.

Naw....it can be summed up in one word, "entitlements".  The cities/counties/states are broke because they're paying people to do nothing.

The budget of my town is small enough to see everything and clearly understand the problem. There are no free rides bankrupting my town because there are no municipal-funded social programs in a town of this size. My town is going broke because of ridiculous blanket Tea Party-like "solutions" like state-wide caps on property tax increases that are lower than inflation. No doubt, yes, because people are fed up and are punishing all government in one fell swoop rather than coming up with workable solutions to the problems.

Oh, that evil tea party!

I haven't seen too many wages keeping pace with inflation in this economy either so why should/how can the government feasibly continue dipping into the pockets of the people at the same rate it did when things were good? Should it just keep jacking up the tax rates on people who can't pay in a futile attempt to maintain the level of government we had 10 years ago?

[lloyd3]

It is always dangerous to generalize, but it seems to me that the States with more urban areas and social programs are the ones with the most debt.  The more rural and agricultural States seem to be in far-better shape.  I was going to say all the bigger cities are in trouble, but some of the larger cities in the Dakotas and Wyoming (and large is relative here!) seem to be doing just fine.  Colorado is in trouble because it promised all the State employees wages and pensions based on perpetual 8% growth, which is a fantasy these days.  Budget shortfalls are projected to do nothing but increase unless that particular problem is fixed. 

[Todd Wilson]

I dont know why the tea party has to be thrown into all this.    Citys in Kansas here run off the local tax revenues. They decide on property tax values. Sales tax has a lot to do with everything in a small city or town. A certain % of the cost of gasoline is returned to the city for road upkeep.   If people dont have the $$$ to go spend in the local economy  then the revenue for the city is lower. When gas was cheaper I probabloy burned double what I do now. That was more tax revenue for my city.  Like I said in my earlier message my city is doing fine. They are tight with spending one minute on something and then piss away money on something else. SOme of which is not that important. The highway has been in the same spot for 45+ years and suddenly in the last 5-8 years they decide they need to make that stretch of highway look like you are entering a country club.

Sometimes the problems for citys come up when the state itself doesnt make the income it usually has and then the state struggles to send moneys down to the skools or cities.

I also find it interesting at least in my city if you go inside old buildings theres usually a plaque on the entry wall displaying the contractors that built the building and so on and so forth.  Older buildings always showed local contractors. Not any more. Some are out of country or out of state. Thats not supporting the local economy very well.

We have a state prison here in town and they have an inhouse print shop the convicts can work in .,They used to do inhouse printing for the prison.  Now many non profit organizations go out there now to have stuff printed in the shop instead of going to the local print shops. I know for a fact our city does the same thing with its printing. This cuts the costs of printing down to nothing as they usually only pay for the paper and supplies needed. Labor and so forth is free. I understand the reason as it helps cut costs. But that non profit organization is still knocking on the doors of business's looking for donations yet they dont put anything back into the community. The city has cut its printing costs yet its shooting itself in the foot by not collecting tax revenue that their business could generate by going to a commercial print shop to get their stuff printed.


Its just a vicous circle that needs to be broken but I dont think its gonna happen anytime soon.


Todd