[quote=bearishgurl][quote=no_such_reality]Again. The why doesn’t matter. The what is does[/quote]
Ahh, but the “why” DOES matter…..the “why” ALWAYS matters!
How are you going to fix the problem if you don’t understand how you got into it in the first place?
Oh, yeah, that’s right. As a City, look in the mirror and pretend your “red herrings” never existed … and those “in charge” never acted in their own self-interests. File for BK. Or better yet …..
Blame the unions.
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If your argument is the city politicians acted liked a bunch drunken Casey Serins and thought the flipper money would never end, I won’t deny that.
I won’t deny they acted in their own interest and self political preservation in giving the farm away to continue stint in power.
It wasn’t sustainable. They spent like it was.
The Union, oh no blaming the unions, bellied up to bar and demand their cut of largess. Yes? Yes they did.
It’s scary with how basic it is… Not basic as in bare bones, basic as in Budgeting 101.
Now back to reality of today.
Vallejo’s budget going forward will have $13.8 Million out of $65 Million in pensions costs, after slashing almost half of the work force. $13.8 million in pension and $34.5.
That’s 40 cents for every dollar of salaries is just pension. My company has a great 401K plan. We’re no were near 40 cents of every dollar of salary for retirement benefits.
Currently retiree healthcare is 5% of the budget. They think they’ll push it down. I wonder. That’s another $3 million today. That’s 10 cents for every dollar of a current employee salary, they need to pay in retiree health care costs. That’s on top of the 10 cents for every employee health care costs.
If this was Casey Serin, he’d be done with bankruptcy working a $65K a year job and still having a minimum credit card payment of $1500 a month.
But you make our point for us. Government has been on auto pilot.
That level of pension debt and retiree health benefit going forward will cripple the city.
To be blunt, the Cities acted just like the over extended construction guy that I bought the short sale house from. Well, the house had to go.
His problem wasn’t he had too much money coming in during the boom times. He spent it poorly.
