13 US Cities Going Broke There's one thing that the reporter left out, and it's significant. The broke and going broke cities are all led by Democrats. Cities that have gone broke are Harrisburg PA, San Bernardino CA, Stockton CA, Mammoth Lakes CA, etc.
Stuff like this has me wondering if there are any qualification needed for candidates to run for office. These mayors or officials who promote these projects have no experience in finance or developing or real estate yet they put the city in hock for the future and the projects don't make economical sense.
Additionally, suppose this is a democrat virtue, take from the rich and give to the poor. This is a direct conflict with trying to develope a city project for a profit. I don't believe one person can switch thinking.
Cities don't go broke because of projects. They go broke because they pay city employees too much, (police, fire, teachers) and they give over bloated pensions. In Chicago, the mayor just gave teachers 16% pay raises over 3 years.
+1000000000000000 The teachers union wipes out the city finances while the teachers brain wash the kids in the classrooms.
It doesn't matter, where I live we have staunch right wing leadership and a huge city debt. One of our ex mayors (one time county republican chairman) is a major real estate broker and his dad is a large developer. While he was in the city council and then mayor the city cut sweet heart land deals with the company and let the company take homes and land by eminent domain for a large private housing and commercial development project.
With the exception of just one, these cities are all in states which carry the financial load for broke states. <img src="http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-size/20110806_WOM959_0.gif"> http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/08/americas-fiscal-union
Stole my thoughts! Good post! Can you believe the future of America literally lays at the hands of today's brainwashers? er..."teacher?" Blows me away!
You've completely missed the point (as usual). The cities are incapable of managing their own budget. The fact that the Federal government collects more income tax from the states those cities are in is completely irrelevant to the spending habits of the municipalities within them.