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A Case Study In A City On The Edge Of Bankruptcy: Fresno, California
"The reality is we're doing less with less," is the dismal reality facing Fresno police chief and appears to sum up the situation facing many of America's cash-strapped cities (as we previously discussed here). Fresno's problem, as the mayor put it, "we have no money in the current account all." The situation was so dire that covering an unexpected expense—a new air-conditioning unit or firetruck, for example, would mean slicing into the payroll or borrowing from another depleted city fund. "We can get through the day to day. [But] if there's a derailed train, a natural disaster, where's the money going to come from?" Like many other cities, Fresno saw its sales- and property-tax revenue plummet as the economy tanked. In response, the city slashed services and staff. Fresno now can pay its bills, but it can't do much more than that.
Via WSJ,
...
"Our problem is we have no money in the checking account at all," Mayor Ashley Swearengin said to the silent room. "None." The situation was so dire that covering an unexpected expense—a new air-conditioning unit or firetruck, for example—would mean slicing into the payroll or borrowing from another depleted city fund, she said.
...
The sprawling city of about 500,000 people had less than a day's worth of available cash in its general fund, based on its 2012 financial report.
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Fresno currently has just $1.5 million in emergency reserves—a fraction of the $10 million a city its size should have, based on standards from a national government-finance group.
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"We can get through the day to day. [But] if there's a derailed train, a natural disaster, where's the money going to come from?" said Karen Bradley, the city's assistant controller. She said she sometimes worries about the freight trains that rumble through town multiple times a day.
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Like many other cities, Fresno saw its sales- and property-tax revenue plummet as the economy tanked. The city ran up $36 million in deficits by 2011, mostly from revenue shortfalls, cost overruns on grant-funded projects and debt incurred to build a $26 million convention-center garage.
The garage became an albatross
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As revenue declined and creditors fretted over Fresno's deficits, the city decided to use the cash it had to pay down debt. To rectify the garage deficit, the city borrowed from its water and solid-waste funds to pay back an array of other city departments that the parking garage had raided. Such moves helped Fresno clear out a tangle of internal debts, but left the city low on cash and barely able to cover operating expenses.
In response, the city slashed services and staff. Fresno now can pay its bills, but it can't do much more than that.
...
In the past four years, the city reduced its workforce by 1,200 people—a 29% cut. The police department lost 426 employees, or 30% of its staff. Now, 72 dispatchers handle some 1,000 emergency calls a day, down from 91 dispatchers four years ago. Residents are encouraged to go online to report nonviolent crimes such as auto thefts and break-ins.
"The reality is we're doing less with less," Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.
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City officials are seeing small signs of hope: Revenue is up slightly this year as the economy improves and tax proceeds rise. Officials say their plan should keep Fresno out of bankruptcy and put it on track to build $5.8 million in reserves by the end of 2018—still below the $10 million target.
Let's hope!!!
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the fed balking at muni "collateral" should help this go away. buy!
Coming to a city near you! Nothing but poverty.
don't worry we can print our way out of it. ?????? (VPERED)!!!!
What you mean "we," Bro-man?
You can't do nuthin', so that means "we" doesn't apply.
"They" (international banking cartel) can end usury based money and bail out the commuities, but if they were going to do that they wouldn't have set up fraudulent usury based money in the first place, now would they?
More for mega banksters, less for everyone else.
They win big forcing everyone into default and stealing all their collateral.
Everybody but the unions suffer in bankruptcy, it appears.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/usa-municipality-vallejo-idUSL...
Chicago 8.7 days. I have a relative with a psycho husband and wife on their street. He is a Chicago union retiree cop or fire. I tell the relative to hang in there because may his pension may blow up some day and then he will be toast.
I hope that after making that little joke to amuse your relative, you then tell them the truth, which is that they should move away from Chicago asap.
Ask them WHAT % OF YOUR BUDGET GOES TO PENSION FUND CONTRIBUTIONS.................
The Fed should buy up all the bad muni's. They are buying up all the mortgage backed securities and the shitty US treasury bonds. After all, they are the buyer of last resort for everything now.
Cui bono. The ancient Latins understood the wisdom of addressing this question, why don't we?
Biggest Finance Capital benefits from offloading their debt onto the public and looting the Treasury dry.
Biggest Finance Capital benefits from financing the police state and subjugating the nation state to inextinguishable debt (they take state's resources when debts are defaulted upon).
Now, how does Biggest Finance Capital benefit from bailing out your community and eating the losses themselves?
Yes, it **really** is that simple of a calculus.
The Fed is unlawfully purchasing those mortage obligations because the Fed does not have legal authority to purchase obligations unless they are backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government.
The bankruptcy of America is gathering speed at a great pace.
NSA*GOOGLE etc.:
Watch Your Data Traveling Through The Internet
http://homment.com/internet-nsa
"We can get through the day to day. [But] if there's a derailed train, a natural disaster, where's the money going to come from?"
where do you think? the fucking federal government just like any other fucking teet sucking state (aka christie demanding federal funds flow into his conservative new jersey).
I think that's spelled Joisie.
At least, that's the they way they say it. Youse wanna some KAWFEEE?
maybe snooki can pitch in a few million? nah fuck that. Christie complained the fed govt didn't act fast enough to bail his ass off with sandy. as if states' responsibility matters anymore. now fresno is worried? you gotta be kidding me. may the spice floweth.
The goilfriend said her boyfriend Oil changed the earl in her caw.
fugheddaboudit
Anyone from new jersey would spot you clowns as outsiders in a heartbeat. Every 3rd word should be an f-bomb. My 7-year-old curses better than you d-bags.
The fat cow Yellen will face some interesting times:)
Run, Ben, Run.
His name in Uruguay is going to be Giuseppe Carbajal.
No problem, I hereby declare stupidity to be money. 'Murica can once again hold the world's reserve currency.
Paging Meredith Whitney. Meredith, you have a call on line 3. It's reality calling. Says you left a message a few years ago.
Hi, Meredith, sorry it took so long to get back you but people keep denying me.
So, anyways, how's the family and stuff? Uh-huh, good, good...
Listen, I want to slip on over to Illinois and bitch slap Rahm-bo and Potato Head Quinn a bit but I promise to get back to you real soon, 'K'?
She was always correct. She just underestimated how much bailing out these cities would get. I know a well off city that got "stimulus" money and added endless new roadside signs, brick pavers for the streets (which fall apart and crumble quickly) and other endless crap to create shovel ready jobs.
I think this crap is finally drying up. No sympathy at all.
I embrace you as a brother/sister, as you breach the threshold to the depths of cynicism. Welcome.
"In response, the city slashed services and staff. Fresno now can pay its bills, but it can't do much more than that."
Welcome to reality. Like the rest of us, that is where you were supposed to be. NOW STAY THERE! No more perks for you!
Just another warning flare sent aloft by our fucking cities.
YOUR property taxes are about to increase, significantly. "We can all work together to make our city great". And what are you going to do anyway, move? Lol. You'll never be able to sell your house.
90% effective tax rate by 2015, for individuals of course, corporations meh 0% - 17%.
Over.
Life Lesson #2,064,560
Never ever buy a house. Always be capable of "flight" at a moments notice.
"Now, 72 dispatchers handle some 1,000 emergency calls a day, down from 91 dispatchers four years ago."
Boo fucking hoo. 14 calls per person per day. That's less than 2 per hour.
Yeah, you did the math too, huh? 1000 calls/day sounds huge until you break it down by 72 dispatchers and 24 hours. Then it sounds like you still have a lot of doughnut eaters sitting around waiting on the phone to ring.
BooMushroom & co.
You appear to have neither math nor management skills !
The 72 dispatchers do NOT work 24 hours per day, 7 days/week.
That means 17 dispatchers average are on duty at any given time.
That equates to 1000 calls / 24 hours= 42 calls per hour
handled by 17 dispatchers,
OR about 24 minutes per call average.
(and that average doesn't consider vacations or sick time)
Before evaluating whether that is appropriate,
besides knowing what the calls typically deal with,
one would also need to know what other duties the dispatchers may have
I'm glad I lived in the dying city of Bridgeport CT. A dying city is just a microcosm for a dying country. I guess it started my preparation for what is to come and for that I am thankful. It will spread from cities to the country as a whole soon.
I remember Bridgeport's spiral! Also remember when NYC was dying back in the day...NYC got a heart transplant but other cities didn't. Back then it was the belief that East coast was dying so that West could be thrivin'. Now it's both
I am 1200 miles in land now and just getting prepared for the impending shit show. A couple years ago when my "reeducation" began to the reality that is our dying empire, my wife thought I was too worried. She is fully on board now. She sees the collapse. People everywhere speak upon its horizon as if it is common knowledge.
Back in the 60s early 70s Bridgeport was having throuble, I guess they still have fixed it.
Bridgeport!!! No wonder you can't sell your house. Good lord, cut the price to the bone and get rid of it!!!! Just be glad that you survived your stay.
Bridgeport used to be a great city, a hundred years ago. Very sad.
We bailed the banks and WS!!
Oh, yeah, forgot... That was them and this is us.
I think what's scary is "it should be worse." there's still time of course. would appear many have slipped the noose this go around however.
Corruption enabled by borrowing from the future, in each and every fucking case.
36 million in debt, 26 million from a parking garage. boy, that one has been played out all over the country. i see the agriculture tax thing differently. agriculture may not pay a lot of direct taxes, but it was the productive backbone of towns all over america. the feds used every tactic at their disposal to crush private operators. remember the delta smelt? cut off the water to an almond farmer and you kill his trees. you can't fix that fast enough to survive. by some coincidence foreign grown trans national corporate production peaked at just the right time to take up the demand. they did it in florida with limes. the feds cut down all the groves (citrus canker) at just about the same moment mexico came on line. industry gone, citrus canker defeated, delta smelt saved.
Here is what I don't get. I will use Long Island as a microcosm. So everyone around here is a gubbamint employee. They all retire with 6 figure pensions and free healthcare and then move to North Carolina. So taxes go up and up while services get cut for the remaining residents to pay for those pensions.
It seems like there is such an easy fix. If you leave, you lose half your pension and your free healthcare. For anyone who has already left, there is no grandfathering. 50% gone baby. However anyone who lost their pension is allowed front row seats for free on banker guillotine Saturday.
shouldn't gods work be done on sundays?
Oh it is worse than that. They take their shitty attitude, liberal voting and work on destroying - NC, SC, TN, GA and FL. Evil scum.
We do our best down here to corral them: Centralized Area for Relocated Yankees...or CARY.
fonz, don't hold your breath. If "everyone" is a govt employee, who is going to vote for your clever plan?
The only real answer is for the people who are paying far more than they benefit, to leave. I'm not saying it's easy; people have social and family ties. But if you are being treated unjustly, and stick around, when there is no prospect of a new just system, and you could move, you may be simply choosing badly.
WTF?, wish I had 1.5 million in reserves...
Edit: Oh, I see, they borrowed from their solid waste funds.
Well, I got plenty of solid waste, looks like I'm good to go if I can turn it into funds...
Maybe that's in Part 2?
Waaaa, waaaa, sob, sniff...
Get rid of your bloated bureaucracy of Deputy Chief Assistant Directors of Shuffling Paper & your public serpents unions and their ever-increasing salaries, your free sick treatment insurance and defined benefit pension plans that the private sector can't afford, your brand new city/county/state/federal cars & trucks we see from our high-milage jalopies, your handoouts of free $#!+ to an assortment of deadbeats (many with fancy hairdos & i-phones), your cops that operate like a criminal gang robbing & kidnapping people over victimless 'cuz-I-said-so' "crimes," tell your masters to quit spending the money you need on killing brown people all over the world and spying on us, etc., etc.
Your gravy train just pulled into the last stop, pal, and your pudgy little lips are finally getting yanked off the emaciated taxpayers' tits. So, quit yer **cking whining or quit your gubbermint job and get a real job producing something of real value for a change and see what it's like to be the other side, signing the checks on the front!
And white people of course, though perhaps you don't care about them so much since they are ... well ... white:
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/WarCrime/lm53/LM53_Yugo_6.gif
"This photograph was seized from Saudi Arabian fighters captured in Crni Vrh near Teslic, Bosnia. A Muslim soldier displays the severed head of Blagoje Blagojevic, a Serb from the village of Jasenove near Teslic"
Welcome to the real world public takers !!!! Glad you could finally join us. But that squealing is going to have to Stop !!
Yellen is only Fed chair to torepdo Hillary's run in 16. When the SHTF everyone will realize how terrible it is to have a women in charge. Damn you Alan & Ben, you butt fucking stool pigeons.
Does anyone here actually know the history of Fresno? Are you aware of it's unique demograhics? Is anyone here aware that California has the largest fertile "valley" for agricultural production ....in the fucking world? Not the US, Joi-seee guys....the world. Fresno was born an agricultural hub and flop town for illegal farm workers. Farm workers are not known for being a big tax revenue producing segment of the economy. Most are paid their pennies in cash. Agribusiness, however....the real parasitic drain on the economy, pays dick in tax. Hence, Fresno is sinking....big f-ing surprise.
Now, 72 dispatchers handle some 1,000 emergency calls a day, down from 91 dispatchers four years ago.
===
WTF????
They handle 13 to 14 telephone calls per day and get a check for that amount of work?!?
Sign me up!
jb
Gee whiz - did somebody vote for a bunch of retards to run Fresno? Or all these other cities? Maybe they were not stupid when tyhey ran for office but got stupid once elected? Maybe all these people are "not too bright" shall we say???? Maybe Fresno can start dealing Heroin or some other cash crop amenable to their climate.
Screw you Cali. 70 dispatchers to handle 1000 calls per day. about 1 call per hr. You don't need more money you need less govt. Consider this the new baseline and spend accordingly moving forward.....
But I bet they still have money to run drug raids and speed traps. These are a bunch of down-on-their-luck thugs begging for what they can no longer steal because they have bled their victims dry and anyone with sense has gotten the hell out of town. It is happening to more and more cities as people realize that any area with a city government is just one more layer of stupidity piled on top of the federal and state layers.
If Fresno wanted progress it could shut down its city government tomorrow and open up all local services to the free market, but then who would volunteer to pay to put drug dealers in jail? No one, and the control freaks can't have that.
Bell Kalifornia was just a microcosm - but emblematic - of publix zector looting gone hog wild from Cresant City to Turlock.
Tweakers don't pay much tax;
According to the Sacramento Bee, California’s Central Valley is a “hub of the nation’s methamphetamine network,”
Fresno effect, query it. Never mind http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/19000/19600/19676/PB2002109106.pdf
Ground zero of free shit army test case.
Send all the illegal wetbacks across the border. See how much money they have then!