There are many policies floating around to reform the muck that is municipal finance these days. A group of U.S. representatives from California are pushing a bill in Congress that would require states and cities to disclose the “true cost” of their pension plans, and whether they can pay those costs. California, of course, is […]
california
Court to Decide on Pensions in Stockton, Calif., Bankruptcy – NYTimes.com
By sh in Cities Tags: bankruptcy, california, pensions
Wall Street is taking America’s biggest pension fund to court this week, for a long-awaited battle over who takes the losses when a city goes bust — workers and retirees, municipal bondholders, or both. California is being closely watched as battles in San Bernardino and Stockton look to reshape how pensions are treated […]
Vallejo, California, austerity model
By sh in Austerity Tags: bankruptcy, california
Vallejo becomes the model for post-bankruptcy urbanism – is this the future some people would like to see in American cities?: VALLEJO, CALIF. — The first couple of years were ugly. After this working-class port city became the largest in America to declare bankruptcy in 2008, crime and prostitution surged as the police force was […]
How schools end up broke when states need money
By sh in Education Tags: california, k12, states
School administrators tell business leaders about budget cuts (Riverside, California), part of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce Business Education Partnership. As California governor Jerry Brown’s efforts to put tax increases on the ballot winds its way through the state’s political process, school districts continue to struggle. Teachers, administrators, and parents are trying to bring attention […]
City unemployment, underpinning California’s budget crisis
By sh in Inequality Tags: california
Four of the five cities with double the national unemployment rate are in California, no surprise to those of us who have been following the state’s deep recession (and interesting to consider in light of the coastal/inland divide described in last week’s New York Times, and the debate that has generated). Read: Bottom Line – Cities […]