What has lead to the rush of bankruptcies driving cities into the red sea of undivided indebtedness?
Pension costs, for one. San Jose will be reduced to two employees writing paychecks for the remaining seven thousand who have retired. A city with no public safety or public workers is a public scandal.
Yet how are our cities managing their wealth?
How are the cities utilizing the resources to invest and take in a profit?
How about the red tape that impedes business owners from starting their own business?
Blaine Meek of the Coalition of County Unions" has argued that public sector unions are the scapegoats for the budget problems which have brought cities to their fiscal knees. Still, Meek fails to explain what he thinks are the real causes for the problems in our cities. Stockton cut costs, slashed its public workforce, and yet they could not engage the workers to enter into long term negotiation in the best interests of the cities.
Of course, the dramatic loss of property tax revenue resulting from the overheated housing market also contributed seriously to the fiscal crises in California. It's time that city government got out of the real estate business and leave these risky investments to private firms.