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City of Central Falls, RI Declares Bankruptcy

spacejamz

spacejamz

Lifer
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43987002/ns/us_news-life/

The smallest city in the smallest U.S. state made the filing Monday as it grappled with an $80 million unfunded pension and retiree health benefit liability that is nearly quadruple its annual budget of $17 million.

The Journal reported that the bankruptcy filing made police, fire and municipal employee contracts void.

Flanders also said he would save $2.5 million by cutting 141 retired police and firefighter pensions, the paper said. Retirees and active employees will also be required to pay 20 percent of their health-insurance coverage.

We negotiated with ... the police and fire unions, without success, attempting to reach voluntary concessions, and we tried in vain to persuade our retirees to accept voluntary reductions in their benefits," he added.
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Seems those pesky unions are at it again...with the writing on the wall, they opted not to negotiate and now their contracts have been voided...

Are the dominoes beginning to fall???
 
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You put in your time, retired and later they want to cut your already vested and earned pension.

Seem fair?

Central Falls is a shithole of a place that has been poorly run for years, if not decades. It is so destitute there may not be any equitable solution here.
 
Thump553 said:
You put in your time, retired and later they want to cut your already vested and earned pension.

Seem fair?

Central Falls is a shithole of a place that has been poorly run for years, if not decades. It is so destitute there may not be any equitable solution here.
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I guess you missed the part where they tried to negotiate with the unions because the pensions were under funded and the unions said FUCK THAT...

Seem fair?
 
The solution is to go deeper into debt, print money (the .gov can loan them a press, they apperantly have plenty available), and increase city spending.

Why should this town be any different than .gov?
 
Did the pensions magically underfund themselves, or did the politicians waste the money on other things, year after year?

"Hahha! We used your pension money for taxpayer-funded company cars, fancy laptops, high-end smartphones, housing, and hiring relatives! Now we're declaring bankruptcy!"

Yes, that's a great reason to blame unions.
 
spacejamz said:
I guess you missed the part where they tried to negotiate with the unions because the pensions were under funded and the unions said FUCK THAT...

Seem fair?
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Yes, they "tried" to negotiate. They might have offered nothing but shitting on their chest for all you know, but hey it's negotiating so that makes them the good guy right?
 
AyashiKaibutsu said:
Yes, they "tried" to negotiate. They might have offered nothing but shitting on their chest for all you know, but hey it's negotiating so that makes them the good guy right?
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Let's see, I have choice of getting less benefits or get nothing....mmmmm.....

The person they interviewed in the article is a 50 year old retiree. I'm not sure if it more funny or sad that the pro-union types here won't see an issue with that for a public employee...
 
Cities don't have printing presses available like the federal government, and at some point all these excessive (unsustainable) benefits and pensions are going to have to be dealt with.

All these unsustainable benefits packages for public employees (including teachers) need to be trimmed into reality, and soon.
 
Central Falls is the worst place in Rhode Island. Rhode Island smells bad enough without it... The place is such a dump. I can only imagine that they were able to pull in less property tax revenue with each passing year as unemployment rose and property prices fell while failing to procure additional revenue to make up for the loss. I'm not so sure this is so much of a union caused problem as it was bad planning.
 
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DaveSimmons said:
Did the pensions magically underfund themselves, or did the politicians waste the money on other things, year after year?

"Hahha! We used your pension money for taxpayer-funded company cars, fancy laptops, high-end smartphones, housing, and hiring relatives! Now we're declaring bankruptcy!"

Yes, that's a great reason to blame unions.
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^This. If all parties agreed to the contracts, it should be honored. Because some scumbag politicians and city employees might have used pension money for something else, it is not the fault of the unions.
 
spacejamz said:
Let's see, I have choice of getting less benefits or get nothing....mmmmm.....

The person they interviewed in the article is a 50 year old retiree. I'm not sure if it more funny or sad that the pro-union types here won't see an issue with that for a public employee...
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Won't even blip on their radar.

Fuck the fact public employees are net-drains on the economy and don't generate any wealth whatsofuckingever, we should pay them to continue to not generate wealth whatsofuckingever well after they're done doing whatever shit job it was they did.


JockoJohnson said:
^This. If all parties agreed to the contracts, it should be honored. Because some scumbag politicians and city employees might have used pension money for something else, it is not the fault of the unions.
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While that is probably the case, that isn't the only way pensions can be underfunded. If they based their pension pay out on "growth projections" of employment and then all of a sudden those don't pan out, their ponzi scheme falls apart and tax payers(private employees who pay taxes) should foot the bill?
 
They elected the folks who signed these in good faith so yes they should in fact foot the bill.

They had plenty of time to step in before this.
 
spacejamz said:
Let's see, I have choice of getting less benefits or get nothing....mmmmm.....

The person they interviewed in the article is a 50 year old retiree. I'm not sure if it more funny or sad that the pro-union types here won't see an issue with that for a public employee...
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There's the problem in a nutshell. Too little work, too much bennies.

JockoJohnson said:
^This. If all parties agreed to the contracts, it should be honored. Because some scumbag politicians and city employees might have used pension money for something else, it is not the fault of the unions.
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It should be honored up to the point that there is no more money. When there is no more money, there is no more money. Saying that it is not the union's fault may (or may not) be true, but it doesn't make money magically appear. Saying that the contract SHOULD be honored doesn't change the fact that it CANNOT be honored. Saying that government officials spent the money on the wrong things may or may not be true, but if there is no money, it is irrelevant. When a city files bankruptcy with unmet pension obligations, I think there should be a federal investigation of the city AND union management, to check for malfeasance and criminal misconduct. But that doesn't change the fact that government management may, with the best of intentions and honest competent management, promise more than can be paid back.

And no one in a public sector union should be eligible for retirement before sixty-five.
 
How many people who were elected were union goons who just voted themselves nice pensions? This is the problem with public employee unions. They elect people who agree to give them better and better benefits. There are no checks and balances for the taxpayer.
 
DaveSimmons said:
Did the pensions magically underfund themselves, or did the politicians waste the money on other things, year after year?

"Hahha! We used your pension money for taxpayer-funded company cars, fancy laptops, high-end smartphones, housing, and hiring relatives! Now we're declaring bankruptcy!"

Yes, that's a great reason to blame unions.
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They used it for the most politically expedient reason de jour. Tax breaks to get elected. F the budgets. We got this big pile of money sitting around to buy votes.
 
Fear No Evil said:
How many people who were elected were union goons who just voted themselves nice pensions? This is the problem with public employee unions. They elect people who agree to give them better and better benefits. There are no checks and balances for the taxpayer.
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Hey did you know you can replace the word union goons with corporate boards and you get the same results?

Cool huh?
 
I find it funny that the political right has no problem violating Constitutionally protected contract law as soon as it comes to either public employees or unions.
 
What happened with that city was that they were forced to go into arbitration every time with the union. After every arbitration, the panel gave the union increases in pension. There was no way the lawmakers could stop the increases even if they couldn't afford it. Again, unions with too much power.
 
Yeah, I'm sure bad city planning had nothing to do with it, it's always the little employees fault that the machine is broken.

I'm waiting for one "fiscal" conservative to lead by example. Give up your Governor's mansion and live in a Fema trailor. Take a huge pay cut. Give up your state\city\federal owned vehicle and buy your own car to travel in for business, you want everyone else to give up entitlements, prove it by giving up your own first.

Doubt it'll ever happen, unless said politician is rich to begin with.
 
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