Blue Blight Syndrome Hits Scranton PA

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

 

Walter Russell Mead

7/18/19

 

As Scranton teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, its mayor Chris Doherty made news earlier this month by paying city workers minimum wage rather than their full salaries, citing empty coffers. Scranton’s police, fire, and public workers unions are now asking a court to hold the mayor in contempt for defying a court order to pay the workers in full.

 

Yet if Doherty’s claims are correct, the city simply doesn’t have enough money to pay its workers—and may not anytime soon. The Times-Tribune reports:

 

(Snip)

 

The only way out is a much more sweeping program of national and local reform than is yet on the table; the longer we wait the harder this will be. In the meantime, read more Via Meadia on municipal bankruptcy and the death of blue.

 

 

Also see

Blue States, Red Ink: The Big Crunch is Coming

[Valin]

Scranton Mayor Deceives City on Massive Tax Hike

8/23/12

 

Earlier this year Scranton made news by joining the ranks of cities flirting with bankruptcy. Although it avoided that fate with an emergency rescue plan, the details of that plan are now coming out, and they aren’t pretty. In particular, Scranton residents can expect to see their taxes go up. A lot.

 

The official statistics from the Mayor’s office claim that real estate taxes are scheduled to rise by a startling 69 percent over the next three years. This would be bad enough, but, according to one University of Scranton professor, the government is also using a misleading formula to calculate the tax increases. He claims the true increase will be an astonishing 81 percent. The Times-Tribune reports:

 

(Snip)

 

The high costs of Scranton’s rescue plan will clearly do little to boost jobs in a city where businesses are already feeling squeezed. But worse news is the use of cheap accounting tricks to hide the true costs of the rescue plan. If the allegations are true, it would make the current crop of pols little better than the ones that got Scranton into this mess in the first place.