Harrisburg PA (capital) Council Told to Consider Bankruptcy

[Homesick777]

What's a government to do when it's expenses are FOUR times it's revenue?

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which has missed $6 million in debt payments since Jan. 1, should consider seeking Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, City Controller Dan Miller told a three-hour special committee hearing.

Miller, the first of four people to testify last night in an “informational session” on insolvency convened by Gloria Martin-Roberts, council president, said bankruptcy may offer Harrisburg relief from $68 million in debt-service payments this year tied to a waste-to-energy incinerator project. Martin- Roberts opposes a bankruptcy filing.

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, the sixth-most populous U.S. state, has guaranteed payments on $282 million in bonds on the incinerator, run by the Harrisburg Authority. The payments on the bonds and on a working-capital loan this year add up to four times the amount the city collects in property taxes each year, budget documents show.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...ankruptcy.html

[drjoshua]

[jb777]

[QUOTE=Homesick777;1791267]What's a government to do when it's expenses are FOUR times it's revenue?


I have a suggestion: cutting expenses to bring them in line with revenue. Raising the taxes right now wouldn't be a good idea.

[Wally]

Rendell..... Philly was a mess, now the whole commonwealth. Whad' you expect....


Tom Ridge.....where are you?

[SummerSailing81]

ALL governments - Federal, state, county, city - seem to be out of control with spending. Why? Did these people never learn the very basic economic principle that if you spend more than you take in you go bankrupt? It's not like bankruptcy just "slips up on you" either - you know it's coming. The fiscally responsible probably wouldn't have gotten into a financial mess to begin with, but if they did, they'd cut costs and save money wherever they could. But not these spendthrifts! Even when facing bankruptcy, they continue to spend, spend, spend, spend and expect the American taxpayers to foot the bill to get them out of trouble!!!

[HisAlways]

Rendell..... Philly was a mess, now the whole commonwealth. Whad' you expect....


Tom Ridge.....where are you?

YEP.....EXACTLY !! Rendell (D) has been a nightmare, and everyone in PA knows it. Now....the city of Harrisburg has elected their first black female mayor, and she just quit paying the bills, and blaming it on the former mayor.

Sound familiar??? This is ridiculous. Rendell promised everyone that their property taxes would subside with all the casinos he opened.

My property taxes just went up AGAIN !! This man is a joke, along with Harrisburg's new mayor.

[Wally]

On the casinos,

They did the math. There are not enough gamblers in PA (including out of staters) to create enough income to even reach the level of tax relief proposed. What little revenue there is goes to....

Philly. Yep rob from the poor and give to the desitute......

We used to have a lower state tax rate. We used to have a rainy day fund. We used to have republican administrations.... now we have entitlement programs for non citizens, drug rampant downtowns, apothetic police who see their sacrifices amount to nothing, crowded prisons with a rotating population and health care.... and a populance so divided that civil war is a real threat.
And guess who will wind up with the guns..... not law abiding citizens....

Of course the Amish have nothing to steal. Maybe they're not so dumb after all.....

[HisAlways]

On the casinos,

They did the math. There are not enough gamblers in PA (including out of staters) to create enough income to even reach the level of tax relief proposed. What little revenue there is goes to....

Philly. Yep rob from the poor and give to the desitute......

Yep...you're exactly right. I had a group luncheon with my state rep, and he told us that Philly schools, communities get boatloads of money.

Pray that a republican gets back in office. Couldn't believe it when they put Rendell in for a 2nd term.