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Stuart Varney: The latest city to confront bankruptcy and how it got there.

June 28, 2012


The average firefighter costs the city about $157,000 a year in pay and benefits and can retire at age 50 with a pension equal to 90% of his highest year's salary plus nearly free lifetime health benefits. The city has laid off a quarter of its police officers, 30% of its firefighters and 43% of general city staff to pay for these generous benefits. Yet the city still faces a $26 million deficit on a $180 million budget. Soaring retirement costs mean that the gap will grow even if the city's housing crisis ebbs and revenues begin to recover. You can't build a city on debt and retirement checks. Unions have made few concessions save agreeing to give up sick leave payouts and scale back pensions for new hires—when there are any.

pam_think
What does Pam Think ?

Remember when debt was considered shameful? Now it's as commonplace as water, both with individual citizens and now cities....


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