When Central Falls filed a Chapter 9 Bankruptcy, the receiver made some hard, and necessary, decisions.
Frankly, it shouldn't have taken a receiver or a Chapter 9 Bankruptcy to figure out that a town of 18,000 people shouldn't take on debt of $80,000,000.
But I digress.
Ultimately, borrowing became an addiction in Central Falls, and a little tiny town can't print money or raise taxes to fix the problem.
That's for two reasons.
One is that if a tiny city prints lots of money, that's counterfeiting. It is punished by law, because printing lots and lots and lots of worthless money harms everyone.
Right?
The reason that Central Falls couldn't raise taxes enough to cover the shortfall is...Oh, come on! Look at the numbers!
If you lived in Central Falls and your city tax bill was high enough to pay your share of $80,000,000, what would you do?
So would I. And that would leave poor Central Falls a ghost town.
So the city didn't try that route.
Creditors wouldn't budge, so Central Falls had one option, which is also the reason there are so many consumer bankruptcy cases these days.
But there are some nice things that have come out of the Central Falls Bankruptcy.
One is a wave of volunteers to help out with the library and similar services.
And that's a good thing.
