Harrisburg's City Council is pushing hard to advocate the Municipal Chapter 9 Bankruptcy, a move which will likely inspire other cities and states to follow suit should they succeed. Much like other attempts before them, elements within their own city are desperately seeking to stymie the efforts of the City Council, the loudest voice in attendance being the Mayor.
Joseph actually brought up Harrisburg before, he asserted that they were dithering unnecessarily. That instead of utilizing the one tool that could save them from being gobbled up by the state and set upon by their looming creditors, they kind of sat around waiting for it to happen. Or for something worse to happen than natural disasters and insolvency.
Something worse than defaulting Bonds, missed payrolls and a state takeover?
Now that they've taken Joseph's advice, or at least the City Council has made an honest effort to push forward, they're running into roadblocks. Kind of like how California tried to plug up the attempts of insolvent municipalities with Anti-Bankruptcy legislation.
Some critics are calling the movie irresponsible because the situation that will leave creditors swinging in the wind. However, this logic begs the questions of where they expect a trouble-riddled city to find the dough to pay for already overwhelming debt after a natural disaster, displaced citizenry and a massive investment that tanked its economy.
Rep. Glen Grell, Pennsylvania State Representative 87th Legislative District, is railing against it insisting that the greatest harm comes to Municipal Bond holders and joins Harrisburg's mayor, Linda D. Thompson, in labeling it an illegal action.
I realize these folks don't like how a bankruptcy would look on the City's record, but to date no one has a plan to revive the withering Economy in the fair city of Harrisburg. No way to bring jobs, industry or relief to the people of the city.
The most loathsome part of this is that the internal strife brought on by the mayor seeking to keep the city swamped with debt is creating more debt and keeping already existing debt alive. In fact, considering that the costs of her efforts to halt the attempt by the City Council to relieve the city of its debt are also coming out of the city itself this creates more problems than solutions.
Harrisburg can't pay payroll, but the mayor can hire legal counsel to keep the city up to its eyes in debt that it can't afford to pay.
I wonder what her next election platform is going to be?
Something about how heroically she fought to keep the city down in the muck? She selflessly shielded the city from debt relief? She spared no expense from Taxpayers to make sure the state wouldn't be able to pay it's debts and ensured there was no escape?
I admit that this is a scary precedent to set either way, but the option of seeking relief is vastly more hopeful than seeking solutions that simply aren't present as the city falls apart around them.
We'll probably find out more later today.
