Bankruptcy! Vallejo is Just the First

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The city of Vallejo has been flirting with bankruptcy for for a few months now, but it looks like it will probably happen soon.  While the Mayor and other leaders continue to point the finger at public safety workers, the city looks set to pass its own deadline this week for some other resolution. The Chronicle:

Vallejo will inch closer to financial ruin Tuesday when the City Council lets pass its do-or-die date to avert bankruptcy.

City staff members have been unable to come up with a detailed, long-term financial plan because negotiations with the police and fire unions are still ongoing. The city is asking for steep concessions from the unions, whose members are among the highest paid in the Bay Area and whose salaries comprise about 74 percent of the city's budget.

"We had hoped to have an agreement by April 22 to give to the council," said Mayor Osby Davis, who has sat in on the negotiations. "But I'm optimistic. There's always room for a resolution if people are willing to give and take."

Davis, if you'll remember, is the Mayor who lost the election, and then won the election on a recount.  In the end, I'm not sure there's a winner at all here.  The unions allege that there's some accounting tricks being used, while the City contends that the salaries are just killing them. The salaries are quite high due to mandatory overtime required by the city's low staffing.

The Mayor and others want a "long-term solution", but one will be increasingly difficult to find for Vallejo and cities across California as the budget continues to bleed. There is no solution - none at all - until California's leaders and the Yacht Party obstructionists choose to look at the budget sheets from towns and cities across the state. Small, large, whatever. They are all feeling the pain of the last 30 years. Prop 13, the VLF cuts, everything is costing the cities money at a time when more and more is expected of them.

We can dally no longer. The governor needs to step up and admit that he was wrong on the VLF. Vallejo is just the first large city to tumble towards bankruptcy. It will certainly not be the last.