Scranton Mayor Slashes Pay For All City Workers—Including Police And firefighters—
 

to minimum wage.
I hope the mayor owns Kevlar.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/...140229063.html

Damn union - busting Democrat. This is about nothing more than denying the union employees of the city of Scranton their rights to collectively bargain.

Oh, no wait. Only Republican governors to that. Never mind.

The mayor, meanwhile, blamed the City Council for Scranton's financial woes.

"If they'd gone with my budget, we wouldn't be having this discussion," Doherty said. "The taxes would have been raised. The bills all would have been paid because we would have had a dedicated revenue stream."

...Sounds like teabaggers on the city council could be the problem. (Scratch that/ they're democrats masquerading as teabaggers.)

Sounds like a bunch of bobades on the city counsil.
It's so funny how all you can do is blame. What's with that? Does it come from being picked on?, taking ridlen as a kid?, no father?, no pussy?, or WTF??? :confused:

So, why did you start this thread DJ?:confused: Seriously, you are sounding like Big Bill.:rolleyes:

WTF is ridlen?

If you bothered to read the article you might have noticed that the reason the mayor took this action was because the city council refused to raise taxes.
Did you read anything more than the headline? I know it's hard for you and the OP but read a little more than the first paragraph before crowing about Scranton's problems.

i think this thread has to do with unions with their higher then necessary pay and the city's having trouble meeting that pay. along with the necessary dues to their citizens. Proper infrastructure comes to mind. union member health care should be the fartherst thing from a cities mind. And pay for their own retirement, not provided from the citizens...just saying.

govmint should be paid at minimum wages. so as to prevent long term push button politicians.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...ed?ft=1&f=1001

More on your story DJ.

Republicans should not be paid at all.

That's even funnier, Bobby. A bunch of Dems on the city council refused to raise taxes, and now the Dem mayor is bitching about it!

What's sad is your take on it Whellie. It's going to court.

So much for the Democrats being in the public employee unions' hip pocket. This incident will be forgotten about, however, when that narrative is again useful.

Regards,

D-Ray

Yup. Dems suing dems because the they've sucked the public trough dry. Then watch the blame game start.

Cities all over the the country are under financial stress or going into bankruptcy because they're overspent. One of the biggest financial challenges that most cities face is trying to figure out how to fund their pension obligations for pensions that far more generous than the private sector. They're trying to figure out how to cover the nut for health care costs, which are typically more generous than the private sector. Since these cost have been rising for years and administrations like Scranton have kicked the can down the road, the costs are now beyond what the cities can sustain.

See? Ain't that hard to figure.

I think its a case of "eating their own" once the money runs out.

I think the dear boy was trying to say Ritalin.

John

I wonder how much of the high earners in the tax base of Scranton have been able to hide income and avoid taxes as Romney seems to have.

Not hard to have a better pension than the private sector since many in the private sector declare bankruptcy then get some judge to let them walk away from their underfunded pension plans - United Airlines ring a bell?

Of course then you and I pick up the tab under the fed pension guarantee fund.

So it is not only the public sector that has been kicking the can down the road.

I've seen similar dilemmas in other municipalities. There is no good solution to any of it. Camden, NJ imposed massive lay-offs of police and firefighters. Other cities closed schools and laid off teachers. And, in my judgment, there's lots of blame to go around. It's a union's job to get the best deal they can for their membership but there has to be a modicum of reason and rationality to their proposals. It's a municipality's responsibility to negotiate in good faith and good faith includes fiscal restraint and an honest appraisal of what is feasible.

What the mayor did was an act of desperation and I don't think that anyone who isn't directly involved has a real sense of the details of how this all came to be.

Poor old Scranton has had its share of troubles, floods from hurricane Diane, the mine disaster, and now little more than half the population it had in its heyday.

What private pensions? Where have you been the last 20 years? You are not concerned about the loss of pensions in the private sector and the lack of good health care benefits for private employees? Are you just glad that public employees are going to feel your pain too?

Cops on minimum wage...like I said about the Third Worldization of the USA.
A cop making $7 an hour can pull someone over,take $20 bucks from the driver and not give a ticket to the driver. Oh the dispatcher and the cam monitors will be on the take too since they are probably getting paid the same.Race to the bottom...

Trust me John I knew what he meant. I just wanted to see if he could actually come up with something that was a little better than his obviously third grade education was allowing. He's little better than BB when it comes to making a point (or a coherent insult for that matter).:rolleyes:

Kind of an idiotic thing to say, IMHO. First, there are a number of large companies that still offer pensions. I'm fortunate enough to work for one. And yes Bill, a few industries either blew up or went through bankruptcy and offloaded their pension obligations to the PBGC, and companies today pay premiums to the PBGC if they want to offer a pension. However, federal pension funding and reporting rules make it almost impossible now for most companies to offer pensions due to heavy administrative expense.

As far as health care, no worries. Obama fixed health care with PPACA. :rolleyes:

Geez, here you go again, guess I had better get out my violin. So how does the company you work for manage it, or do they cry all the way to the bank?:p

That's the Conservative way! If private pension benefits suck and public pension plans don't suck,what's the answer? F#@k up the public plans so everyone's equal. That's the only way to "protect the middle class".

John

Hey, let's make the financial industry pay premiums to the Treasury Department if they want to gamble with their depositors' money!

Good idea, right, Whell?

No?

Hmmm.

John

I agree. I think what we're seeing is a "Mexican standoff" between the Mayor and the City Council and I think the Mayor wanted this to end up in court. How it ever came to this is something we just don't know at the moment because neither side is talking.

John

[QUOTE=whell;111937]Yup. Dems suing dems because the they've sucked the public trough dry. Then watch the blame game start.

Cities all over the the country are under financial stress or going into bankruptcy because they're overspent. One of the biggest financial challenges that most cities face is trying to figure out how to fund their pension obligations for pensions that far more generous than the private sector. They're trying to figure out how to cover the nut for health care costs, which are typically more generous than the private sector. Since these cost have been rising for years and administrations like Scranton have kicked the can down the road, the costs are now beyond what the cities can sustain.

See? Ain't that hard to figure.[/QUOTE]

I guess not if you've nothing more than fill in the blanks, form letter political idealogy whellie. Scranton has been losing it's tax base since the 1950s.The town was in the shitter long before the Great Recession which is the proximate cause of these budget shortfalls. Which party was responsible for that? Your slavish mindset that the Democratic Party are hogs at the public trough is laughable. You're simpleminded parroting of the paint by numbers philosophy of the teabaggers may sound intelligent when standing in front of a mirror whellie but here it's pretty much a joke. Try again.:p

Idiotic thing to say? Are you telling me there has not been a decline in the private pension plans in the last 25 years? I am sure if your pension had gone under or you were at the mercy of a 401k tied to the stock market you would not be so happy Whelly. As long as its not your pension right?

Selfishness is most certainly a tenet of modern day American conservatism.

Operatative word a number...you did not say many or alot. By the way Whell,
does this company of yours do any work for any government agency in your state, either local, state or Federal? I am assuming since you are fortunate enough to have a penison plan your employer is a large one. And does government work contracts? Or am I idiotic?

I don't think desiring decent roads is selfish.

Pete

How about bridges?

John

No, but wanting decent roads at everyone else's expense is.

Regards,

D-Ray

Not selfish but wanting them without paying for them is.

I pay the same percentage of my income I always did. As a matter of fact, 1/4 percent more, PLUS all the fees that used to be included. So a handful of people can retire at 55?

Here in Ohio a while back we had a novel concept to fix bridges. We passed a large, narrowly defined, set time limit tax specifically for them. And yes, I voted for it.

Pete

1. No

2. No

3. No comment.

[QUOTE=bobabode;111982]That explains Scranton. Now explain the rest littered across the country. Hell, I just heard San Bernardino is going BK.

[QUOTE=bhunter;112043]Stockton and Vallejo too. Vallejo's actually fairly old news.

John