Harrisburg, Pennsylvania may file Bankruptcy, Missed $6 Million in Debt Payments

[KissMy]

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Council Told to Consider Bankruptcy

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which has missed $6 million in debt payments since Jan. 1, should consider seeking Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, City Controller Dan Miller told a three-hour special committee hearing.

Miller, the first of four people to testify last night in an “informational session” on insolvency convened by Gloria Martin-Roberts, council president, said bankruptcy may offer Harrisburg relief from $68 million in debt-service payments this year tied to a waste-to-energy incinerator project. Martin- Roberts opposes a bankruptcy filing.

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, the sixth-most populous U.S. state, has guaranteed payments on $282 million in bonds on the incinerator, run by the Harrisburg Authority. The payments on the bonds and on a working-capital loan this year add up to four times the amount the city collects in property taxes each year, budget documents show.

 

[Neubarth]

Cities and counties can still declare bankruptcy in this Horrific Depression. States can not. What Pennsylvania needs to do is transfer much of the state debt to the state capital Harrisburg and THEN have the city declare bankruptcy.

That way a hundred businesses that are owed money by the state can be shafted and they can in turn go bankrupt. Gosh, we can keep this Horrific Depression thing going for the next twenty years at least.

 

[KissMy]

It is high time they start defaulting on government pension funds instead of taking it all out on private business wiping out the private retirement savings.

 

[Neubarth]

It is high time they start defaulting on government pension funds instead of taking it all out on private business wiping out the private retirement savings.

Government employees are primo in the rating of things. If you work for Uncle Sam, the benefits are guaranteed by the government.

If you work for anything else, including state or city government, nothing is really guaranteed.

 

[The Rabbi]

Why could states not declare bankruptcy?

 

[FireFly]

Why could states not declare bankruptcy?

They would rather push cities to default on private debt than loose their state guaranteed pensions. Same with the Fed. The federal government will push states to default or print money rather than loose their precious fed backed pension funds. Government fucks up & we pay for it.