Thursday, December 9, 2010

What if NYS cities and towns band together for Municipal Bankruptcy

What if Kingston and about 20 other NY State cities, towns, and school districts banned together to request Municipal Bankruptcy? Do you think the unions and elected state officials would take notice then? In other words, all the municipalities and school districts are now held hostage by NYS teacher and municipal unions. We could ban together to break this stranglehold that the unions have on the NYS taxpayers. Mark my word, it will come to that. We cannot go on like we are. The taxpayer suffering with unfunded pensions and unbridled pay increases will escalate. Face reality and take action, since the current union contract conditions point to a very bleak future for our children and grandchildren.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are missing one side of this. By voiding these contracts you void the whole contract. Like the part where workers have to show up to work. Which means no police on the streets, no guards in the jail or prisons, no roads plowed, etc. and no contractual obligations to use to force others to work. Now that means lawsuits. Lawsuits from the person that gets mugged, lawsuits from the inmates that don't get fed on time or get their rec time allowed to them by our liberal laws and trust me they will win.

If you think that these people will come to work out of the goodness of their heart when there is no guarantee when and if they will be paid you are nuts. Teachers and municipal managers aside our public safety professionals, and highway workers etc. are struggling just like the rest of us. If there paycheck disappears and they don't know when or if they will get another they will immediately go and look for work elsewhere and not think twice about not showing up to serve you. And the National Guard is pretty damn expensive to mobilize.

Additionally there is absolutely no guarantee that a bankruptcy judge won't just award these people their original pay. And it is the judge that ultimately decides, and no one else despite your hopes otherwise.

Ralph Mitchell said...

To 12:44pm,
I appreciate your thoughtful comments about Municipal Bankruptcy. However, the picture you paint is overly negative. Based on my communication with people from Vallejo, California which is a city of 120,000 which is currently under Federal Municipal Bankruptcy reorganization, life is fairly normal and on-going. Remember, police and firemen will continue to show up for work if they want to get paid.