Scranton cuts public employee salary to minimum wage including police and fire

[Darth Wagtaros]

Wonder if they could work out some sort of deal whereby they agree the minimum wage is just a temporary thing whilst the city gets its shit somewhat in order- afterall its either a terrible job or no job.

They might be making more on unemployment.

[Martinus]

Fire? No wonder American municipalities have cash flow problems if they are employing elements.

[Grey Fox]

Fire? No wonder American municipalities have cash flow problems if they are employing elements.

All this thread & this is what you pick, title grammar? :

The engine still isn't at full speed, eh. How drunk were you this week-end?

[Tamas]

Glad to see that everyone is on board for the city to keep paying out money it doesn't have.

Right after Hansy, you're straight forward out of central casting.  Too fucking funny.

I have one, decisive personal experience regarding minimal wage.

Until the late 90s, THE employer of the city I work at was an IBM factory, mostly doing hard drives. I knew a lot of people working there.
Then the government significally raised the minimal wage, obviously affecting jobs where the task is to stand for 8 hours and push a button.

In a couple of months the factory relocated to China.

[Neil]

I have one, decisive personal experience regarding minimal wage.

Until the late 90s, THE employer of the city I work at was an IBM factory, mostly doing hard drives. I knew a lot of people working there.
Then the government significally raised the minimal wage, obviously affecting jobs where the task is to stand for 8 hours and push a button.

In a couple of months the factory relocated to China.

So from that you've determined that the cure for unemployment is crushing poverty worse than slavery?

[garbon]

Wonder if they could work out some sort of deal whereby they agree the minimum wage is just a temporary thing whilst the city gets its shit somewhat in order- afterall its either a terrible job or no job.

This is a great suggestion Squeeze.

[Iormlund]

I have one, decisive personal experience regarding minimal wage.

Until the late 90s, THE employer of the city I work at was an IBM factory, mostly doing hard drives. I knew a lot of people working there.
Then the government significally raised the minimal wage, obviously affecting jobs where the task is to stand for 8 hours and push a button.

In a couple of months the factory relocated to China.

I hate to break this to you, but relocating a factory takes a lot more than a couple of months.

[Ideologue]

But invective aside, what I find interesting is something about unpaid bills?  Why are salaries, which as far as the city is concerned really just bills, deferred but not outside third parties?  Oh, right, because fuck workers, fuck unions, fuck decency, send your city into a death spiral of austerity, but don't dare fuck with institutional creditors who don't even fucking live there, because they're like fucking gods.  It's Germany and the EU, writ small.

I thought you'd appreciate that.

[Scipio]

Glad to see that everyone is on board for the city to keep paying out money it doesn't have.

Borrow the money or lay the workers off.

Agreed.  But are they able to borrow?  They obviously lack the political will to lay the workers off.

[grumbler]

Glad to see that everyone is on board for the city to keep paying out money it doesn't have.

Glad to see that at least one person realizes that a contract can be unilaterally re-written if one side simply decides that it "doesn't have" what it is obliged to provide.

[garbon]

Glad to see that everyone is on board for the city to keep paying out money it doesn't have.

Glad to see that at least one person realizes that a contract can be unilaterally re-written if one side simply decides that it "doesn't have" what it is obliged to provide.

[MadImmortalMan]

I hate to break this to you, but relocating a factory takes a lot more than a couple of months.

Oh, they've got them pre-made and ready to go over there.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I think it was a GM executive who said that their factories are built modular and ready to float to the next place?

[KRonn]

I think it was a GM executive who said that their factories are built modular and ready to float to the next place?

The Chinese will help expedite GM or any company that wants to open up a factory. They don't have much paperwork, beuracracy and enviromental issues to deal with. Often just the local government officials can ok a project, get things moving real fast. That's what I've heard of how it often works there.

[CountDeMoney]

Meanwhile...

Pennsylvania lawmakers, Harrisburg officials debate bankruptcy prohibition for cash-strapped cities

Some midstate lawmakers who supported the extension of Harrisburg's bankruptcy prohibition are not saying why they don't want the cash-strapped city to file for bankruptcy protection.

Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, a champion of the bill that prolonged the bankruptcy moratorium, has not returned repeated interview requests over multiple days.

Gov. Tom Corbett signed legislation extending the bankruptcy prohibition for five months; his office would not share his rationale for signing Senate Bill 1263.

And Corbett did little to explain why he supported it shortly after signing the legislation into law.

The bill prevents Harrisburg and other cash-strapped third-class cities from filing for bankruptcy protection until Nov. 30.

Rep. Glen Grell, R-Hampden Twp., initially said he didn't see the need to prolong the bankruptcy moratorium because the law that led to the state takeover of Harrisburg prevents city officials from filing for bankruptcy on their own behalf.

The only person who could file for bankruptcy under the takeover law is Harrisburg Receiver William Lynch, and he could only do so with permission from the state.

But a majority of City Council and other Harrisburg officials recently filed a lawsuit in federal court to try to void the state takeover of Harrisburg, and that is why Grell said he backed SB 1263.

Grell and Piccola, a Dauphin County Republican, were the prime sponsors of the takeover legislation.

If city officials were to win the lawsuit and the takeover were rescinded, SB 1263 still would prevent council from filing for bankruptcy.

"When city officials continue to challenge the authority of the city receiver in court, I'm concerned," Grell said.

"The real reason to extend it is that the receiver needs additional time to complete the transaction for the sale of the incinerator and the lease of the parking authority assets."

The legislation still has city leaders scratching their heads, however, because SB 1263 also takes away Lynch's right to file for bankruptcy.

And Lynch has repeatedly said he needs to use the threat of bankruptcy as a tool as he negotiates a debt recovery plan for Harrisburg with the city's creditors.

Stakeholders of the city's more than $326 million of incinerator debt would rather work out a plan with Harrisburg than face one developed in bankruptcy court, where they stand to take a bigger financial loss, city officials said.

"My fear is that five months gives [the state] time to sell assets. Meanwhile, Wall Street is being paid off, and we still have stranded debt," Councilman Brad Koplinski said.

"[The law] essentially singled out the city and singled out third-class cities across the commonwealth."

Lynch, who is charged with implementing the state-sponsored fiscal recovery plan for Harrisburg, isn't disturbed by the bankruptcy prohibition, said Cory Angell, his spokesman.

"We don't see that as being too big of a deal. If we wanted to go into bankruptcy, we need that much time anyway to get everything together," Angell said.

"Bankruptcy can be time consuming. We'll live with [the extension] and just move forward with implementing the plan."

Last year, lawmakers amended the state's bankruptcy code to prevent the city from filing for bankruptcy until July 1 of this year.

The bill also amended the state's fiscal code to extend the prohibition for five months and, like last year, it was adopted as lawmakers adopted the state budget.

Kelli Roberts, a spokeswoman for Corbett, said the bill was "a product of the budget process," and "it was something members of the Legislature wanted, and we felt comfortable signing."

After signing the state's 2012-13 budget and approving the fiscal code amendment, Corbett said he was only doing what legislators wanted him to do.

"The Legislature made a decision to carry, extend that for five more months. I'm not going to argue with them on that," Corbett said just after signing the budget last week. "That's their decision."

But a considerable number of lawmakers approved the bill that contained a number of amendments to the fiscal code, not realizing it had such a negative affect on Harrisburg, Koplinski contends.

"I was up on the hill ... explaining it to reps. One of the problems is that [the bankruptcy] moratorium was shoved into the fiscal code. There was no up-and-down vote on this issue," he said. "I talked to multiple reps, and I had to give the full background on how we got here and what was done."

Rep. Ron Buxton, D-Harrisburg, blasted the bill, calling it "a punitive action against the residents of the city of Harrisburg."

Sen. Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware County, said bankruptcy court is not the right place for municipalities and school districts to work through issues.

Allowing municipalities or school districts to petition for bankruptcy protection sends the wrong message; it says the state government is not fulfilling its responsibility to citizens, Pileggi said.

"With the case of Harrisburg, there's been an active receiver working there. That would give us an opportunity to see whether the steps that were being taken would likely lead to some success. So I think it's just a matter of allowing that time and then taking a second look at it in the fall," he said of extending the moratorium until Nov. 30. 