By filing for bankruptcy, you took some of the spotlight off Stockton.
If you care what Forbes thinks, here’s its take, though I caught a big error. The writer wrongly states Stockton has not made structural reforms. But that’s what Measure H was, as well as two declarations of fiscal emergency, the re-negotiation of the firefighters’ contract, and the reduction of lifetime health benefits.
It appears no reform is enough for investors and people with the investor perspective. They just want their return.
A former city executive wrtes:
“As the stories come out, you will find out that two of the biggest factors in their bankruptcy were:
“1) The loss of Redevelopment Funds to help balance the budget. Instead of using RDA for bricks and mortar, they were using a lot of the funds to pay for employees – many of whom had very little to do with RDA
“2) Loss of employee givebacks. A good chunk of their $45 million deficit was failing to get their employees (primarily the powerful public safety unions – sound familiar?) to continue taking a ten percent pay cut. First of all, they never should have agreed to a temporary pay cut with the unions, second they should have threatened mass layoffs if the employees wouldn’t agree to make the pay cut permanent, third it is likely that ten percent wasn’t enough in the first place.”
