B is for Bankruptcy of Stockton, California

It’s a running joke around these parts (Utah) that a successful business plan for a California company starts with leaving California. The cost of living, rising taxes, and increased government regulation are all combining to make California less attractive, the beaches not withstanding.

Now comes this: Stockton, California, a city of around 300,000, has declared bankruptcy. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Klein signed off on the bankruptcy petition yesterday.  It’s the largest U.S. city yet to do so.

Faced with finances crippled by the housing crisis and recession, Stockton has already eliminated retiree healthcare benefits and at some point will need to negotiate with California’s pension system, the California Public Employees Retirement System or CALPERs, about how to deal with pension payments to retired city workers.  Not surprisingly, the city’s creditors opposed the bankruptcy.

During his comments, Klein noted that Stockton’s cost cutting had started years ago, and now 77% of the city budget was devoted to diminished police and fire services. (Ironically, last year saw a record number of murders in Stockton…has police protection has been diminished too much?)

Which begs the question: if so much of the city’s budget is devoted to such basic services as police and fire, how did Stockton rack up so much debt that it exceed its ability to pay?  Has the tax base in Stockton been hit so hard?

Apparently so. Klein in his findings of facts said that the bankruptcy was precipitated by

over betting on sustained tax revenues from a real estate boom, bankrolled a downtown redevelopment and doled out generous employee benefits on top of a “multi-decade, largely invisible pattern of above-market compensation for public employees.”

Related articles

• It’s Official: Stockton Becomes Biggest US City To Declare Bankruptcy (infiniteunknown.net)
• VIDEO: Stockton California: The Most Populous City In U.S. Filing For Bankruptcy (blockjams.com)