You will be crying by the end.
"R.I. city seeks bankruptcy; Central Falls gives in to social, financial pressure" August 02, 2011|By Mark Arsenault and Laura J. Nelson, Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. - This tiny municipality has for years been a microcosm of big-city problems, with a myriad of financial and social ills concentrated in a community barely bigger than 1 square mile.
The City of Central Falls suffers from Rhode Island’s highest unemployment rate, about 15 percent, and the state’s lowest per capita income. Its underperforming high school made national headlines last year when the entire faculty was fired, then rehired. A year ago, city government was taken over by a state receiver, turning local elected officials into advisers.
And now troubled Central Falls has fallen into bankruptcy.
With the community battered by debt and years of financial problems, Robert Flanders Jr., the receiver in charge of city government and a former state Supreme Court justice, sought bankruptcy protection for Central Falls yesterday, plunging the city into a little-used segment of financial law reserved for government entities that have wholly failed.
“The current situation is dire,’’ said Governor Lincoln Chafee, announcing the bankruptcy filing yesterday, “and it necessitates decisive steps to put the city back on the path to solid financial footing and future prosperity.’’
******************************
The rare bankruptcy of a municipality is a black eye for the Ocean State, and the fallout could undermine confidence in government bonds in Rhode Island, which would increase the cost of borrowing money, putting a further burden on taxpayers.
See: The AAA Scam
Maybe the state should incorporate itself.
“What this says to bond investors is the state is not willing to step in and prevent a bankruptcy’’ with an infusion of money, said New York bond lawyer Brian Fraser, of Richards Kibbe & Orbe. “Investors can no longer count on that backstop.’’
Maybe it is ABOUT TIME!
The city of 19,000 people has fallen on very hard times, made worse by a small commercial tax base and little industry. It was once a center for textiles, metal workers, chocolate makers, and other manufactured products, including Play-Doh, the children’s clay that was made here by Hasbro Inc. until an all-too familiar announcement of a plant closure and layoffs in the 1990s.
So where did Hasbro go?
Btw, I NOTICED BANKS and OIL COMPANIES clearing BILLIONS in PROFITS last quarter, so WTF?!!!!!
Today, brick mill buildings stand as reminders of a more prosperous past.
Sounds like downstreet here.
The community’s best-known employers now include the Wyatt Detention Facility, which houses gangsters, illegal immigrants, and, as she awaits trial, Catherine Greig, the girlfriend of James “Whitey’’ Bulger, the Boston mobster captured in June....
Who?
Related: FBI Frame-Ups Past and Present
A Bulging Boston Globe
Whitey Makes Me See Red
Battle of the Bulger
Choppy Bulger Coverage
Massachusetts' White Shadow
That's why I stopped covering it.
The bankruptcy also comes after state officials failed to reach a deal for union concessions by police, fire, and municipal employees; they also failed to persuade retirees to accept lower pensions and benefits.
Yeah, it is ALL the COP, FIREFIGHTER, and TEACHER'S FAULT -- and GOVERNMENT PROMISES mean NOTHING!!
Pension funds have been chronically shorted by local officials....
Related: States Stole Public Pension Money
Maybe that blade should be sharpened.
Flanders has filed a motion seeking to nullify contracts with the unions, with the intent to force city workers to accept concessions or face the possibility their contracts could be torn up by the court.
And IF the COURT did that we are IN a FASCIST DICTATORSHIP because that is the COURT'S FUNDAMENTAL JOB under the CONSTITUTION!
The ENFORCEMENT of CONTRACTS!!
Maybe I'm looking at it in the wrong way. If you are able to RIP UP a LABOR CONTRACT, then surely you must be able to RIP UP a BOND CONTRACT or DEBT OBLIGATIONS!!
I think I just got Central Falls off the hook.
Joseph Nield, head of the Department of Public Works, said the bankruptcy is shocking to public employees who opted for civic jobs with the lure of stable benefits, rather than white-collar careers.
“When the city told them, ‘You may not make a lot of money, but you’ll always be taken care of,’ they swallowed it, and they’ve continued to believe that,’’ Nield said yesterday....
Well, not now.
--more--"
Related: Central Falls receiver warns council over meeting
City eyes cuts to retiree pensions, benefits
R.I. city asks retirees for significant pension cuts
The Falls of Rhode Island
Also see:
R.I. aims to block death-penalty trial
R.I. tries to bar defendant transfer to US custody
2 hybrid trolleys to replace diesel buses
Bruce Sundlun, 91; served two terms as R.I. governor
R.I. recalls ex-governor Sundlun as a strict steward of state
N.Y. boy, 10, dies in sleep at Scout camp
R.I. has loan deal for nursing students
Memorial Hospital to get a new leader
City begins search for police, fire chiefs
Driver dies after crashing truck in rotary
Sewage spill taints Blackstone River
Rare tick disease cases on rise in Rhode Island
Report backs Slater Mill as national park
Take time and a tissue to dry your eyes.
