Category: Harrisburg City

Mayoring Bankruptcy Is One Sweet Gig — The woman running the bankrupt city that serves as Pennsylvania’s capital is still collecting her $80,000 salary.

And it has just been found that she just defaulted on a mortgage on a property she owns at 320 N. Fifth St. in the city and that she owes $1,086 in  2010 school district real estate taxes

Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson says it was just an oversight that she missed two  payments totaling $900 to Metro Bank which holds the mortgage and that “I’m human” regarding the personal fiscal issues in which has found herself.

Ms. Thompson does not live in the property but had used it as the headquarters of Loveship Inc., the  mortgage counseling nonprofit that she ran before becoming mayor.

Leaving aside the issue that one who “forgets” to pay debts and taxes despite a very high salary  should not be entrusted in running a a garden club much less a government, why is a bankrupt city paying an elected official $80,000 in salary?

Or a near bankrupt state for that matter? Until our elected officials like Bill Adolph and Steve Barrar and Greg Vitali and Dominic Pileggi and Daylin Leach and Ted Erickson and Tom Corbett just to name a very few start showing true leadership by halving their salaries and ending their bennies, the only thing of which “we the people” can be confident is that any “solution” to our fiscal problems are going to oppressively land squarely on our backs.

Oh, and let’s not leave out the “caring professional” who claim to be our educational leaders yet insist on the right to withhold education from children in order to acquire ever easier working conditions and ever increasing tax-funded salaries.

Hat tip PennLive.Com

Mayoring Bankruptcy Is One Sweet Gig in Harrisburg

Inevitability can only be delayed. Harrisburg City, the capital of our fair commonwealth, is bankrupt.

City Council, Oct. 11, voted 4-3 to file for Chapter 9 protection.

The city has long been run by Democrats.

Oh, if only Ed Rendell could have had a third term.

Despite a $4.3 million not-a-bailout package provided by the state, Sept. 12, the City of Harrisburg has announced it will skip $6.2 million in payments due tomorrow on 2003 Series bonds it guaranteed  on behalf of the Harrisburg Authority.

Nor will Pennsylvania’s capital make $1.2 million in payments due Nov. 1 to holders of the authority’s $17 million in 2002A Series bonds.

The rating for Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp, the city’s debt insurer was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s, Oct. 25, from AAA to AA+.

The state’s Community and Economic Development Department is scheduled to decide by Nov. 20 if Harrisburg qualifies for Act 47 help as a distressed city, a prerequisite for obtaining more state aid.

Think of it as the ant and the grasshopper in Bizzaro World .

Or Pennsylvania.

Either works.

Gov. Ed Rendell announced , Sunday,  that Pennsylvania taxpayers will give the City of Harrisburg a  $4.3 million aid package so it can meet bond obligation payments, pay bills, and hire a financial advisor.

Rendell said it was “not a bailout” — no! no! no! no! not a bailout — because more than $3.5 million of the money would be expedited payments already budgeted to the city this year.

The beleaguered Democrat-controlled state capital was scheduled to miss a
$3.29 million bond payment on Sept. 15 to bond holders of Series 1997D
and Series 1997F capital appreciation bonds.

Regarding  austerity measures, the city is closing fire stations and selling equipment.

The Rendell not-a-bailout-plan-no-no-no also includes $850,000 in taxpayer funds from discretionary grant and loan programs to allow Harrisburg to hire Scott Balice Strategies, a financial management company to create a comprehensive plan for the city.

A press conference by Gov. Ed Rendell and Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson has been scheduled for tomorrow at which is expected to be announced a state-taxpayer backed plan to keep Pennsylvania’s capital from bankruptcy.

The beleaguered Democrat-controlled city has announced it will skip a $3.29 million bond payment scheduled for Sept. 15 to bond holders of Series 1997D and Series 1997F capital appreciation bonds.

The city, population  47,000, has been unwilling to take steps such as laying off city employees to deal with the fiscal crisis.

Ambac Assurance Corp., insurer of the 1997 general obligation bonds, has announced that it will meet payments to investors. Its parent company,however, Ambac Financial Group of Wisconsin, has warned that it may seek bankruptcy protection as early as next year.

Moody’s Investors Service no longer rates Harrisburg.

Pennsylvania’s capital is going to skip a $3.3 million payment due Sept. 15  to bondholders of Series 1997D and Series 1997F capital appreciation bonds.

Convanta, the operators of the Harrisburg city incinerator, has been told by city officials that the Harrisburg will not pay the $600,000 debt payment due in April, according to City Council member Patty Kim.

It has been speculated that the city will sell parkland and museums to make the payments.

Harrisburg City Going To Welch On Debt?

Harrisburg City Selling Parks, Museums? — Those interested in acquiring a farmers market or civil war museum may be in luck because the City of Harrisburg might very well have to unload the ones it owns to resolve its financial mess.

Assets that may have to be liquidated include the National Civil War Museum, the renowned Broad Street Market, The Pennsylvania National Fire Museum, and a whole lot of really nice parkland.

The city is very likely going to be the first in Pennsylvania to default on its loans.

It has long been run by Democrats.

Harrisburg City Selling Parks, Museums?

Harrisburg City Mulls Bankruptcy — The City of Harrisburg is consider filing for bankruptcy, Bloomsburg.Com is reporting.

Harrisburg City Mulls Bankruptcy