The LA Times call to remove bankruptcy from consideration only proves the editorial board is in the Mayor’s pocket, or worse – let’s not go there.
You can read the editorial here.
Here is the reply I e-mailed to the Times. I hope it gets published.
I suppose your editorial board was enjoying a few puffs of medical marijuana when it suggested that bankruptcy is not an option.
Oh, it can be avoided. It’s just a matter of the degree of irresponsibility the Mayor and City Council chooses.
If they have their way, services will be cut to dangerously low and unsustainable levels to head off bankruptcy, rather than tackle the structural compensation and benefit problem that is the core of the financial mess. The Mayor and his allies will take that approach rather than upset their pals who run the unions. The taxpayers and residents be damned.
Eighty percent of the General Fund is tied to compensation. No viable plan to set Los Angeles on the right course will succeed unless we seek and receive major concessions from the unions. If concessions are not forthcoming, then bankruptcy is the only option. Contracts can be voided by a bankruptcy judge….. and have in the case of Vallejo.
So what will it be – continue to coddle the unions, or work in the best interests of the citizens?
We would all like to avoid bankruptcy, but not at the expense of gutting core services essential to everyday existence. If City Hall has its way, we will no longer have a city as we know it. Los Angeles will simply become Tijuana with skyscrapers.
Paul Hatfield, CPA
Valley Village, CA
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