Making it number five and counting in the once-Golden State; I hope the L.A. Times has plenty of server space reserved for its “California Cities in Bankruptcy” online photo gallery:
The City of Compton, a city of 93,000 people located on the outskirts of Los Angeles, must decide by September 1 whether to seek bankruptcy, according to its two most senior financial officials.
Such a move would see it join a growing number of deficit-hobbled California cities that have used the filing to restructure onerous debt loads.
Compton, which has an accumulated $43 million deficit and has depleted what had been a $22 million reserve, will run out of cash to make its payroll on September 1 at its current cash consumption rate, city comptroller Steven Ajobiewe told the city council during a July 17 meeting.
“I have $3 million in the bank and $5 million in warrants due in the next 10 to 12 days,” said city treasurer Doug Sanders. “By then, the council will have a decision to make: don’t pay the bonds, default on them, or have a serious talk about bankruptcy.”
Meanwhile, the Zero Hedge econo-blog explores the problem on a national level: “The Problem In A Nutshell: Annualized GDP Growth Of 1%; Annualized US Debt Growth of 21%.”
Insert Herb Stein quote here.
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