I REPORT YOU DECIDE-by Barry Levinson
California Policy Center working with Civic Partner, a firm that collects and analyzes municipal finance data, has ranked over 490 California cities and counties with respect to their bankruptcy risk.
That report contains the complete list. To compile the ranking, they collected and analyzed audited financial statements published by most cities and counties in California. Local governments typically produce audited financial statements if they issue municipal bonds or if they receive more than $500,000 in federal grants annually.
Cities and counties with default probability scores much higher than 0.1% have substantially elevated risk. Where does the City of Fullerton rank among the 492 cities and counties listed in this comprehensive study?
FULLERTON RANKS FIRST!
Winner winner chicken dinner.
It ranks first (i.e. highest probability of Default/Bankruptcy) among all cities in Orange County with a risk factor of .27%.
So the next time a city official tells you that Fullerton is in good financial shape, please remember this study.
http://californiapolicycenter.org/californias-most-financi…/
Pack it tight Mr Internal affairs and just maybe the south Fullerton soccer leagues can be soaked.
Barry Levinson
#1 by Barry Levinson on November 11, 2014 - 1:00 pm
Let us take a Closer Look indeed. Let me provide you with the optimistic numbers given out by Public Employee Retirement System. These are the same financial wizards who stated back around 2001 or 2002 that if cities passed the 3% a year at 50 formula which granted retroactively at the time a 90% pension after 30 years of service at the ripe “old” age of 50 years, it would not cost the taxpayers a cent. According to them the last time I checked a few years ago, Fullerton had a $182,000,000 unfunded pension liability. We the Fullerton taxpayers will owe additional millions for the promised retiree health care benefits as well. Add to that our decaying streets, 50 to 100 year old sewer system and it does not paint a rosy picture of our financial situation. Ladies and gentlemen now you do have that closer look.
#2 by unfunded liabilities on November 11, 2014 - 6:45 pm
Is there any way to get the health care numbers?
#3 by enigma on November 12, 2014 - 10:54 am
Only those on the inner circle and those protecting them willingly deny that this is a house of cards. The pension obligations alone will cripple the city, setting aside the medical and dental plans. Now these onlookers who enable these miscreants; they are the real spectacle.
#4 by the numbers on November 12, 2014 - 2:41 pm
Mr. Levinson, there are many posters here that are in denial of the numbers. They will continue to deny and hold up their pals on the city council that do nothing but sit on their hands, continue to support a still corrupted FPD, maintain their friends in the establishment and waste time on trivial matters.
How about some more we heart Fullerton signs to convince the public?