[OpenSpending] Spending story: US city bankruptcies

Mon Aug 13 15:35:04 UTC 2012

Hi,
It would be a similar case to Spanish municipalities bailed out by national government (in Spain, municipalities are not allowed to fill bankruptcy, so nation gov is paying their due& unpaid invoices).

But ...
- There's not a whole source of operations data for local governments
- There's a source of financial and budgetary data (www.rendiciondecuentas.es) but it's not open data. It's only viewable through web browser and it's not downloadable in any format (yes, it should be scrapped, maybe I could try to do it in next weeks but I have no confidence!).
- National government has not disclosed any information about the local bail-out (municipalities & invoices). Transparency laws have not been not enough developed ... 
Surely, determinants of financial distress (bankruptcy or bail out) would not be the same in California and Spain but I'm sure consequences would be!

It's only food for thought ...

Regards,
Jesús

-----Original Message-----
From: Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
Sender: openspending-bounces at lists.okfn.org
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2012 11:14:41 
To: <openspending at lists.okfn.org>
Reply-To: rufus.pollock at okfn.org,
	OpenSpending Discussion List <openspending at lists.okfn.org>
Subject: [OpenSpending] Spending story: US city bankruptcies

Hi All,

I've recently been digging into US city finances (especially in
California) following the recent bankruptcy of several cities. I've
started on a timeline (source spreadsheet [1]):

<http://timeliner.reclinejs.com/?backend=gdocs&url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccckey=0Aon3JiuouxLUdDQ3QlJhOHJnS2x0NkxibUp1YnYwR1E%23gid=0#explorer>

[1]: <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aon3JiuouxLUdDQ3QlJhOHJnS2x0NkxibUp1YnYwR1E#gid=0>

I've started collecting notes and links in this accompanying
"research" post (in progress!) (Note the hack embed of the timeline!
Better embedding coming soon):

<http://notebook.okfn.org/2012/08/05/spending-story-california-city-bankruptcies/>

One quote for me stands out (this is regarding the city of Stockton
(the largest city in the US since Cleveland in 1979 to file for
Bankruptcy):

<quote>
Since FY08-09, the City has been forced through lack of funds to
reduce sworn General Fund Police staffing by 25%, Fire staffing by 30%
and all other staffing by 43%. Programs and services have been reduced
to minimum – or below minimum – levels. Sworn Police staffing per
1,000 residents has dropped from a high of 1.52 per 1,000 residents in
2005 to 1.16 currently, and in the face of a rising local crime rate.
While violent crime rates dropped 5.5% nationwide in 2010, they were
up in Stockton, which ranked 10th in the U.S. with 13.81 violent
crimes per 1,000 residents.
</quote>

Collaboration and suggestions warmly welcome!

Regards,

Rufus

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