[OpenSpending] Spending story: US city bankruptcies

Mon Aug 13 19:53:09 UTC 2012

Just to say I think looking into Spanish spending at regional and city
level would be *very* interesting given the ongoing "crisis" and the issues
over regional overspending and the Federal setup.

Rufus

On 13 August 2012 16:35, Jesús García <jesgar at damanegra.com> wrote:

> 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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>

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