[ilbegone]

This is the opinion columnist's article I was thinking of. It uses the word "broke", rather than "bankrupt":

Take city's checkbook away from these guys

By Doug McIntyre

02/09/2010

I'm not a numbers guy. The wife pays all the bills and won't even let me take the checkbook out of the house. My financial ignorance is the cause of head shaking and occasional sighs of sad resignation. My wife is married to a financial dunce, and we both know it.

I feel better getting that off my chest.

So, if I can make this painful admission public, isn't it time Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came clean? Why can't Eric Garcetti and the rest of the Spring Street gang send a press release, or Facebook posting, even a tweet would do. It's time for everyone running the City of Los Angeles to own up to their stunning financial ignorance. The mayor and City Council have as much business carrying around L.A.'s ATM card as I have serving as Federal Reserve chairman. You can't solve a problem until you admit you have the problem.

And what a problem!

Here are the numbers as reported by The Wall Street Journal, people who actually understand finance: Los Angeles will go broke on July1. We're upside-down $200 million. Next year, that balloons to $500 million.

The city employee pension time bomb is nuclear: three years ago we forked over $200 million to pensions, which is poured into the stock market like most pension funds. However, unlike most funds, the taxpayers are on the hook to make up any losses. So, when the market crashed, where did that leave us? This year we're stuck with a staggering $560 million dollar tab. And next year? Cover the kids' eyes, you don't want them to see this, we'll owe the unions $980 million, which even I recognize is a very large number.

Garcetti says, "Bankruptcy isn't an option." He's right. It's a lock.

And who is it that made these outrageous deals with the unions?

While we sprint toward financial ruin, our so-called leaders circle the wagons around their turf with zero concern for the greater good. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich flipped over his Magic 8 Ball and proclaimed that according to the City Charter the mayor doesn't have the authority to fire any of his staff of 1,000, half of whom are lawyers. L.A.'s City Attorney's Office is the biggest on the planet, and Nuch aims to keep it that way.

Meanwhile, Bill Rosendahl is fighting to save the calligraphers so we can continue to crank out fancy scrolls commemorating Guatemalan Independence Day and other events vital to Los Angeles. And let's not forget the unanimous council vote showering raises to members of the DWP union.

These numbers have consequences. A brand-new United Way report confirms what some of us have been warning about for a decade - Los Angeles is a poverty magnet that repels the productive. Our sanctuary city policies draw in the neediest of the needy and our anti-business environment drives away the tax base that pays the bills.

And I'm the one who can't take the checkbook out of the house?