Timesunion.com published an article discussing the chances of bankruptcy in the State of New York after Detroit’s recent bankruptcy.
In the past, New York responded by creating what are known as control boards. I know. In my first term as state assemblyman, I wrote the control board law for Yonkers. It did what control boards do — raised local taxes, increased state aid, cut services and laid off workers. It didn’t touch the broken economic model and it didn’t touch payments to banks and Wall Street.
Detroit’s bankruptcy filing changed that. For the first time, lenders and Wall Street could confront a court-ordered reduction in debt payments. That’s changing the national conversation.
We’re willing to reduce payments to retirees trying to live on annual pensions of $20,000, and to close schools and firehouses and parks. But try to spread the pain to everyone owed money by a bankrupt city, and watch the fireworks.
In New York, the problem has been raised by a courageous trio of upstate big city mayors — Syracuse’s Stephanie Miner, Yonkers’ Mike Spano and Rochester’s Tom Richards. But I suspect that we first will experience Detroit-style bankruptcy in a small village or school district that we’ve never heard of.
