[From article]
Atlantic City owes creditors at least $845 million: $270 million in outstanding bonded debt, $350 million in pension debt (per Moody’s), and $225 million in other “off balance sheet” obligations, mostly related to reimbursements to casinos after overcharging them on property tax bills.
[. . .]
Federal law requires that a municipality must have entered into “good faith” negotiations with its creditors prior to filing for bankruptcy. Those negotiations have not yet begun in earnest. The city’s counterparties will be the state government, on behalf of itself and the city’s retirees, casinos, bondholders, and bond insurance companies.
[. . .]
Atlantic City does not suffer from Detroit-level incompetence or corruption. None of the recent reports that have taken stock of the city’s challenges have ventured major criticisms of basic operations or municipal services. Clearly, Mayor Don Guardian is no Kwame Kilpatrick.
[. . .]
The more details that emerge about its budget, balance sheet, and municipal operations, the more Atlantic City’s crisis seems like the isolated cases of fiscal distress than the structural cases such as Detroit. And in that respect, bankruptcy may actually make more sense for Atlantic City than it did for Detroit.
http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon0329se.html
STEPHEN EIDE
Sucker Bet
Bankruptcy is looking more likely for Atlantic City.
March 29, 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment