Topic: Wells Fargo trying to repo Stockton, CA city hall

[Glock32]

You know, I wonder if we could use a new category called "Circling the Drain" for stories and anecdotes that are particularly illustrative of our rapid decline.  Tip of the hat to Small Dead Animals for this one.

The History of Stockton: Chapter Nine

It never rains in California, but…

    Wells Fargo is taking steps toward repossessing Stockton's new City Hall, an eight-story high rise at 400 E. Main Street. City government never moved into the ($40.7m) building, which it bought in 2007…

Fortunately, there are still some sources of revenue for the politicians in Foreclosureville, USA. The city takes in over $50,000 in processing and various other fees on each new home built, for example, and has been fining homeowners, "many of them underwater and unemployed", for "not painting their yellowing lawns green." And on the quality of life side of the equation, there's all that local stimulus-spending coming from the 94 retired city union employees who make pensions of over $100,000 a year, and the free healthcare for life after retirement for people who worked for the city for more than one month. Plus, you've got your Health and Safety Fair, with its Teddy Bear clinic and sensory maze, and a high-end downtown arena, and a half-million dollar Asparagus Festival, and…

You see, high-spending local officials in America's most miserable city aren't the bad guys, the real villains are the ones who loaned them the money:

    City officials called Wells Fargo a vulture. "Having Wells Fargo file this claim on that building is just another stab in the heart of a city that is already down on the ground," Mayor Ann Johnston said. "They are kicking us again and again."

Just for the feeling it gives them, apparently:

    "It's unfortunate that they felt they had to do this. I'm not sure what good they hope to get from that."

Ah yes, you see, Wells Fargo is the vulture. Not a city government fining people for not painting their yellowing lawns green, or adding over $50,000 to the price of every home, or for sticking taxpayers with the bill so that retired government union employees can draw over a hundred grand per year.

[AlanS]

Evil corporations do it again. When are politician going to actually be held accountable?

[charlesoakwood]

How do you spell implosion?  S t o c k t o n

We can't spell lunatic because the Senate has voted to
remove it from the legal lexicon because it's archaic. 

[BMG]

Oh, but it gets better - not just in Stockton, but all over CA!

“We are still recovering from the worst recession since the 1930s,” Brown said in a YouTube video cited on his Twitter post. “Tax receipts are coming lower than expected and the federal government and the courts have blocked us from making billions of necessary budget reductions. The result is that we are now facing a $16 billion deficit.”

Brown this week submitted more than 1.5 million signatures to place the tax measure on the ballot. It would temporarily raise the state sales tax, already the highest in the U.S., to 7.5 percent from 7.25 percent. It would also boost rates on income starting at $250,000. The 10.3 percent levy on those making $1 million or more would rise to 13.3 percent, the most of any state.

Geeze Louise! I had no idea that Greece was so close to the west coast!

[Glock32]

So how long do you think it will be before the rest of us are expected to bail out the profligate socialists in California? 'Cause you know it's coming.

[Libertas]

Cut the umbilical, let nature take its course.

[BMG]

So how long do you think it will be before the rest of us are expected to bail out the profligate socialists in California? 'Cause you know it's coming.

I imagine they'll start floating that a few months before the state has to file for bankruptcy. But I also believe that it will never fly. Leftists, for all their supposed desire to 'spread the wealth around' will completely balk at having to bailout a state especially when that bailout will hit their own wallets so hard. If the democrat leadership even started talking about that sort of thing much if not most of their sheep will not support it.

It's all rainbows and puppy dogs only for as long as they are on the receiving end of it. Once they have to contribute, well all bets are off then.

[LadyVirginia]

I think many, many people think of California as a lefty, immoral cesspool.  Any talk of saving it by burdening other states isn't going to fly.  I think that scenario will wake up a few more people to reality.