Joe Biden's Hometown Of Scranton, PA Is Broke So Mayor Cuts Everyone's Pay To Minimum Wage

First Stockton, CA now Scranton, PA.

Drink!

Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty cut everyone's pay -- including his own -- on Friday, saying the state's sixth-largest city is broke because the City Council blocked his proposed tax increase. Doherty, a Democrat, warned nearly 400 police officers, firefighters and public works employees about his doomsday plan, prompting a Lackawanna County judge to order the city to pay full wages to all employees, citing that it is a violation of their contracts. Hours later, the payday envelopes went out, and, despite the judge's order, they were light.

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The city of Scranton has battled budget woes for years, but the problems reached a boiling point after the City Council blocked Doherty's plan to raise taxes to cover a $16.8 million shortfall, opting instead to borrow money to cover the budget gap.

“The mayor is trying to strong-arm the council into doing what he wants, but it’s the city’s employees that are paying the price,” [president of the local firefighters union John] Judge said, adding that the workers in his department saw their paystubs go from about $1,500 every two weeks after deductions to a gross pay of about $600. “This is not a case of no cash. It’s a cash-flow problem.”

Well, no. If your solution to a problem is a 29% tax hike as the mayor has proposed, you have a spending problem not a cash flow problem.

Public unions, including cops and firefighters, need to understand that residents aren't simply piggy banks that can be raided at will forever and ever. Public services are created to ensure a certain quality of life but at some point the equation tips the other way and the "services" become a unbearable burden.

Citizens don't exist to serve the needs of public sector workers. As the costs become prohibitive, they will either find another way to get the services, move or simply do without.

Public workers, including first responders, really need to understand something....no one is irreplaceable.

posted by DrewM. at 09:36 AM

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