America’s Top Cities Swamped In Debt, Chicago Leads The Way

Via ZeroHedge

Taxpayers in America’s ten biggest cities face an average per taxpayer burden of $50,000 in debt incurred by the county, state and or “off-balance-sheet” transactions by city government entities, according to Truth in Accounting (TIA).

The taxpayer burden, TIA explains, is the amount residents would have to pay to cover all of a government’s debt. “When the unfunded debt of these underlying government units is combined with the county, municipal, and state debt, city taxpayers are on the hook for much more than they think,” according to TIA.

The cities are ranked from top to bottom, on net position, explained Bill Bergman, director of research for TIA. “And it’s on that basis that Chicago ranks dead last,” he said.

Chicago taxpayer burden equates to $119,110 in debt per taxpayer, a number that includes debt from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the state of Illinois. Bergmans said the most significant burdens on taxpayers is from CPS. He added, CPS has separate financial ledgers.

“As bad as the picture is for the city, you add a significantly higher debt load once you include the Chicago Public Schools,” he said.

The massive debt load could affect Chicago’s S&P Global Ratings, was warned several years ago that its rating could sink into junk unless it passes a budget that addresses the fiscal situation.

“Taxpayers are on the hook for the debts accrued by these underlying government entities, but you would not know it just by looking at the reported data for the city,” the report states.

Following Chicago, New York City’s combined Taxpayer Burden: $85,600; Los Angeles’ combined Taxpayer Burden: $56,390; Philadelphia’s combined Taxpayer Burden: $50,120.

“The debt facing school districts in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio don’t add nearly as much to the total debt burden facing taxpayers in those cities as most others of the largest 10 cities we studied,” Bergman added. “Still, one might have expected better overall financial conditions for those Texas cities in light of economic and demographic trends in the last decade.”

For these cities to pay off its debt, each taxpayer would need to fork over around $50,000 each. Zerohedge readers understand, 60% of millennials don’t have $500 in savings ahead of the next recession. So obviously this deadbeat generation that is expected to take over the workforce by 2024 won’t have the ability to bail out America’s deadbeat cities in the next downturn.

Which leaves us with the question of the day: Will the Federal Reserve bailout heavily indebted cities in the next crisis?

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BB
BB

As an owner operator in the trucking business I have warned everyone who will listen to stay away from the big urban areas if possible. I travel to many of these cities on my loads and they will be death traps after any major collapse . I am starting to turn down high paying loads going in some of these cities. My biggest fear is an electric outage. Years ago I was in LA when the power went out.For the next several hours it was hell. I thought I would never get out. Fortunately I was in a nicer part of LA but it was still scary. People get angry very quickly in situations like that and you never know what will happen.
I will be driving hard for the next 10 hours. So God bless to all and have a great day.

Harrington Richardson
Harrington Richardson

Were the FED to bail out the big debtors I guess we are talking about an amount equal to the US annual budget for a year. That would dilute the value of every Dollar as it is no more than a hidden tax. In a Gold Standard folks would understand real quick when politicians were sticking their hands in their pockets to benefit strangers.

Boat Guy
Boat Guy

I’m surprised Baltimore did not make the list ! The New bag of shit Baltimore County Executive had a meeting with the new Baltimore City Mayor regarding some sort of cooperation between county and city . Why not the city flight of residents from the city shit holes to section 8 shit holes created by liberal bags of shit in the county has ruined the county with school failings and crime and now they want to increase taxes upon county residents to cover debt created by bags of shit in the county council who answer to the country club elites . This assures low cost rental units in middle class county communities but never near a gated enclave or country club .
Imagine that we get shit hole dwellers with shit hole mentality and they get Federal section 8 rent vouchers .
See how well Socialism really works and for who …

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