And the cops.
That’s what other cities have done when their fiscal profligacy has run their finances into a ditch.
“Oh, it’s the pensions,” those other cities have said.
Some cities have even clawed back the benefits of their retirees, taking money back from the pensioners’ bank accounts.
That’s gotta hurt.
The financial pressure from retirement packages existed even when the City of El Paso took on the nearly $3 BILLION debt we now owe. But our elected officials took on that debt anyway.
But you know that when the bill comes due – for the water parks, and for the Quality of Life projects, and all the other pretty nothings our elected officials have fancied – when our population’s slow attrition has turned into a flood of emigres, and people with families have stopped moving here because the taxes are too high, and there are no good jobs, those politicians won’t accept the blame.
“Oh, it’s the pensions,” the politicians will say. “Those greedy firemen have bankrupted the city. Those greedy cops.”
Because you know that the politicians will never accept the responsibility for their own poor choices.