Vallejo California Two Years After Declaring Bankruptcy

Link to Los Angeles Times article, "Lessons of hard times in Vallejo".

Excerpt: Evidence of municipal misery is widespread. Foreclosed homes are sold in front of the Civic Center so often that City Hall is plastered with signs warning auctioneers not to conduct business at the lobby information desk or the monument to fallen firefighters and police officers.

Sixty percent of all borrowers in the Vallejo area owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth in the first quarter of 2010, according to CoreLogic, compared with 24% of borrowers nationwide and 34% in California.

Property and sales tax revenue are expected to drop 18% and 10%, respectively, in the current fiscal year. The city's general fund has plummeted 20% in the last two years.

Trees go untrimmed, potholes unfilled. The economic development staff has been slashed to one. Even Wal-Mart has decamped from this city of 121,000. Vallejo has stopped funding senior centers and libraries.  [Emphasis added.]

"The unofficial civic motto used to be, 'Vallejo, come for the crack, stay for the hookers,' " joked writer David Corbett, who moved here in 1994 and sets some of his gritty novels in a real or imagined Vallejo. "Since bankruptcy, it's been changed to, 'Vallejo, where your hope comes to die.' "

Link to May 25, 2008 cbs13.com news report, "Vallejo Facing Uncertain Road After Bankruptcy".

Excerpt: Many residents blame extravagant pay and benefits for police and firefighters for Vallejo's financial woes. Compensation for firefighters and police officers now make up 75 percent of its $87 million general fund budget, a much larger share than most California cities.

About that library funding.....

The John F. Kennedy Library in Vallejo is a branch of the Solano County Library, which means that the City of Vallejo doesn't collect a library tax.

According to California Library Statistics 2010, Solano County's FY2008-09 per capita total expenditures was $52.43, compared to the statewide mean of $34.69.  Materials expenditures:  $5.00 vs. $3.23.