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Reutter, on radio, breaks down “bankruptcy” talk

February 8, 2013 at 6:00 pm 2

Baltimore headed for “financial ruin” and “bankruptcy?”

Those dire words and images popped up in published reports this week following the city’s release of a consultant’s report describing Baltimore’s 10-year financial forecast.

In the wake of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s presentation of the document to reporters, headline writers picked up on the “poor-us” plot-line.

(This despite the fact that the city has a $90 million “budget stabilization reserve” and a budget shortfall smaller than many of the recent years’ shortfalls.)

So why the drama? Today The Brew’s Mark Reutter explained what was really going on during a spot on Midday with Dan Rodricks on WYPR 88.1 FM. (For more detail, read about it in Reutter’s report in The Brew.) The Reutter segment on Rodricks’ show starts at about 33:35.

During the segment, Rodricks also read an e-mail from the mayor’s spokesman Ryan O’Doherty with a link to a story – “Baltimore’s 10-year forecast sets precedent” – in bondbuyer.com.

“FYI, all investors who buy municipal bonds saw this front page Bond Buyer story today,” O’Doherty warned. “While it is not an immediate crisis, it would be foolish to ignore the problem.”

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  • ushanellore

    Keep the citizenry apprehensive.  Why?  An apprehensive and anxious citizenry won’t expect much of its leaders and is easily controlled.  Thus it will submit itself to more abuses–increased taxation, heavier water and sewer bills, exorbitant fees for licenses, more cuts in essential services like after school rec centers, security, police and fire houses.  Any city is capable of bankrupting.  Leaders are cutting back on the backs of citizens and justifying their draconian measures with dire prognostications from so called experts.  There is no end to the misery of the common folks.

  • glsever

    Rawlings-Blake does this EVERY YEAR right before budget season.  There is always some “major crisis” which she then claims can only be solved by buying into her agenda for the budget season – which usually involves some kind of tax or fee increase. 

    At least she was creative enough to have a report released right before her state of the city address this time, instead of going straight for the rec centers, swimming pools, and fire houses.

    For the record, I hope she does slash the heck out of City Hall’s spending; I just hope she cuts all the beaurocracy and overhead, and not essential city services.

The Daily Drip

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