As the fifth poorest metropolitan area in the country, Tucson has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for years. Under the inept leadership of Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, his politically focused City Council, and its anti-business reputation, a Chapter 9 bankruptcy for Tucson is just around the corner.
Although some Councilmembers seem to be aware that the policies adopted by leadership are certain to doom Tucson, none of the members appear to have the clout or character to stop the run-away train heading off the financial cliff. Councilman Steve Kozachik complains about the reckless spending policies, yet lacks both the character and the power to influence others on the Council.
It could be that because the bitter Kozachik only complains. His fellow Councilmembers long ago stopped listening, or they simply cannot understand what it means to be fiscally responsible with a budget. Whatever the case may be, their actions – or lack thereof – have led Tucson to the financial brink.
According to an article in Forbes, “unless you’re a municipal bond holder, life is likely to go on as usual” when Tucson finally files its Chapter 9 paperwork.
Like San Bernardino, which filed for bankruptcy in 2011, Tucson is the poorest city of its size in its state. Like San Bernardino, the police and firefighters have generous retirement plans and pension funds are woefully underfunded.
Gawker cites the case of San Bernardino patrol lieutenant Richard Taack to make its point. They note that Taack took his lucrative retirement – an annual lifetime pension of $128,000 – and then came back to the job for $32 an hour.
Sound familiar?
Taack’s sweet deal occurred “long after the city had already seen its tax revenues collapse, along with the economy as a whole.” While pensions were “certainly complicit in San Bernardino’s downfall,” according to Gawker, the “real blame rests with elected officials who voted this entire unsustainable system of lavish payments and pensions into place.”
Sound familiar?
It has been said that Mayor Jonathan Rothschild does not want to go down in history as the Mayor who presided over Tucson’s bankruptcy. The truth is, Tucson’s bankruptcy will be on his watch because he is a weak leader. The Mayor lacks the toughness that is needed to take on the Council majority and entrenched city bureaucracy.
Just this week, at the request of Councilperson Regina Romero, the City leaders agreed to form yet another committee. That committee will consider whether to force the few remaining viable businesses within the city limits to offer paid sick time to their employees. Should the measure go forward, the City’s inevitable bankruptcy will come sooner rather than later. To a certain extent the faster we get there the better, but that path would not only destroy Rothschild’s ego, unlike San Bernardino’s bankruptcy, life would likely not go on as usual.
Businesses would flee.
The Gawker article concludes: “If your local elected officials are math-illiterate, in the pocket of special interests to the point of being functionally corrupt, or both, your city may go bankrupt.”
Because the Tucson City Council is both, bankruptcy is inevitable. And that will be the legacy of Jonathan Rothschild, native Tucsonan.