Written by William Hekman
A new report by Truth in Accounting — a nonpartisan American think tank — paints an ugly picture for the majority of California’s democrat-run cities. 15 California cities were analyzed in the group’s “Fiscal State of the Cities.”
12 of the 15 California cities were placed in the red category — symbolizing a taxpayer burden. San Diego was one of the cities that received a “D” grade, or a taxpayer burden of $0-$4,900, while Sacramento, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, and Anaheim all have between $4,300 and $6,600 of a taxpayer burden.
San Diego currently has $2,981,343,000 needed to pay the bills, paired with $3,508,374,000 of unfunded pension benefits. $462,516,000 is the number needed for healthcare retirees, and $6,400 per taxpayer is the precise amount that San Diego is in the hole.
Governments in the Bay area have demonstrated even more incompetence when it comes to maintaining fiscal responsibility. Cities like Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco all received a “D” grade by Truth in Accounting.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, San Francisco’s Breed administration has the worst deficit in California, amounting to $19,000 per taxpayer.
Last year, the entirety of California received an “F” grade on fiscal health with a deficit of $264 billion and a $21,000 taxpayer burden. Brandon Ristoff of the California Policy Institute suggests that this bleak calculation can be attributed to city leaders acting like “teenagers who have a credit card with no limits.”
If California leaders don’t emphasize a balanced budget going forward, then Ristoff says a plethora of city workers inevitably will “lose the retirement benefits they’re counting on.”
Photo Cred: Shutterstock/ Forbes
