“Bankruptcy is attractive to taxpayers because it offers a partial exit strategy by reducing public sector pensions and other benefits. But public sector unions have a death grip on the power politics of many, if not most, American cities. What happened in Scranton should be a cautionary tale. Similar battles are erupting across the continent – from Stockton, California in the West to Heartland cities like Pittsburgh and to Trenton, New Jersey in the East. The reason is the same. The enormous unfunded liability of public sector wages and benefits makes taxes and fees soar even as government ‘services’, like garbage collection and street lights, decline.”
http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2014/2/5/us-towns-declaring-bankruptcy-are-the-lucky-ones.html