Greetings from Subprime County

As an aside, after nearly 30 years of covering municipal and school funding, I find the first story near incomprehensible. Put in English fellows. Towit:

Citizens, you've been screwed. First your elected leaders chose not to move into the 20th century and the federal government had to step in and order them to put in a sewer system. Since then your sewer rates have gone up 400 percent.

That would be because your elected leaders played a game of three-card Monty with a sidewalk shill broker. Your elected leaders got peanuts, the shill got millions, and you got screwed.

In an effort to hide their cupidity and incompetence, your elected leaders are blaming it on "high interest rates". That is akin to blaming your unwanted pregnancy on the phases of the moon. In either case, it was you that got screwed.

The fault lies not with high interest rates but with the nonfeasance, misfeasance and malfeasance of elected leaders — and perhaps the media for failing to explain in understandable English what they were planning on doing to you.

Good luck folks. At least you have football to comfort you.

 

Great stuff.

 

And sure as the sun rises in the east, here comes the explanation that's its just the man keeping LaLa down. And do note the kicker.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/05/birmingham_sclc_president_blas.html

 

The clock is ticking, with less than a month to go until the money is due. So naturally the County Commission fires the advisers telling them that painful changes are needed in favor of a whole new cast of characters.

More and more outsiders are starting to notice the train crash that's coming soon.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aF6lgmPZ6XwE

 

With commissioners like Shelia Smoot and Bettye Fine Collins, it's a wonder this didn't happen years ago -- especially with the current Birmingham mayor on the board...

This place has to improve to be fucked up. they wanted to try and impose a sewer bill on people with septic systems -- with Smoot trying to push it as a Clean Water Surcharge. While the sewer system had to improve, under federal order, the only thing really cleaned out are the taxpayers.

 

Yeah, it's about to get real ugly.



http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/08/_news_staffjoe_songerfrank_den.html

 

Amateur stuff compared to a city 650 miles north....

 

Sounds like a waste of time to me.

 

And now, they have fired the new advisers in favor of hiring one of the old advisors back. Not that it matters, because the commission president officially became the last person in town to figure out that bankruptcy is coming.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1219738563247390.xml&coll=2

As a poster on a different board noted, you could take the new $2.5 billion deal the SEC signed with ESPN, put all of it on the debt, and still come up a billion short.

 

I just heard that Birmingham is putting together a bid to get the 2020 Summer Olympics.

It's not a joke. Really.

The punch line forms to the left.

 

That's old news, man. Where'ya been?

 

Ducking dust storms and gun-toting teachers.