{"id":1859,"date":"2011-06-24T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/incinerator-forces-harrisburg-to-sell-off-parking-lots.html"},"modified":"2011-06-24T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-24T15:00:00","slug":"incinerator-forces-harrisburg-to-sell-off-parking-lots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/incinerator-forces-harrisburg-to-sell-off-parking-lots.html","title":{"rendered":"Incinerator forces Harrisburg to sell off parking lots"},"content":{"rendered":"

After defaulting on its incinerator bonds<\/a>,
\nHarrisburg, PA, gets even more desperate and starts selling off pieces of itself.<\/p>\n

\nWilliam Alden wrote in huffpo 15 June 2011,
\n
\nHarrisburg’s ‘Bad Deal’: City Forced To Pursue Parking System Lease Despite Fears<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nThe finances of Harrisburg, Pa., are so desperate that local officials are
\nconsidering a deal they fear will ultimately make the city more miserable.<\/p>\n

\nA state-appointed panel, charged with crafting a financial recovery plan
\nfor the city, announced this week that Harrisburg must pursue the sale of
\npublic assets to help resolve its fiscal crisis. The nearly-bankrupt state
\ncapital, weighed down by debt more than four times the size of its budget,
\n“is not in control of its own destiny,” the state team said in a report.<\/p>\n

\nThree years ago, confronted with a similar budget shortfall, the city
\nconsidered leasing parking garages and meters in exchange for quick
\ninfusion of cash, but that deal was never approved. Last month, the offer
\nresurfaced when New York-based developer LambdaStar expressed renewed
\ninterest. Some city leaders harbor a growing fear that Harrisburg will
\nbe forced into a deal that will bleed its coffers over the course of
\ndecades, after it surrenders valuable assets to a profit-driven company
\nwith the power to raise rates on a captive base of customers.<\/p>\n

\nBut those misgivings may not matter, as a budget crisis chokes Harrisburg
\ninto submission.<\/p>\n

\n“This is a situation where Wall Street will get paid, and the little
\nguys on Main Street, taxpayers, are going to get stuck holding the bag,”
\nHarrisburg City Council Member Brad Koplinski said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nCouldn’t happen here, right?
\nOur local governments would never
\n
\nhastily approve bonds that could force raising taxes or default<\/a>,
\nwould they?
\nOh, right: they already did.<\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After defaulting on its incinerator bonds, Harrisburg, PA, gets even more desperate and starts selling off pieces of itself. William Alden wrote in huffpo 15 June 2011, Harrisburg’s ‘Bad Deal’: City Forced To Pursue Parking System Lease Despite Fears: The finances of Harrisburg, Pa., are so desperate that local officials are considering a deal they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,14,2,88,21,32,478,178],"tags":[8738,728,4243,8701,4242,4131,4244,4245,7,8734,2878,1798,1188,8749],"class_list":["post-1859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biomass","category-economy","category-government","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-planning","category-pollution","category-solid-waste","category-vlcia","tag-biomass","tag-bonds","tag-default","tag-georgia","tag-harrisburg","tag-incinerator","tag-junk-bonds","tag-lambdastar","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-parking","tag-pennsylvania","tag-privatization","tag-vlcia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}