Cities at Tipping Point Tear Up Contracts to Stay Solvent
This article is for subscribers only.
Philadelphia, which may close a quarter of its schools by 2017 to save cash, has to boost pay for firefighters even though the city’s fiscal overseer says that would “blow up the budget.”
An arbitration award means the estimated $238 million cost of the wage and benefit increase through 2017 must be borne by the city where a quarter of residents live in poverty, double the state rate.