Final Countdown <34 hrs til budget deadline

I do not think they will. Our city's finances will have to be taken over by the state.

Sounds like Bell blinked first sometime earlier in the afternoon and offered some modifications, no entertainment tax, 50% credit for taxes paid to other cities (which is what some of the suburbs already offer their citizens). Clocks still ticking.

Bet the TPPA wish they accepted the deal offered -- Instead of a temp 3% pension pickup, all the unions 'cept the firefighters are now stuck with 10%. Of course the whole mess will be in the courts for g*d knows how long.

In the long run we might be better off if the whole thing falls off the track and the state comes in. Time for serious overhaul of the way things are done, enough with the tired practice of kicking the can down the road or into the next budget cycle.

I just got a breaking news text from WTOL stating that a balanced budget has just passed.

It was just a text, so not a lot of specific details.

Latest details here:

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100330/NEWS16/100339961

Just finished watching Fox TV . Now if the TPPA gets a temporary restraining order to halt this, I hope the Mayor will drop this charade, and let the state appoint a committee to deal with financial matters.

Did the police do any good for Jerome Wiczynski, 81 . They may eventually track down his assailant, but maybe too late for him. We need to defend ourselves, not rely on police who are too sick with the "blue flu".

I think this is just a milestone down the road. The TPPA will likely file for a restraining order to halt the city's efforts. At some point in the future an option will be bankruptcy . This might be the best choice for Toledo's citizens. We will just have to see if our economy gets better this year, the TPPA decides to be a "monkeywrench" in what the Mayor is gearing up to do, or whether the economy will not get well enough in our city this year to generate the revenue we are used to having to pay the police and fire the big bucks.

Pull a Reagan and fire them all and restart from scratch.

Linecrosser - That could be the best thing I've heard about the whole situation.

Municipal unions are the death of our local governments. Because the 100k TPS copy maker has served our city so well.

Linecrosser, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (1968) did this: "On August 3, 1981 the union declared a strike, seeking better working conditions, better pay and a 32-hour workweek. In doing so, the union violated a law {5 U.S.C. (Supp. III 1956) 118p.} that banned strikes by government unions. However, several government unions (including one representing employees of the Postal Service) had declared strikes in the intervening period without penalties.[citation needed] Ronald Reagan, however, declared the PATCO strike a 'peril to national safety' and ordered them back to work under the terms of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Only 1,300 of the nearly 13,000 controllers returned to work."

Even Reagan did not move until the union had violated federal law. The problems of our city will play out over a long time. Hopefully, when the city's administration negotiates the next contract it will not give into public pressure, and settle before the unions are forced to "give back" some of their benefits and a portion of their salaries.

"Pull a Reagan and fire them all and restart from scratch."

There you go! We'll make YOU a police officer, but YOU have to work for minimum wage while the gang bangers shoot at you.