The financial collapse of the Democratic mayors

Recently, non-government organization Truth in Accounting published a reportabout the financial condition of the 75 largest cities of America.  As it turns out, 63 out of 75 cities in America were not able to pay bills at the end of the fiscal year of 2017.

The final result of this study was the calculation of the burden borne by taxpayers in these American cities.  The formula is simple: the financial balance of the city (positive or negative) is divided by the number of inhabitants.  The result is a good assessment of how effectively the city authorities work, depending on the positive or negative financial balance of the city per capita.

Let us start with the most financially strong cities.

Historically, in the city of Irvine (California), both Democrats and Republicans came to power in City Hall.  The last time a Democrat was elected mayor of Irvine was in 2012.  In Charlotte, North Carolina, Democratic mayors have been elected since 2009, and before that, Republicans dominated the mayor’s office.  In the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C., all the mayors of the post-WW2 years have been Democrats.  In the city of Lincoln (Nebraska), Democrats and Republicans alternated in power.  Fresno (California) closes the top five of the most financially sound cities in America, in which only Republican mayors have been elected since the beginning of the 21st century.

In other words, for many years, at the helm of these cities with a brilliant financial future were fiscal conservatives, who (occasionally) could be found among representatives of the Democratic Party and representatives of the Republican Party.  Moreover, those who earned a pension by working for the city have nothing to worry about, either — the pension funds of these cities are in good shape.

If we turn to the cities at the bottom of the list, the picture is quite different.