When the city of Scranton, Pa., found itself down to its last $5,000 in the bank last week, its Democratic mayor took a highly unusual step: he unilaterally cut the pay of city workers — including police officers, firefighters and even himself — to the minimum wage, just $7.25 an hour. Now the city’s unions are fighting for their promised pay in court.
“The teenagers who work at the ice cream stand not far from my house, they make $8.50 an hour — that’s a dollar and a quarter more than I now make,” said John J. Judge IV, a 10-year veteran firefighter who is the president of the Scranton local of the firefighters’ union.
But Scranton finds itself in a position that is unusual even in this era of widespread budget pain: it has nearly run out of cash and, so far, no one is willing to lend it more.
I was born in Scranton and grew up just outside of it.
I haven't followed the story closely, but the mayor attempted to slash salaries quite a while ago, but the employees and their unions got a court injunction, blocking the move. The city funds dried up and the mayor in desperation violated the court order as he recognized there was not enough money to cover the salaries of civil workers until other streams of financing are established.
Scranton was once a booming coal town where at one time more anthracite was being mined there than in the rest of the world combined. For decades it has suffered from a diminishing tax base and corrupt city and county politics. Northeastern PA has about the oldest average age and is only beaten by some retirement areas in Florida.
I feel sorry for the mayor, who inherited a corrupt system. I think for all my life the city was paying more in disability benefits to injured workers than they were to workers. There were also always a lot of phantom employees, who were collecting pay checks without having to show up for jobs.
