Bakersfield California

Bakersfield.com: In just the past two years, the City of Bakersfield’s unfunded pension liability has increased over $100 million to over $400 million. That is double the entire general fund budget.

At the current 7.5 percent rate, it will cost nearly a billion dollars for Bakersfield to pay the current debt off. This will result in significant reductions of city services for many years.
As bad as this is, indications are that it will get worse. The California Public Employees Retirement System is the provider of pension benefits for the City of Bakersfield. Bakersfield is contractually bound to pay CalPERS pension costs for city employees. If the city doesn’t pay CalPERS, CalPERS can sue the city and lien its assets.

The City council in their financial report:

Just prior to adoption of the FY 2015-16 budget, staff received the latest quarterly sales tax figures. These figures reflected a 15.6 percent decrease when compared to the same quarter in 2014. 

Bakersfield is an oil town:

State Employment Development Department shows an 18 percent year-overyear decrease in countywide oil-related employment.

And the Obamacare hammer:

Once again this year, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and plan usage resulted in increases to healthcare premiums across most plans. Pursuant to labor agreements and resolutions, the City currently covers 80 percent of the monthly premiums.  The City’s healthcare costs for active employees are budgeted within the respective department operating budgets.
The dats looks like a 10% increase in premiums for the city. But the premium payments are only 5 million out of a total budget of 500 million. with a general operating fund of 200 million Their pension contributions will putthem ino bankruptcy if we have another 2008.