Update on Vallejo, California

What originally caught my eye regarding that situation last February was my noticing in an article on Bloomberg's website  that  "Police and firefighting salaries, pension and overtime consumes $63.1 million, or about 74 percent of the city's $85 million general fund budget. The city has slashed $13 million in spending since December 2006, firing 47 workers."
(here's a link to my original post: http://activerain.com/blogsview/398862/California-City-Moves-Closer )

It boggles my mind that such services can consume SO MUCH of a city's operating budget. 

It appears, apparently, that Vallejo's sacred cows are unwilling to compromise. Here's the latest from Bloomberg.com: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=atl3yFmV508A&refer=news

Please excuse my apparent contempt for sacred cows, but when a community's solvency is at stake, and in Vallejo apparently since 1996, where "...there are currently 1,214 ``real estate owned'' homes, (and) another 1,014 properties...in the foreclosure process, and 464 houses ...scheduled to be auctioned...." I think it's safe to say that things need a little change.

People are loosing their security, their jobs, their homes, their sanity, and who knows what all else.

Dire situations require dire appropriateness.