Last Friday, the city of Oakland published two reports about the state of its finances going into the new fiscal year. They had the same numbers and the same overall message: Oakland is projected to end the year with a $93 million operating shortfall and needs to make cuts. But the reports used very different language to describe the potential financial consequences facing the city.
One report, published early Friday morning in connection with a City Council agenda, warned Oakland must take immediate action to “maintain the solvency of the General Purpose Fund and avoid the Chapter 9 process.”
The report, which had the signatures of the city’s top officials on it, also warned that “Fecklessness and failure to take dramatic and immediate steps to reduce expenditures will almost certainly result in insolvency.”…