Mount Clemens, MI, to go bankrupt in 1 1/2 years because of 8 years of Granholm and 26% annual increase in healthcare costs due to ObamaCare, but mostly because of 26% annual increase in Healthcare costs due to ObamaCare

Mount Clemens doesn't have a revenue problem. Indeed voters in Mount Clemens in Macomb County, MI rejected a ballot proposal to increase taxes by $500,000 (not on one person because that would be a record) by a large margin. As with most local governments, their problem is that they are spending too much. And with all things Macomb County, union benefits are bankrupting them, not a lack of tax revenue. In most places in Macomb County, public sector workers get dinosaur pension benefits that ostensibly pay workers to NOT work and eat up a larger slice of the budget pie every year with no end in sight. Worse yet, union healthcare benefits are a twin sacred cow to pensions, and the costs are skyrocketing because of ObamaCare. From The Macomb Daily: Audit: Mount Clemens could run out of cash in two years. Note that the Macomb Daily starts the piece out by calling a failed ballot measure to increase taxes "bad news:"

Losing a millage election wasn’t the only bad news Mount Clemens city officials received last week.

The night before voters defeated for the second time a Headlee Amendment override to restore the maximum tax rate, the City Commission heard an audit report that stated the general fund could run out of cash in the not too distant future.

Hey Mount Clemens statist bureaucrats: just keep asking. In fact next time ask for the same thing 4 times like nearby Troy did: Repudiation: Troy, MI residents dump 4 millage requests for THE SAME THING, keep government from metastasizing

“The question is how much time is there,” said Lisa Manetta of the Plante & Moran auditing firm.

“We’re looking at sometime in mid-2012 the general fund will run out of money. Every decision you make between now and then, to increase revenue and reduce expenditures will elongate the time frame.”

According to the audit report, the city’s budget deficit has grown from $962,000 to about $1.3 million as of June 30. It could escalate to $4 million in the following years if nothing is done.

But here is perhaps the key nugget of the piece:

To make matters worse, new projections for health care costs show a 26 percent increase for the upcoming year – which will cost another $600,000.

So the tax increase the bureauweenies wanted wouldn't have even covered the increase in healthcare costs. Here's a novel idea: STOP SPENDING! I don't know what kind of pension benefits Mt Clemns gives their retirees but pensions are constitutionally protected in Michigan. But I do know they give retirees healthacre benefits that are not constitutionally protected:

Among the steps taken to reduce costs, the city has sliced the pay of department heads and asked for retirees to pick up higher co-pays.

Hey - how about cut retiree healthcare altogether? You guys promised what was impossible and by giving full healthcare benefits, incentivized workers to retire early - Macomb union members retire as early as age 49 - and be content to be paid not to work. That cannot continue. Cut healthcare for retirees, increase co-pays for current employees, and no more pensions for new workers. How about start there!

As for healthcare costs, recall that Obama chastised Republicans on national TV for saying that costs would rise as a result:

Just a couple of days ago, there was this report: Detroit area health insurance to jump 8.9% in 2011 due to ObamaCare. That was just an average. Insurance premiums are increasing even faster than they would have if ObamaCare hadn't passed. Connecticut is seeing a 47% increase this year, Boeing is paring back healthcare benefits for its employees, while even the White House admits that seniors will see higher costs and fewer benefits. Hospitals in Indiana are laying off staff citing ObamaCare. Also, there was this: CNN: Cost of your health plan to rise 14%, the opposite of what Obama promised in runup to ObamaCare.

The faster this monstrosity is repealed, the better.