Unit 6 Comp. Assignment

In this comprehensive assignment,  you should take a media article of an action taken by a county government (county council or township council) and develop an opinion piece on the action taken.  Provide a link to the media article describing the action taken and then your own opinion piece.  It should be three paragraphs in length. 


Jefferson county, which includes the city of Birmingham, is drowning under $4 billion in debt, the legacy of a big sewer project and corrupt financial dealings that have sent seventeen people to prison (NY Times). Jefferson county here in Alabama is known for its bankruptcy and corruption of government individuals that put the county in this place (Blog.Al). The sewer debt along was $3.14 billion before Alabama paid out $35 million to lawyers to reduce the sewer debt to $1.8 billion. The people that all live in Jefferson County pay twice the regular amount for their water and sewer than they would normally pay if the county wasn't buried in so much debt (NY Times). 
The settlements that were mentioned above were finally added after 18 months of court battles between various companies and Jefferson County.  

It's hard to believe that billions of dollars are tied up in the the Jefferson County debt crisis, but the people of Alabama get to pay for those dollars every day, even though the bankruptcy was not their fault.  For awhile now negotiations have been aimed at gaining 'forgiveness' for a certain amount of debt so that sewer rates (Bloomberg).  (The sewer rates have increased over 600% since the filed bankruptcy).

Eventually, Jefferson county voted to file for protection under the U. S. bankruptcy law, and the filing represented the largest bankruptcy by a municipal government in United States history (Blog.Al). The bankruptcy emerged in late 2007 as interest rates for Jefferson county's enormous sewer construction debts shot upwards during a national crisis in the mortgage lending market (Bloomberg). Jefferson county then negotiated a provisional settlement with creditors in September 2011, and they agreed to refinance just over $2 billion in bond debt, out of a total of $3.2 billion which had been borrowed (Blog.Al).

Living in Jefferson county has been a stretch for my husband and I financially because of the double amount we pay for water and sewer. Thankfully, we are moving to Shelby county in two months which will reduce our bill in half and at least cause us to pay the average for our water and sewer. It is interesting to see the testament of Birmingham's bankruptcy as a show of their struggle with corrupt government officials in the State. Residents and non-residents are paying for the mistakes of greedy politicians, and it is very sad. 

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2014/01/these_five_firms_were_paid_nea.html#incart_river

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-30/jefferson-county-files-to-end-bankruptcy-adjust-debt.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/business/jefferson-county-ala-falls-off-the-bankruptcy-cliff.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&