Reliance on large pension and
retiree healthcare promises to keep wages low, and not funding those promises to keep taxes low.
The states, most of which had to run a balanced budget, cheated in a different way — they didn't lay aside enough cash for their pension and
retiree healthcare promises.
Much of this stems from pension and
retiree healthcare promises.
Some municipalities have done that with pensions, almost none have done it with retiree healthcare, but
the retiree healthcare promise is much weaker one.