“When is a fiscal emergency not an emergency? When it’s in California.
The phrase may trigger images of desolate streetscapes and fiscal pain, or evoke a new risk for investors who buy municipal bond funds in search of tax-exempt income. But for many Golden State cities, the words signal opportunity. Because of rules designed to limit tax increases, cities can get proposed tax hikes on Tuesday’s primary ballot only by declaring a crisis. At least two have done so this year, following at least 50 since 2008. Muni bond investors and analysts are in on the ruse—in many cases giving it the equivalent of a shrug. To get a tax question before voters this week, Santa Cruz has issued such a declaration for the third time in 13 years. Over that time, the Monterey Bay beach town’s bond rating has improved.
Unlike other states, which lay out a process for a town to be deemed in distress, California leaves it to municipalities themselves to determine. There’s no checklist or external agency deciding whether a situation meets the layman’s understanding of the words “fiscal” and “emergency.” And there are few consequences. Pasadena, the triple-A-rated home of the Rose Bowl, declared a fiscal emergency so it can ask voters on Tuesday to approve a cannabis tax. Otherwise the palmy town north of Los Angeles, where tourists stroll past Victorian estates and historic landmarks, would have to wait for the 2020 election.”
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