If You Have $5,000, You Have More Money Than Scranton

After paying workers Friday, the city had only about $5,000 left in the bank. More money flowed into city accounts that day, but it was still not enough to pay the $1 million the city still owes to its nearly 400 employees.

Scranton’s public workers received a few days’ warning this was coming. John Judge, a firefighter and president of the International Association of Firefighters, Local 60, typically receives about $1,500 every two weeks, after deductions. On Friday his check was less than $600 — before deductions.

— Dear firefighters and also other city workers, hopefully you’re better at money management than we are. Good luck with those bills. XO, Scranton, Pennsylvania Sound illegal? It totally is! In fact, a judge was like: “You cannot do this,” but then they did it anyway because: They have no dollars. Also: I tried to look up the “local angle” on Scranton’s WNEP 16: THE NEWS STATION’s website, but the story was buried three pages in. The top stories: FIRES AND SHOOTINGS. Awesome. Awesome. (Awesome.)

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