The city of Desert Hot Springs, California, near the resort town of Palm Springs, is facing bankruptcy–for the second time.
The city filed for bankruptcy in 2001, and Gov. Jerry Brown subsequently signed a law that would make it more difficult for municipalities to do so in the future.
That law, however, does not solve on its own the $6 million gap between revenues and expenditures that the city faces this year–almost a 50% overrun.
Several other California municipalities have filed for bankruptcy in recent years, the result of continued high spending and lavish pension obligations.