Here's the money quote:

"It appears that the City moved money wherever it wanted, whenever it wanted, regardless of the law or the intended purpose of those taxpayer dollars," Controller John Chiang said in a statement.

I Googled "Oregon State Controller" and the best I could do was:

Joy Sebastian
Deputy State Controller 503-373-0170 Joy.Sebastian@state.or.us

I was happy to learn they value Diversity and Sustainability, but no matter where I looked on their website, I could find no State Controller's office.
http://staging.apps.oregon.gov/DAS/docs/poster_mission.pdf

This is good for Portland. The more cities that default, the more the others will continue to borrow. Safety in numbers. And the US Government will treat them as too big to fail. Keep on borrowing, Ptown, you are much too pretty to go bancrupt. The US Sugar Daddy will come to your rescue soon, with all their extra loot.

Portland would most likely already be bankrupt if it had to recognize its true liabilities. But the politicians have given themselves a free pass when it comes to the way that government accounting works.

It is rather funny that the politicians rant and rave for the camera about evil big business, but then they turn around and fail to follow the accounting rules that business has to use.

If a public company tried to ignore pension liabilities like the City of Portland does, there would be criminal charges made.

What is even more troubling though than the accounting scam is the fact that people who know better are ignoring it. The credit rating folks who were shocked to find out that mortgage backed bonds were worthless, are going to be doubly shocked to find out in the near future that the City of Portland can't pay its bills.

Evidently the credit rating agencies still haven't figured out how to read information and comprehend it.

Deal flow. If they downgrade us before the public collapse point, they lose their cut of every borrowing. One percent of a very large number still pays for lots of summer places in the Hamptons. Why should they lose out before anybody else? Totally cynical.

S&L's, looted. Banks, looted. Government contracts, looted. TARP, no need to loot! They're giving it away! Now they are coming for local governments. Nothing to see here, just move along.

And what is even sadder than the city spending way more than it has any ability to pay back, is this is leading to a complete takeover of our property and assets to the banksters.

We are getting global government by the bankers by default.

Let's just fix the problem the way we will with the Postal Service, the one and only agency required to actually fund its obligations.

Just say they don't have to. Kick the can down the road 15, 20 years and deal with it then.

"Losing redevelopment was like the bank calling you and saying, 'We're not renewing your credit line.' That's the kiss of death," said Larry Kosmont, a consultant who advises a number of California cities.

Urban Renewal is and has been so addictive that thousands of cities and towns have fallen prey to the financial schemes of their "leaders". I prefer getting rid of the drug itself as part of the cure. The other part is more difficult, and that is getting the American public to accept a lifestyle of less credit, personally and publicly and make do with less, which is really enough after all.