City leaders in Pennsylvania's cash-strapped capital Harrisburg, who wanted to keep open the option to seek bankruptcy protection for the city of 50,000, were thwarted by state legislators over the weekend who extended the bankruptcy filing ban until Nov. 30, Reuters reported yesterday. "The legislature made a decision," Governor Tom Corbett (R) told reporters on Saturday after signing the bill and Pennsylvania's new $27.7 billion budget into law. "Harrisburg's problems need to be addressed and we will provide whatever help we can to the receiver in an appropriate form under the law." The ban is the latest chapter in the city's battle with the state and within the ranks of the city's own officials, to retain control of its finances. It has been struggling under some $320 million of debt stemming from expensive upgrades and repairs to its trash incinerator. The city council filed for bankruptcy in October, but a bankruptcy judge rejected the petition a month later because state lawmakers had passed a law prohibiting municipalities of a certain size from seeking legal protection from creditors. Should Harrisburg seek bankruptcy protection while the ban is law, it would lose any state funding it receives.
