The Stockton, Calif., City Council voted to authorize a bankruptcy filing as soon as June 26 if officials fail to win concessions from creditors that would allow it to avoid becoming the biggest U.S. city to enter court protection, Bloomberg News reported today. The council, in a 6 to 1 vote, granted City Manager Bob Deis the authority to file for chapter 9 protection as the city is approaching insolvency when its fiscal year begins July 1. Stockton faces a $26 million deficit in the coming year. The city has been strained by soaring costs for pensions and retiree health benefits while sales and property-tax revenue plummeted after the longest recession since the 1930s. The decline of the city of 292,000 was compounded by accounting errors and large borrowings.
