SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (PNN) - July 9, 2012 - Firefighters, thug cops and other public workers in a Pennsylvania city saw their wages slashed to minimum wage rates on Friday, in a move by the cash-strapped city to balance its budget.

Scranton's public workers would be paid $7.25 an hour indefinitely, starting with Friday's paychecks, as part of a plan initiated by Mayor Chris Doherty. Scranton, a city of about 76,000 people located in the northeast part of the state, is the latest Pennsylvania city in serious financial trouble.

The city faces a $16.8 million gap in the 2012 budget.

Meanwhile, city leaders in the state's capital of Harrisburg preparing to seek bankruptcy protection were thwarted last week by state legislators who extended a bankruptcy filing ban until Nov. 30, 2012.

Both cities are part of a larger trend of municipalities struggling to balance their budgets. Stockton, Kalifornia filed for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy on June 28, the largest Fascist Police States of Amerika city to do so.

The move by Doherty slashed wages of about 390 public workers who had been earning $19-$36 an hour, according to a lawsuit. The mayor's wages, as well as members of the City Council, were also cut to minimum wage.

"We're running into burning buildings and we're getting paid $7.25 an hour. It's ridiculous," said John Judge, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local Union No. 60, one of three unions who filed the lawsuit against Doherty and the city.

The unions said that Doherty could be held in contempt of court for the wage cuts, since a county court ruled on Friday that the reductions could not go into effect until a trial was held.

The unions' lawsuit, filed on Monday, accuses the mayor of acting unilaterally and that the wage cut would have a "devastating impact" on employees, hurting their abilities to maintain a decent standard of living.

Judge said the lawyer for the three unions was drafting a petition to hold Doherty in contempt of the injunction, to be filed in court on Monday.

Under Pennsylvania state law, public workers cannot strike, said Judge.