Credit to InstaGlenn for the title. Somehow I doubt this was the “change” Pennsylvania voters were counting on, though.

April 27 (Bloomberg) — Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which has missed $6 million in debt payments since Jan. 1, should consider seeking Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, City Controller Dan Miller told a three-hour special committee hearing.

Miller, the first of four people to testify last night in an “informational session” on insolvency convened by Gloria Martin-Roberts, council president, said bankruptcy may offer Harrisburg relief from $68 million in debt-service payments this year tied to a waste-to-energy incinerator project. Martin- Roberts opposes a bankruptcy filing.

This is the capital of Pennsylvania…considering filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

“It’s not good,” Miller said at the start of the hearing before a silent audience of about 20 that included city officials and union members. “Nobody wants to do it, but it’s there for a reason,” he said. “Maybe for the purpose of helping cities that are in the situation we are in now.”

The city this month skipped a $637,500 payment due on a loan to Fairfield, New Jersey-based Covanta Holding Corp., operator of the incinerator.

It’s never good news when your city has such a large debt load that you consider filing for bankruptcy to be your best option moving forward. It’s even worse when you may not even qualify:

Only one community in the state, Westfall Township in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Pike County, has filed for Chapter 9 protection, and the option might not be available to Harrisburg, said Gregg Miller, a partner with the Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton law firm. Miller represented Westfall, which entered bankruptcy last year after it was assessed with a $20 million legal judgment. The amount is about 20 times its annual budget.

“It’s difficult to get into Chapter 9,” Miller said. He said Harrisburg would have to present a proposed debt relief plan to its creditors and get an endorsement from the state before it could seek bankruptcy.

“You have to meet with the state Department of Economic and Community Development and convince them you are deserving of Chapter 9 protection,” Miller said.

Now some officials are proposing tax hikes, which I suppose are inevitable when you’ve spent your way into fiscal disaster and can’t simply cut spending now. The city’s 47,000 residents should be thrilled.