If you were laid off due to fiscal mismanagement, would you re-apply for a job with that company?

your attituce sounds sour and that probably permeates the decision not to rehire anyone.youre better off to move on.

remember the compliments and forget the insults

People get laid off and get hired back all the time. In fact it makes sense. You need to prove to the new boss that one you had nothing to do with the mismanagement, and two your previous experience can help him to improve the organization going forward.

And yes, if you were overpaid before, replacing you save lots of money.

Perhaps they subscribe to the theory that a new broom sweeps clean. They know there were problems before and they perhaps consider that everyone there during those troubled times were in some small way responsible for these problems. Therefore they believe that if they get some fresh blood and some fresh ideas they will not repeat the mistakes of the past.

But if you really want to I don't see what harm it can do to re-apply. The worst they can do is simply ignore your application.

It sounds like you were to expensive. If they could hire someone else for half of the price and they would do the same job why should they keep you.

If you were in their position and could, by laying off the 15 of you, save $1million per year what would you have done?

Any chance you can market your skills in the same industry, but not to your previous employer? Do you have "too much" information about your employer to objectively consider the opportunities with them?

If it happened one, mismanagement can happen again. I recommend you look elsewhere..