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CITIES FACE FINANCIAL CARNAGE. Related: Broke cities turn to beleaguered states. ?The increasin?

By Glenn Reynolds

CITIES FACE FINANCIAL CARNAGE.

Related: Broke cities turn to beleaguered states. “The increasingly common pleas for state assistance ? after two relatively quiet decades ? reflect the yawning local budget deficits that have appeared in the last two years. As tax revenue has fallen, the cost of providing labor-intensive government services, like teaching and policing, has proved hard to reduce. . . . But some public finance experts worry that the states, mired in their own financial problems, will not force communities to attack their problems head-on and solve them. If states let towns keep borrowing, without acknowledging the magnitude of the towns? existing debts ? like the pensions they owe retired public workers ? they might never solve their problems and just keep drawing on the states. They could end up like miniature versions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, stuck in conservatorships under government oversight with no clear way out.”

Also: Just How Much Are Teachers Getting Paid?

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on October 07, 2010 (boomark / email).