The coffers of Western municipalities have suffered more during the recent economic downturn than those of cities in the Midwest, South or Northeast, according to a Sept. 15 report by the Washington, D.C.-based National League of Cities.
Local government and the services it provides to residents aren’t immune to the perfect fiscal storm of foreclosures, rising energy and health care costs and lowering home values, as The Denver Business Journal reports:
Seventy-four percent of finance officers in Western cities said that their municipalities are worse off in 2008 than they were in 2007, according to the latest City Fiscal Conditions report by the Washington, D.C.-based National League of Cities (NLC). The West region includes cities in Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and California with populations greater than 10,000.
In this case a sinking tide lowers all boats, including the toy versions floating on the surfaces of community swimming pools.