In a recent post I noted that funding will be coming to help both the state and locals with capital projects. While this and other Recovery Act funding is of course appreciated and will hopefully provide positive long term relief for our economy, it should in not be viewed as an elixir for local government budgets that are currently in fiscal stress from seven years of revenue sharing cuts and property tax revenue losses due to the foreclosure crisis. The League will continue to ask the state and federal government to abide by Section 3, Subsection 5 of the Recovery Act, which states that one of the purposes of the act is to stablize local government budgets in order to avoid reductions in essential services and tax increases. The state Department of Treasury already has a list of over 70 communities at risk. Without direct assistance to address this issue, the number of local communities in distress will certainly rise.
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