Thomas de Monchaux on “austerity,” the word and concept, in the New York Times, hinting at the multiple implications of austerity (including a sort of implicit luxury): Economically, austerity — which the Germans, among others, are intent on forcing upon their southern brethren — can sound like a good idea, but might actually exacerbate the…
Category: Austerity
Detroit Must Cut Income Taxes, Worsening Crumbling Tax Base
In a twist of irony, the city of Detroit is required to reduce its income tax rate because it no longer meets state-set criteria for financial distress (it met those criteria from 2003-2007 and 2009-11, they were waived by the state legislature for 2008 and 2009). Although the loss in revenue represents a small part…
NYT: “Budget Woes Prompt Erosion of Public Jobs, With a Heavy Toll in Silicon Valley”
San Jose, Calif., which calls itself the capital of Silicon Valley and has grown to become the nation’s 10th biggest city, has had to shed more than a fifth of its workers in recent years to save money. It is, in a way, a microcosm of the nation, which has lost 668,000 state and local…
In Alabama, a County That Fell Off the Financial Cliff
The New York Times ran a long article Saturday about the bankruptcy of Jefferson County, home of Birmingham, Alabama. There is no money for a lot of things around here, not since Jefferson County, population 658,000, went bankrupt last fall. There is no money for holiday D.U.I. checkpoints, litter patrols or overtime pay at the…
State and Local Budgets in 2011: The Crisis that Didn’t Happen (Yet?) – Brookings Institution
Brookings’ end of the year wrap-up of what happened and didn’t happen in 2011. The year’s top story in state and local government was “hundreds of billions of dollars” in municipal bond defaults. Oh wait, that didn’t happen. … 2011 was also the year that local property taxes finally dropped. The resilience of property tax revenues until…