The Public Purse offers you serious thinking about economic, financial and political trends at the U.S. state and local level with a focus on municipal credit risk
CAT | cities
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Ohio Fiscal Emergencies
0 Comments | Posted by Natalie Cohen in Budget and Finance, bankruptcy and default, cities, municipal bonds
I am adding a link to this article that updates Toledo’s fiscal situation. (See prior post.) The city is wrestling with a budget gap and trying to negotiate with unions over compensation. Ohio is a state that has a fiscal emergency program and municipalities may not file for bankruptcy without going through the state. The state’s [...]
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Flint, Michigan and the bankruptcy discussion
0 Comments | Posted by Natalie Cohen in bankruptcy and default, cities, municipal bonds
Here is an interesting clip from MLive about the debate over Flint’s dire finances. Michigan has a receivership program that has been used a number of times so municipalities cannot just file bankruptcy in federal court without going through the state. The article poses the sensible, if painful and difficult, questions of concessions on salaries and benefits [...]
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troubles in toledo
1 Comment | Posted by Natalie Cohen in bankruptcy and default, cities, municipal bonds
Looks like the city is making its best effort to try to resolve budget imbalance. Ohio is one of the states that has a strong oversight/receivership program and municipalities may not file bankruptcy without approval of the state. Local governments there do rely on income taxes, which is tough in the current economy, especially in [...]
A blogsite, “Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis” recently aggregated a selection of news stories covering state and local government budget deficits and proposed layoffs. Click here to link to the post. There are a few differences between private sector layoff announcements and the public sector that are worth pointing out. The private sector typically announces layoff actions that are already decided. [...]
From the trough of recession it can take up to two more years for cities (and other local governments) to reach their revenue low point, according to research by the National League of Cities and the Brookings Institution. If the overall economy has hit bottom, we’re looking at another few years for local government to find the low [...]