This clip is an interesting glimpse into the financial review process underway in Detroit. Governor Snyder of Michigan proposed a consent agreement that would set up a financial advisory board for the city, removing authority for fiscal decisions from the Mayor and City Council, but falling short of dismantling the city government (which an emergency…
Category: Austerity
The unkindest cut: automatic triggers
Background on the looming California budget cuts this spring… Every government bases an adopted budget on revenue projections (and engages in a variety of tactics for keeping money flowing out while it waits for that revenue to flow in). Of course, those projections meet reality at some point during the year, and budgets may need…
Stockton, Calif., takes ‘first step towards bankruptcy’
Another city mentions the B word: Stockton, California will “skip some bond payments in an effort to restructure its precarious finances.” Along with defaulting on about $2 million of debt payments through the end of its current fiscal year, the city located about 85 miles east of San Francisco will seek mediation with its major bond…
Women Bearing the Brunt of Austerity in Britain – NYTimes.com
The Times seems to have a reporter on the European austerity beat. The article is a story out of a Mike Leigh film: As Britain shaves public services and benefits, advocates contend that women bear more than their fair share of the pain. “The idea that what we should be doing is rolling back the…
Spanish Village, in Debt, Relies on Volunteers – NYTimes.com
There’s a great post waiting to be written about Britain’s “Big Society” effort, the Conservative (and now Liberal) government’s attempt to patch over drastic government cuts with an optimistic program of social entrepreneurship. While waiting to write that, I found this article in the NYT about a village in Spain that has run out of money…