City budgets slammed by falling property taxes

A projected property tax revenues decline is leaving negative impacts on the cities. According to the article,  this means cities must continue to slash services and shed personnel, with expenditures projected to fall by 2.3% this year and that's a tie for the largest cutback ever; cities have only cut back on spending five times in the past quarter-century. "Cities are in the worst shape they've been in since the Great Depression." Some cities are also trying to resolve the current situation by hiking fees and taxes. Some 40% of cities raised fees, while 23% upped their property tax rates. Another 23% increased the number of fees they charge.In such a bad recession, it's doesn't sound plausible to inrease all these taxes and fees. The outlook for 2011 seems gloomy.