SCRANTON TIMES-LEADER Editorial: Detroit’s attempt at bankruptcy had an air of inevitability about it due to simple math compounded by demographics – its obligations are greater than its revenue and its tax base continues to dissolve into the surrounding suburbs and states.
If that sounds familiar it’s because it’s the same problem facing Scranton and other Pennsylvania cities, even if on a proportionally smaller scale…
The state government must take a more active financial role in helping distressed cities. Then it should protect that investment by revising the archaic and obsolete local governance structure to provide incentives and mandates for local government consolidation, which has the potential to save billions of dollars for taxpayers… (more)
