An editorial “A LUMP OF COAL” observes “Unfortunately, the national economic downturn has created a perfect storm of calamities for the city” and goes to list the various recession related factors reducing revenue. It concludes “But don’t expect any state aid in 2010. Even union givebacks and more administrative cuts won’t blunt the impact of the new year’s tax and fee increases.”
WATCHDOG: Here we see one of the shortcomings of the federal stimulus acts under the Bush and Obama administrations. More funds should have been channeled to states with mandates that they be passed through to municipalities to offset layoffs due strictly to the recession. At the time, Republicans unsuccessfully argued for this as the quickest and best way to pump funds into the economy. And they were right.
I think congressional Republicans fulfilled their own prophecy. They said that a stimulus won’t work, they diluted the stimulus and made it less effective, and then they complained that it didn’t work!