Some US Municipal Predictions For 2009

I thought I’d try to look into 2009 and come up with some predictions on how I think that the municipal world will change in 2009.  States, cities and towns will be forced to make dramatic changes in their budgets and operations to remain solvent.

Here’s an interesting link on some of the current deliberations on how to deal with the problem. I would assume that a large part of Obama’s “stimulus” program will result in funds being paid to states to disburse to local cities and towns.  I would find it highly unlikely that much of this money will actually makes its way into the economy to stimulate things.  More likely, the funds will go to repairing damaged pension funds and pay increases to existing state workers, but here’s some of what I think we can expect over the “New Year”. Hang on to your hat because some of these changes will be drastic.

I would not be surprised to see the following municipal changes in 2009:

• 4 day school weeks for kids, with a mandated 1 day of home schooling.
• larger class sizes in schools, perhaps by 30-40%.
• School closings - smaller schools will be shut down and merged.
• Elimination of Kindergarten and Nursery School Programs.
• Elimination of HS Sports Programs, Music Programs, Art Classes.
• State offices  cutting operations to  3 days per week or less.
• Police and Fire - service curtailments - Cities &Towns merging fire/police departs.
• Police and Fire - staff reductions - reductions in size of forces.
• Property Tax Increases - 20% or more.
• Excise, Water and Sewer Tax Increases- Many new taxes being announced
• Toll Increases on State Highways.  Double or Triple Tolls.
• New Tolls setup on existing roads that don’t currently have tolls.
• Increased Sin Taxes - Cigarettes, Beer, Liquor, Wine etc.
• Gasoline Tax Increases on each gallon of gas purchased.
• Vehicle Mileage Tax - Tax on each mile driven in your vehicle.
• Sales Tax Increases to limit consumption on non-food items.
• Food Taxes - Many states will start to implement taxes on food. (Read this link)

People will become very agitated as these increases are announced and “forced” upon the populace, especially in light of the service cutbacks.  There will zero tolerance, especially as people are losing jobs at an increasing rate.  People will ask the very good question: “Why should I pay more for less?”

This will begin a level of deeper involvement, and people will start to become more closely involved with their local governments. I think that you could start to see some tax protests and/or revolts towards the latter half of 2009.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by Email