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US cities facing severe budget deficit

20 January 2011 18:13 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Dozens of city mayors are meeting in Washington to request President Barack Obama and the federal government to rescue them from imminent financial disaster, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The nearly two hundred mayors will meet on Friday to discuss budget cuts to cities already struggling with the recent economic recession.

Financial distress in US municipalities has been unfolding in the form of lay-offs of public workers, cuts to public education and the reduction of city services.

â€œEvery city in the United States is faced with an economic collapse, the collapse of its economic base which is causing its revenues to fall off,â€ said Carl Osgood from the Executive Intelligence Review in an interview with Press TV.

â€œThe need to spend is more than what they [cities] are getting in revenue. So mayors, city managers and city councilors are responding by cutting essential services,â€ he added.

Mayors have been forced to pressure city councils into raising taxes, increase city licensing fees, closing libraries and cut child care.

Police, teachers, firefighters and other essential city services have been battered by the economic crisis of the past couple of years.

In the city of Camden, New Jersey, which is one of America’s most dangerous cities, 168 police officers accounting for half the entire force have been sacked because the city was not able to pay their salaries.

Many of the mayors and municipal authorities in Washington say they are not hopeful the federal government or Congress could save their cities.