A looming fiscal crisis raises fear for US cities

State oversight and financial control boards

In an article about the austerity crisis facing American cities and the possible return of financial control boards, Senior Fellow Clayton Gillette argues that while state interventions were necessary to mitigate fiscal crises faced by New York in 1975 or Detroit in 2013, the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is "fundamentally different." Gillette states:

This is not a consequence of municipal incompetence or municipal leaders giving in to local interests. This is a function of an exogenous shock. What we're seeing is not amenable to a more professional state body coming in and taking over the city finances.

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