Outside the Box Thinking

Municipalities are facing massive fiscal challenges, leading them to to the brink of collapse. City leaders have attempted to cut non-essential functions from the city budgets, including Colorado Springs' attempt to slash their deficit by nixing their public bus system and electricity for street lights. Cities are having a hard time cutting their way out of their deficits across the country.

Time for a new idea: Why don't you raise revenue? The chance that someone will move out of town for a lower tax rate is probably lower than the chance that your tax base will flee because the city can't afford to board up the foreclosed house down the block. Years of one-sided thinking on budgets have produced this crippling dependency on cuts for governments, literally crippling because citizens are preventing the delivery of essential services.