It is di fficult to find someone who has not heard about the Puerto Rico, Detroit, Michigan, or Orange County, California, bankruptcies. While guides for responsibly managing government finances exist, problems often originate not because of poor financial reporting or financial deficiencies but because issues external to financial wellbeing arise, such as economic, demographic, political, legal, or even environmental factors. Exacerbating the problem, there is not much advice in the existing literature on how to act when municipalities face financial struggles. Filling this important gap, this book explores fiscal health and fiscal hardships, municipal defaults and bankruptcies, and many other aspects to help guide local governments during fiscal distress.
Fiscal hardships negatively affect the quality and availability of public goods and services and, consequently, the wellbeing of residents and businesses living and working in distressed municipalities. Turned off streetlights, unmaintained public parks, potholes, inconsistent garbage pickup, longer response time from emergency services, and multiple other issues that residents of the struggling municipalities deal with, lead to higher crime rates, lower quality of K-12 education, dangerous road conditions, lower housing values, outmigration of wealthier population, and numerous other problems. The COVID-19 pandemic put additional unprecedented pressure on municipal finances nationwide.
In this book authors Tatyana Guzman and Natalia Ermasova evaluate distressed cities and municipalities and provide practical recommendations on improving their financial conditions. What are conditions and signs to look for to not to find yourself in similar situations? What can be done if your municipality is already experiencing fiscal hardships? What are the consequences of fiscal misfortunes? How does one exit a fiscal emergency? This book answers these and other questions and serves as a guide tofiscal health and prosperity for U.S. municipal governments, students and researchers in public finance, and general public management fields.
Fiscal hardships negatively affect the quality and availability of public goods and services and, consequently, the wellbeing of residents and businesses living and working in distressed municipalities. Turned off streetlights, unmaintained public parks, potholes, inconsistent garbage pickup, longer response time from emergency services, and multiple other issues that residents of the struggling municipalities deal with, lead to higher crime rates, lower quality of K-12 education, dangerous road conditions, lower housing values, outmigration of wealthier population, and numerous other problems. The COVID-19 pandemic put additional unprecedented pressure on municipal finances nationwide.
In this book authors Tatyana Guzman and Natalia Ermasova evaluate distressed cities and municipalities and provide practical recommendations on improving their financial conditions. What are conditions and signs to look for to not to find yourself in similar situations? What can be done if your municipality is already experiencing fiscal hardships? What are the consequences of fiscal misfortunes? How does one exit a fiscal emergency? This book answers these and other questions and serves as a guide tofiscal health and prosperity for U.S. municipal governments, students and researchers in public finance, and general public management fields.
"This is a thoroughly treated, must read book on local government/municipal finance and bankruptcy challenges. The book's uniqueness is its strength on emergency financial management stress, fiscal distress, and government bankruptcy with loss of financial capacity in modern times. The authors have done an excellent job of explaining and illustrating this highly significant feature of contemporary financial management; their work is admirably well done with adequate details without overwhelming the students, researchers, and instructors. The select case studies of the second half of the book supplement the theory, concept, and issues covered earlier, and are extremely useful to readers. Highly recommended for upper undergraduate and graduate MPA students, as well as for courses in public financial management, for its easy to read and substantive content."
- Ali Farazmand, Florida Atlantic University
"Ermasova and Guzman provide the reader with an approachable yet thorough understanding of the conceptual underpinnings of fiscal stress, its effects, and remedies that is augmented through the use of carefully selected case studies."
- C. Kurt Zorn, Indiana University
"Through a compelling review of current scholarship and a detailed discussion of case studies, the authors share with us their wealth of knowledge on the origins of fiscal malaise in U.S. cities and stimulate us to reflect on policy action that can counteract the economic, political, institutional and managerial environments that are conducive to local financial crises. A captivating read for scholars and practitioners interested in the management of local government financial condition!"
- Evgenia Gorina, University of Texas at Dallas
- Ali Farazmand, Florida Atlantic University
"Ermasova and Guzman provide the reader with an approachable yet thorough understanding of the conceptual underpinnings of fiscal stress, its effects, and remedies that is augmented through the use of carefully selected case studies."
- C. Kurt Zorn, Indiana University
"Through a compelling review of current scholarship and a detailed discussion of case studies, the authors share with us their wealth of knowledge on the origins of fiscal malaise in U.S. cities and stimulate us to reflect on policy action that can counteract the economic, political, institutional and managerial environments that are conducive to local financial crises. A captivating read for scholars and practitioners interested in the management of local government financial condition!"
- Evgenia Gorina, University of Texas at Dallas