Confronting Hard Times in Local Government : Public Views About Responding to Fiscal Stress

We are now entering a new era of fiscal stress in municipal governments. The experience of previous eras, most especially the chronic fiscal stress of the 1980s, has led to the development of a substantial literature on this topic. However, despite strong scholarly interest in the topic of fiscal stress, little attention has been paid to understanding how the general public thinks it might best be addressed. This study explores the support expressed by Michigan residents for eight strategies used to address funding shortfalls in five specific local government services. Two strategies focus on adding revenues through increasing taxes or seeking additional aid. The other six options seek cost reductions through altering service production arrangements or by reducing staff levels or employee compensation. We find only modest support for utilizing these strategies, but clear differences in preferences among the strategies and for which services they should be used. Intergovernmental aid, functional consolidation, and interlocal contracting were among the top three strategies in three of the five service areas, and among the top four in all five. Support for tax increases was strongest for police and fire services, while the greatest support for contracting was expressed for trash collection, road and street maintenance and repair, and parks and recreation services. The two options explicitly reducing the costs of employees received the least amount of support in all five services areas. In short, the respondents expressed more support for strategies maintaining the status quo of traditional service delivery for public safety functions, but were more supportive of options challenging the status quo of service delivery when not directed at police or firefighting services