You know the economic outlook must be bad when the RNC lets Bush go to San Antonio begging banks to start lending to each others so small business owners can get loans to meet payroll.
He's actually getting out of his bubble and meeting with car dealers, restaurant owners, and people who run businesses like dry cleaners.
There was a large article in our newspaper today about how local suburban and big city governments can't get money to operate till their sales tax revenues come in this Xmas...and the prospects for those numbers being anywhere equal to last year's shopping season are not good.
Local governments feeling pain from economy
By Kevin McDermott
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/06/2008
• St. Louis delays bond sale for Lambert project.
• Arnold considers imposing garbage fees.
• Granite City's bond sale falls short by millions.
• St. Charles County orders 8 Pct. spending cut.
• patrol urges troopers to conserve fuel.
It isn't just Wall Street and Main Street reeling from the national economic crisis. City Hall is feeling it, too.
In St. Louis, financing for renovations at the airport and the municipal courts has been stalled by the same lending crunch that has made it harder for consumers to take out car loans.
St. Charles County, hit with flat sales tax receipts, is freezing all nonessential travel.
Jefferson County, which has seen a decline in fee revenue, is leaving county job vacancies unfilled. The city of Arnold, struggling with high fuel costs, is considering charging residents for their garbage service, which is currently free.
Missouri figures released Friday show individual and corporate income taxes down in September, numbers that state Commissioner of Administration Larry Schepker declared "cause for concern."
In Illinois, state treasury investment returns are plummeting, further strapping a state that was already on the verge of shuttering its parks and historic sites.
The economic crisis is shaking the pillars of government from several directions: Wobbly retail and industry performance is dragging down tax revenue that various levels of government need to function. The credit crunch is making it harder for local governments to finance projects.
And most daunting, the drop in consumer confidence (translation: people buying less) is hitting local governments right where they live.
"As consumers cut back on their spending, sales tax revenue declines," said Gary Markenson, executive director of the Missouri Municipal League.
Less public money — and more difficulty in borrowing it — leads cities to cut back on services and put off public works projects, "which ripples through the economy, because those are jobs," he said.
Predictions of increased unemployment are expected to further diminish local government revenue. Already, Markenson said, local governments have seen their tax revenue flatten, and most expect it to actually start falling soon.
In some places, it has already happened. Sales tax revenue in St. Louis dropped in the quarter ending last month, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of decline, said Paul W. Payne, the city's budget director.
"It's a small decline, but it's still a decline," Payne said. "The problem is (determining) whether sales tax is an early indicator — is it a canary in a coal mine?"...
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/77157FB67F1490F5862574DA000BF295?OpenDocument
(Emphasis mine.)
This economic meltdown is the result of 40 years of the Reagan Revolution. The Republicans have failed this country and its people yet again.
They have us back to where Hoover left off...as well as bogged down in a fruitless occupation in Iraq for no reasonable reason.
