"Winter came early this year to the U.S. Many states and cities have run out of money to keep the roads plowed the way they should be to keep goods and people moving and to provide ambulance and other emergency services. In some hard-hit areas, all that the road crews can do is plow hills and curves.
If the financial crisis hadn’t squeezed the state budgets past the breaking point, money would just be reallocated, and plowing to bare asphalt with salt or sand on the roads would be the norm. But the states had a collective budget deficit of nearly $146 billion heading into fiscal 2010, which for most began on July 1. (www.ncsl.org)
Many states are attempting to cure these budget deficits with cuts in services like health care, education, mass transit, welfare and snowplowing, along with mass layoffs and furloughs of tens of thousands of state workers, tax hikes and additional fees."
If the financial crisis hadn’t squeezed the state budgets past the breaking point, money would just be reallocated, and plowing to bare asphalt with salt or sand on the roads would be the norm. But the states had a collective budget deficit of nearly $146 billion heading into fiscal 2010, which for most began on July 1. (www.ncsl.org)
Many states are attempting to cure these budget deficits with cuts in services like health care, education, mass transit, welfare and snowplowing, along with mass layoffs and furloughs of tens of thousands of state workers, tax hikes and additional fees."