There is only one thing that state and local politicians can do, and so far, they aren’t doing it. Instead, they’re sitting on their a** and watching the horror unfold in front of their eyes. What The Hill calls a “sudden and unexpected factor” is about to transform the political landscape as financial cracks spread across America. “Many states, cities and counties,” they write, “are about to, suddenly, run out of money.” Abused taxpayers will soon be abandoning mismanaged cities in droves.
Stunned politicians won’t know what hit them
Because of the global economic shutdown, state and local economies are about to go belly up. That means a lot of people won’t get paid. City and township services won’t be performed. Civic institutions will go dark, including many state colleges.
Politicians can ease the pain considerably if they act right now. The only problem is that they aren’t. Most are acting like a deer caught in headlights, trying to stare down something that’s about to run them over. They’ll never even know what hit them.
The only thing that they can do, is immediately slash their spending by 30-50 percent by eliminating all nonessential spending. Along with that, taxes need to be lowered at once. Taxpayers aren’t very reassured that their leaders will be up to the task.
Brutal and permanent damage
It’s no surprise that a record number of American workers filed unemployment claims in the past two weeks. The millions of new applicants underscore the “collapse of our local economies.” Too many businesses to count have been closed from coast-to-coast and most won’t reopen for a staggeringly long time.
Because “tens of millions have lost jobs, homes, savings and retirement incomes that will never return,” the damage that state and local economies are about to suffer will be brutal and in many cases, permanent.
With all these people suddenly out of work, state and local tax receipts will pancake. That means the municipalities will “burn through any reserves they’ve maintained like wildfire.” The first instinct of politicians used to an ever expanding economy is to do nothing and ride it out. That won’t work. When they see it isn’t working they’ll panic.
The stand by solution won’t work
Once the panic sets in, politicians will turn to their favorite stand by solution, raise taxes to cover the shortfalls. They could levy a special “coronavirus” tax, after all, as The Hill points out, “taxpayers across the country have tolerated various forms of high state and local taxes; the politicians would naturally ask, ‘Why should now be any different?'”
Because this time, it really is different. Raising taxes will make things horribly worse. Under an increased burden of taxes, businesses with marginal finances would be the first to go under. That would soon be followed by workers and homeowners who are “barely hanging on” now. That means there wouldn’t be any “base” to tax.
As the old song says, nothing from nothing leaves nothing. Thats when the riots in the streets will start. The only thing that the pitchfork and torch bearing taxpayers can do is move to a better managed locality.
The only answer
According to economists, the only answer with any chance of working is for cities, counties and states to stop spending a single cent that isn’t absolutely necessary, starting now. That means everything other than police, fire, and health care needs to close today.
Such a “fiscal distancing” plan designed to isolate politicians from the tax revenues is “literally the only useful thing that state and local governments can do to prevent further economic and social catastrophe.”
The federal government can do something that the state and local governments can’t do, and they will. Print money. They are creating trillions of dollars out of thin air at the moment. It will also inevitably lead to inflation, but there’s a plan for that too. Modern Monetary Theory says we can burn that bridge when we get to it later. At the state and local level, anything they spend now is basically “throwing rocks into their own lifeboats” for when the federal bailout comes along.
As noted by The Hill, today, states are “furiously competing for ventilators. Tomorrow they will be fighting for taxpayers.” Local economies need to preserve their vital tax base of businesses and residents in order to maintain a foundation on which to rebuild.