THIS IS STARTING TO GET SCARY...

DETROIT
(November 12) - The Detroit City Council passed a resolution today calling for a $10-billion bailout for the city of Detroit. Council President Pro Tem JoAnn Watson sponsored the resolution to use the money for public service employment, to fund mass transit plans and to place a moratorium on home foreclosures for two years. The resolution specifically requests the council meet with Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr., Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the state’s congressional delegation, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and officials from President George W. Bush’s office and President-Elect Barack Obama’s transition team...The city recently received $47 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help stabilize neighborhoods hit hard by the nationwide foreclosure crisis. Officials with the city’s Planning and Development have prepared a plan the city council is expected to vote on in a week.

CHICAGO
(November 13) - Mayor Richard M. Daley says the economic woes in Chicago will get much worse, and more local workers could soon be getting pink slips. As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, the news is especially alarming because the discussion concerns not just city jobs, but the private sector. Thus, it seems the City That Works is about to become the city that gets laid off.Mayor Daley says chief executive officers told him huge layoffs will impact the city this month and into the new year. He also says city, county and state governments should be prepared for their revenue to fall dramatically because of the souring economy. "This is going to be all year, so it's going to be a very frightening economy," Mayor Daley said. "Each one tells me what they're laying off, and they're going to double that next year. We're talking huge numbers of permanent layoffs for people in the economy. It's going to have a huge effect on all businesses." The mayor said the gravity of the situation cannot be underestimated. "We never experienced anything like this except people who came from the Depression," Mayor Daley said. "When you have that many layoffs early – and they're telling me this is only the beginning of their layoffs – that is very frightening." Mayor Daley also warned that local governments will be in jeopardy and may not have enough money to meet payroll, although he is not worried about paying City of Chicago employees...The City Council will take a vote on the 2009 city budget Nov. 19. The budget contains layoffs, a slowdown in police hiring, and new taxes and fines – some bad news for Chicagoans who remain employed.

ATLANTA
(November 13) - Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said Wednesday the city’s employees will have their hours —- and pay —- cut by 10 percent each week to help the city weather an expected budget shortfall of $50 million to $60 million.The pay and hour cuts, which begin Dec. 1, affect 4,600 city employees.Franklin also announced an immediate hiring freeze for most city agencies and said the city will have to cut back some services, dip into its reserves for about $12 million and make other personnel moves.Blaming the shortfall on the nation’s economic crisis, Franklin said the city needs a “federal rescue plan” in addition to its cuts to balance the budget. In a letter Tuesday to U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, she asked for federal investment in Atlanta’s —- and other cities’ —- infrastructure, public safety, and programs for job training and placement.“The future prosperity of this country is tied directly to our ability to provide basic services and quality infrastructure to our citizens,” Franklin wrote. “We are at serious risk in failing in that most basic public responsibility.”And if current economic conditions continue, she told the City Council’s Finance/Executive committee, “This will not be the last time you see me before the end of the fiscal year.”Although Franklin and her staff said they have not made decisions about how they will make the service cuts, some union leaders said the changes will erode morale and threaten public safety.“This is a dangerous time for our firefighters,” Atlanta fire Lt. Jim Daws, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 134, told reporters. “The city is putting them in a dangerous position.”

NEW YORK CITY
(November 5) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday he has instructed the finance commissioner not to send out $400 property tax rebates to homeowners because the crisis on Wall Street has cost the city dearly in lost tax revenue. Bloomberg, who hopes to win a third term by convincing voters he is best suited to guide the city through its fiscal crisis, told a news conference that Wall Street already has taken half a trillion dollars in write-downs. Financial companies might not pay city or state taxes for three to five years as they struggle with losses, he said. The mayor estimates New York Stock Exchange member firms will have to earn a combined $10 billion a year for several years before the city can resume collecting taxes from them. Wall Street, which could shed over 30,000 workers, represents about 35 percent of the city's wage base. Adding to the gloom, the mayor is expecting a total of 140,000 job losses city-wide by July 1, 2009. Even financial planning has its limits. "If it turns out to be a meltdown, nobody can prepare for that," the mayor said. Should the economy fail to recover soon, sales or income taxes may have to be raised to plug the $1.3 billion deficit in next year's budget -- despite $1.5 billion of new cuts that begin now, Bloomberg said. To illustrate the problem, the mayor said a 7.5 percent increase in income taxes for a family of four earning $50,000 to $70,000 annually would mean they would pay an extra $116 a year. That "does put in perspective what might have to change," Bloomberg said. The harsh remedies he unveiled on Wednesday include cutting 3,000 city jobs, mainly through attrition. "If you're going to spend less, then you clearly have to have fewer employees," he said. New York City has about 300,000 workers.