July 19, 2010 — For fire fighter Mark Kovach, the reality of municipal budget cuts hit home when he was tumbling down the staircase of a burning building in Flint, Michigan, after failing to rescue a man trapped on the second floor. After cutbacks last year, Kovach’s crew had only a small vehicle with basic equipment to respond to fires, not the usual ladder and pumping trucks. Absent water to beat back the flames, the blaze at a single-family home in late April of last year turned into an inferno that left Kovach with severe burns. Events are not always so dramatic as that night in Flint, but the most searing economic downturn since the Great Depression is relentlessly transforming the type and quantity of municipal services that citizens can expect from their local governments.
Originally posted here:
Budget Cuts Take Their Toll on Essential City Services
