States, Cities Forgo Projects to Keep Glittering Balance Sheets
- While corporations step up borrowing, governments cut back
- States and cities owe $143 billion less than they did in 2010
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
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Asheville, North Carolina, has a growing population, a burgeoning beer industry and a big slice of the billions of dollars tourists spend each year visiting the Blue Ridge Mountains. It also has $390 million of work it wants to do on its infrastructure.
What the city hasn’t been doing is running up debt to pay for it, with its 92,500 residents on the hook for only about $78 each for bonds backed by the general government budget. “We have a lot of people politely asking, ‘You’re a AAA city and your roads are terrible,’” said Vijay Kapoor, a city councilman. “What gives?”