Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Politics
Economics

U.S. Cities Seen Losing $360 Billion of Revenue From Economic Rout

  • Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Michigan may be among hardest hit
  • National League of Cities analysis shows ‘unprecedented times’
A man wearing a protective mask walks through an almost empty 30th Station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 15.

A man wearing a protective mask walks through an almost empty 30th Station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 15.

Photographer: Hannah Yoon/Bloomberg

U.S. cities are projected to lose about $360 billion of revenue through 2022 because of the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented loss that would trigger deep spending and job cuts, according to a National League of Cities analysis released Thursday.

Pennsylvania’s municipalities will be hit the hardest, with the potential loss of about 40% of their revenue this year, followed by those in Kentucky, Hawaii, Michigan and Nevada, the advocacy group calculated. The projections are based on the expected rise in unemployment and assumes that every 1 percentage point increase in joblessness will cause tax revenues to fall about 3%.