ABSTRACT
I. Introduction Most state and local governments intermittently suffer through the throes of fiscal crisis. The fiscal problems that can assault governments are legion: inflation, recessions, increased service demands and costs, shifts in population and tax base, declining intergovernmental aid, expensive court orders or settlements, citizen resistance to tax increases, infrastructure deterioration, burdensome federal mandates — the list is almost endless. Symptoms of fiscal stress run the gamut from the near bankruptcy of New York City, Detroit, and Cleveland in the late 1970s and San Diego, California in 2006, to the actual bankruptcy filing of Vallejo, California in 2008.
