ABSTRACT
Such an image, however, did not endure for very long. In 1996, the Los Angeles Times declared that Southern California’s boomtown had gone bust (Gorman, 1996). Moreno Valley faced substantial revenue shortfalls, and politicians had
appealed to local voters to pass a controversial utility tax increase. Whereas other cities had managed to ride Southern California’s property market slump relatively unscathed, Moreno Valley no longer had a sufficient tax base to pay for basic services. The Times article suggested that locally-elected officials were responsible for the city’s fiscal crisis. Poor planning and lack of proper fiscal management had turned a suburban dream into a post-suburban nightmare.1
