ABSTRACT
The lower income population is much more dependent on local public services for the maintenance of their living standard than are non-lower income households. This chapter outlines a framework for analyzing public service finance and delivery and the manner in which cutbacks in services or increases in revenues are likely to affect lower income households. It demonstrates that local public services play an important part in the overall consumption of low and lower middle income households. The chapter draws on an exhaustive literature review on the nature of public services in order to construct a general framework for analyzing responses to resource pressures placed on local governments by rising energy prices. Local level public assistance makes an even larger contribution to the consumption of lower income households. The impact of rising energy prices on the lower income population, through its impact on local public services.
