Why Your Town Can't Seem to Fix Anything

You pay your taxes, so why isn't that road fixed? Why hasn't the city finished off building the new park, or police station? Why? Because cities generally use bonds to get those done. You can imagine when Wall Street is on a lending diet that gets even more difficult for cities, and it couldn't be a worse time since defaulting mortgages also mean property taxes are not getting paid either. So why you care about bonding ratings is because it can help your city get better access to money and keep the projects going during lean years. And of course when the cities have to pay less, there's less reason to raise taxes. Most people's eyes glaze over when you say "bonds" much less "bond ratings" but this story really is about the quality of your life in your community. Now that you have that background, click here to read the New York Times' report.