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Abstract: 

Understanding a local government’s true ability to adjust spending remains somewhat of a mystery for municipal analysts. This article dives deeply into expenditure flexibility and describes how governments consider expense reductions either generally to maintain cushion or specifically in response to recessionary and/or systemic stress. The authors—experts and practitioners—concentrate their analysis on two Las Vegas area case studies managing severe recessionary revenue hits. They touch on the wide disparity in spending constructs and tools available to fiscal managers across the country and explore labor framework constraints and the long-term costs of short-term fixes.

Keywords: Local government, expenditure flexibility, fiscal managers, labor and costs, recession, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas

Affiliations:  1: Fitch Ratings; 2: Public Financial Management; 3: City of North Las Vegas; 4: City of Las Vegas.