Is Cincinnati's Budget Problem As Bad As It Seems?

In the nation's economic downward spiral, everyone is tapering their spending habits. In the last few years, these recession like times have pole vaulted the US's deficit from a mediocre $161 Billion in 2007 to an estimated $1.2 Trillion in 2009 (or are our economic woes due to a faulty president who has the honor being the only US Leader to claim to have been "a-shoe-ssinated).

Smaller US governments are clambering down on economic spending as well. We all have heard of the dire straights that California is facing by almost declaring bankruptcy.

Now I am not sure about you, but I can not help but to chuckle envisioning The Terminator saying "Hasta la vista" and walking out of a lawyer's with a stack of Chapter 7 filing papers.

Cincinnati is not immune to this economic flu, effecting our country. Similar to the Asian Flu, (the term given to the economic crisis that brought governments crashing to its knees in a Domino effect in the 1990's) Cincinnati's 2008 economic woes had us driving miles out of our way to find the cheapest gas prices and contemplating over-hauling our automobile's engine so that it will run off of the local diner's garbage.

Despite this, our mayor had the audacity to request that room for an additional assistant to him be transposed into the city's 2009 budget. I am sure that Mayor Mallory had good reason for this, but Cincinnatians found it hard to swallow when we were asked to forgo keeping neighborhood pools open so that the head of the city could have an additional lackey following him around.

But is Cincinnati in that bad of economic shape?

When you look at similar sized cities in the area, I see that the Queen City his holding her head high above the others.

Indianapolis boosted a $57 million deficit in 2008 only to be trumped by the fledgling city of Detroit with a $300 million black spot on it's financial papers.

So in the grand scheme of things, I am sure the we could be fairing much worse.