Utah Cities Should Mostly Avoid Trickle Down of Nation's Economic Fallout

Mar 25, 2008 by Eric Ray

(KCPW News) Rising gas and food prices and fallout from the subprime crisis are causing financial headaches for states across the nation. Experts say Utah's cities should expect some trickle down effect.

"Clearly we're going to see a retrenchment. All our communities that have a high degree of reliance on sales tax are probably looking at decreases in terms of growth of that revenue source. That's obviously going to be a concern," says Roger Tew, a Senior Policy Analyst with the Utah League of Cities and Towns.

Tew says the nation's financial troubles notwithstanding, it's always been unlikely that Utah's strong economic growth rates of the last five years would be sustainable. However, Jamie Davidson, President of the Utah City Managers Association, says because Utah was at the tail end of the nation's economic decline, city managers have planned for the slow down.

"As a result I don't think we're seeing the kind of dramatic shifts or changes that are required in communities like Sacramento and elsewhere because we have been anticipating these changes," says Davidson. "Seeing what is happening back east and knowing that at some point it's going to impact us and planning accordingly."

Tew agrees, and says that anticipation makes it unlikely that cities in Utah will suffer mass layoffs or service cutbacks.

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