An article yesterday titled ' reading time 2 minutes - reported that the 1,200 person town of Alto, Texas has laid off its entire police force (the Police Chief and 4 officers) for six months, and longer if the town's finances don't improve. Policing of Alto will be the responsibility of the county sheriff's department. Alto residents are worried, presumably with justification, that the crime rate in their small town will rise. That crime rate is already said to be above the Texas State average with 66 reported crimes in 2010, up from 51 in 2009.

And so it goes on, as U.S. States and Municipalities continue to work to reduce costs. Something both to monitor, keep your eye on, and I think importantly if you are driving near Alto, Texas don't stop there for gas, breakfast, lunch or dinner. I say the latter partly in jest, but I suspect that is the way many people will think. I have said in prior e-mails that these sorts of cost cuts inherently have to mean that cities and towns that make them will have greater difficulty attracting tourists, businesses, etc. As I see things this will simply exacerbate what becomes an ever more vicious downward spiral for those cities and towns.

The NBC Evening News aired a story last night of layoff in, and partial shut-downs of, California Courts. As I listened to her, I heard one senior judge who was interviewed express serious concern as to the future of the California court system. The same newscast also cited layoffs in the Court system in Minnesota, but that may be related to the current ongoing shutdown of the Minnesota State Government.

A Court System has to be fundamental to a stable society. This California situation, where the newscast said it might now take up to five years to bring a case to trial, that it now may take up to an entire day to pay a traffic fine, and may now take three times as long to have a Court process divorce papers, hadn't better be the 'tip of the iceberg' in the context of other U.S. States. It continues to strike me that the number of reported U.S. State and Municipal money problems is escalating apace.