Pew Study: U.S. Cities Still Recovering from Recession

According to Mark Niquette of Bloomberg News, a recent Pew Charitable Trusts report found that most large U.S. cities have not recovered from the recession that ended in June 2009. For the report, Pew analyzed "financial statements for the central cities of the 30 most-populous metropolitan areas and found that as of 2012 a majority still hadn’t recovered from the recession that ended in June 2009. Revenue of 18 municipalities declined in 2012 after adjusting for inflation, with eight logging the lowest collections since the economic slump started in 2007."

The researchers accounted for the "drop in property-tax collections, generally a city’s largest source of financing, and reduced funding by states and the federal government, for most of the revenue declines. Both categories fell by an average of 4 percent in 2012," concluded the Pew report.

However, it also found that "[c]ities that rely on charges, fees and taxes on income and sales—such as Boston, Minneapolis and New York—bucked the trend and exceeded pre-recession revenue peaks in 2012, the report said. Those sources tend to respond more quickly to an improving economy."