It world be something of an overstatement, explains Angel Taveras, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island's capital, to call the measures he signed this week a "strategy" for dealing with the city's financial troubles. He and the city council are simply facing reality, he says. The city was projected to run a deficit of $nom this year. Despite shedding jobs, cutting pay, trimming benefits, curbing services and expanding the tax base (on top of an 11% tax rise last year), Providence still faced a shortfall of $21m or so. There was no way to set its finances to rights without tackling the city's huge pension costs.
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