sacbee.com -- News -- County explores new ways to combat flow of red ink

Thanks to Fred Pilot for sending me the link to this story about how Sacramento County, California, is in major financial trouble:
"Desperate to shrink a horrific budget deficit, Sacramento County economic development officials are pressing to reverse a longtime county policy and start chasing "big-box" stores...While many California counties are hurting, Sacramento County's penchant for heavy residential development has left it with a collection of aging bedroom communities that offer little in the way of sales tax growth."

So what happened is the county allowed lots of residential development in unincorporated county land, and then several of these large subdivision areas became municipalities that attracted retail. So now the unincorporated areas of the county lack retail, which means the county budget can't draw on much of a sales tax base. The problem is that 47% of the county's population lives in unincorporated areas. That adds up to a major imbalance between the cost of services the county provides to those people, and the revenue base.