Arizona’s dire budget situation has led to one of the most heartbreaking symbols of the recession. As of October, the state’s Medicaid program no longer finances certain organ transplants, leaving patients to die without proper treatment. “I know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can’t cut human lives,” Flor Felix, whose husband can no longer afford a life-saving liver transplant, told The New York Times. “ You just can’t do that.”
Ross D. Franklin / AP Photo
Republican state lawmakers in Texas, facing an estimated deficit as high as $25 billion this year, have upped the ante on anti-government budgeting by suggesting dumping Medicaid altogether. Observers are not sure how seriously to take the threat—ditching the federal health-care program for low-income residents would leave tens of billions of dollars in federal aid on the table, put millions of already hard-hit Texans into truly desperate shape, and generate plenty of new emergency-room costs in the process. That such an idea is even being floated is a sign of the tough times. Could it be a blueprint for future budget battles?
Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters
Not the polar bear cubs! After Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick proposed cutting the budget for two Boston zoos by more than half, zoo officials threatened to euthanize some of their animals to make up the cost. Patrick slammed such talk as a scare tactic, but the state ended up restoring millions in funding. Which is good news for the Franklin Park Zoo’s new star, a baby gorilla.
Mary Schwalm / AP Photo
Arizona isn’t the only state where budget cuts can mean life or death for residents. Nevada slashed funds for outpatient cancer treatment, leaving patients without desperately needed chemotherapy. One doctor responded by treating his patients pro bono in a makeshift cancer ward he set up in a storage room.
Jae C. Hong / AP Photo
Philadelphia’s budget crisis forced it to consider permanently closing its public library, the sixth largest in America, before finding enough funding to keep it open. The move would have given the City of Brotherly Love the dubious distinction of becoming the first major city in America to eliminate its public library. Nearby Camden, N.J., one of the poorest cities in the country, nearly shut down its entire library system this year as well.
Matt Rourke / AP Photo
Flint, Michigan, a national symbol of economic struggle even before the recession, cut its fire department budget to the point that some stations didn’t have fully equipped firetrucks. After a fire broke out at a house, the nearest fire station arrived at the scene without any means of pumping water to combat the blaze. One man died, another woman was injured, and three firefighters were hurt while they waited for a station farther away to send help.
Rebecca Cook / Reuters
While the U.S. lags behind the rest of the world in school days, and education reformers repeatedly insist that less time in class hurts development, many school systems have little choice but to move in the opposite direction. One survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that 13 percent of administrators were considering a four-day week. In Oklahoma City, a number of schools adopted four-day plans and found them predictably unpopular with students, parents, and administrators alike. “I feel like I'm cheating the kids," one superintendent told local news station KOTV.
Karin Zeitvogel, AFP / Getty Images
Colorado Springs, a conservative hotbed and home of evangelical advocacy group Focus on the Family, is so averse to raising taxes that it responded to budget shortfalls with huge cuts across the board to basic services. Without money for water, public parks are turning brown, reports The Denver Post. The city also no longer has trash cans, instead asking visitors to pocket their rubbish themselves. Fortunately locals don’t have to look at the blight—the utility company shut down about a third of all streetlights to save money. The next budget is expected to undo some of the damage, as the fiscal situation has since improved.
Richard Cummins, Lonely Planet Images / Newscom
As ho-hum as basketball titles are in Los Angeles at this point, the notion of not holding a parade for the champion Lakers was so shocking it made headlines around the country. Facing a budget crisis in 2009, some city officials complained that the cost of event was simply too much to bear. In the end the team agreed to put up half the costs for the parade, giving locals a chance to celebrate after all.
Matt Sayles / AP Photo
America is notorious for maintaining the highest incarceration rate in the world, but it’s fiscal conservatives rather than social liberals who are finally reversing the trend. For the first time in almost 40 years, the nation’s prison population declined last year, according to the Pew Center on the States, thanks in no small part to budget crises around the country. A number of states have had to reduce sentences and parole time for nonviolent offenders to make up budget shortfalls. California, for example, reduced its total prisoner count by more than 4,000 in 2009, the most of any state. In Los Angeles County, officials released hundreds of prisoners in 2010 in response to a $128 million budget cut.
Eric Risberg / AP Photo
