municipal debt and its potential to cause financial problems for state and local governments.

Municipal debt serves important purposes of financing the acquisition of public facilities and infrastructure in a way that smooths out the cost of paying for these capital assets over time. Debt financing also ensures intergenerational equity where current and future users (beneficiaries) of these projects pay for the acquisition cost of these assets as well as their yearly operating cost. However, municipal debt can be lead to state and local government financial problems. The articles below relate to financial problems in 4 communities due to bad decision making and management of municipal debt. Read the articles and complete the skeletal outline and abstract outlined below.