No Rosy Scenario for City of Manitowoc Finances

City finances still shaky, analysts say. (Manitowoc Herald-Times-Reporter, 5/21/2012)

Excerpt: However, the city's financial picture is far from rosy. 

Moody's Investors Service continues to assign a "negative outlook" to the city's general obligation promissory notes that are part of its debt of some $76 million. 

A report issued recently states the negative outlook "reflects Moody's expectation that the city will be challenged to return to structural balance given the recent deterioration of the city's available reserves and its limited power to increase its levy due to state-instituted levy limits." 

Moody's report labeled a "challenge" that the city's undesignated general fund balance was just 0.1 percent of revenues in fiscal 2010. 

Simply put, millions of dollars was taken out of reserve funds over the past decade and the cupboard is now bare.