Petersburg Visitor Center
Poor Petersburg. Financial consultants are advising City Council to save $300,000 this year and $400,000 next year by shutting down three museums and two tourism centers as part of a draconian plan to slash a projected $12 million budget deficit and work down a $19 million backlog in unpaid bills. (Read the details in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.)
City Council has not voted on the measure, but it has little choice in the matter. Its budget predicament is so catastrophic that it has no choice but to suspend all but the most essential services. That means the city is undermining its own economy. Fewer tourist destinations = fewer tourists = less business and tax revenue.
Sad, really sad. Let Petersburg be an object lesson to all. Never, never, never let your city or county to get into the same situation.
— JAB
