'Stimulus' Comes to Main Street

The Wall Street Journal reports today that many cities, counties and states across the nation are launching home-grown economic-stimulus plans aimed at spurring local spending and keeping small businesses afloat during the recession.

Strategies are as diverse as the local governments employing them, including:

• Cutting corporate taxes;
• Paying residents to shop in local stores;
• Giving real-estate brokers bonuses for bringing tenants to empty strip malls;
• Reducing fees on new development;
• Critiquing local restaurants and giving owners feedback on how best to bring in customers.

Leaders of many struggling cities and states say they can't afford to wait for their slice of the federal pie. Although their tax revenues are declining, forcing some to slash budgets and, unlike the federal government, they're constrained by balanced-budget requirements they're floating bonds, raiding reserves and shuffling money among various accounts to free up capital for local stimulus efforts.