October 09, 2006

Beantown's $7-million-plus annual payouts for municipal liability ($23 million over three years) are minuscule compared to New York City's -- and are held down by state laws capping damages in suits against the city -- but they're still high enough to raise controversy, especially since cases currently in the pipeline are expected to boost the sums sharply when resolved. This Boston Phoenix article also cites figures for "cities with similar-size budgets, such as Denver ($3 million of a $1.9 billion budget) and Austin ($2 million of a $2 billion budget)". More here (Rochester and other upstate New York cities).