The other part of the problem is with mandates from the state, but with no money provided as required alongside the mandates.  Revenue sharing is not as it is supposed to be.  Cap Con reports on the upcoming problem with benefits, as well as the revenue sharing aspect.

Public employee compensation is just one factor on the cost side creating trouble. Mackinac Center Fiscal Policy Analyst James Hohman and research intern Adam Rule noted last year that annual state and local government employee benefit costs in Michigan had grown to $5.7 billion higher than if government employees were receiving benefit packages comparable to their neighbors who work in Michigan's hard-hit private sector.

And the problem is a comparatively recent trend, with $2 billion of the $5.7 billion total gap opening up just in the five-year period between 2002 and 2007.

Is your local government NOT planning its finances prudently?  Is there a sense of "we better get it while we can" in play?  And has your community not received revenue sharing that it had planned on for budgeting?