国际英语新闻：More U.S. cities, even states face bankruptcy in 2011: report

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Despite U.S. President Barack Obama's argument that the U.S. economy is "past the crisis point," more U.S. cities and even some states actually are facing bankruptcy in 2011 if they can not find out a way to balance the budget.

According to the Dec. issue of Business Insider, at least 16 cities in the U.S. would have to declare bankruptcy if they can not find new revenues and don't make deep spending cuts.

Those cities include New York City, the largest city in the U.S. , Los Angeles, the second largest city, Washington, DC, the U.S. capital and San Francisco.

New York City has a deficit of 2 billion dollars through June 2012 with a budget of 63.1 billion dollars in Fiscal Year 2010.

The city is talking about layoffs in all city agencies, closing 20 fire departments at night, reducing services for seniors, libraries and cultural centers.

Los Angeles faces a deficit of 438 million dollars through June 2012 with a budget of 6.7 billion dollars in Fiscal Year 2011.

The Los Angeles City Administration Office plans to cut 225 civilian positions in the Police Department, reduce firefighting staffing and eliminate a dozen positions in the City Attorney's Office and General Service Department.

In the spring this year, people were talking about declaring bankrupt as a way to get over the deficit crisis, but Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council have said repeatedly that, come what may, declaring Los Angeles bankrupt is not an option.