Furloughs and a hiring freeze will not plug Atwater, Calif.'s budget gap and it must move more aggressively to avoid becoming the fourth city in the state to file for bankruptcy this year, according to its mayor, Reuters reported yesterday. Other options for tackling the $3.3 million budget gap faced by the Central Valley city of about 28,000 residents include selling property and asking employees for pension-plan concessions, Mayor Joan Faul said yesterday. Like other cities in inland parts of California, Atwater has fallen on hard times after its housing market imploded and sent property tax revenue into a spiral. According to a report by city staff presented to Atwater's city council, the local median home price has dropped about 40 percent to $139,000 since 2007 and the city's property tax revenue has dropped by 27 percent since then.
