The small California city of Atwater has stepped away from the brink of bankruptcy with the approval of a budget that benefits from new revenue and does not rely on layoffs for the first time in five years, Reuters reported yesterday. Since it declared a fiscal emergency last October, the city of 28,000 was seen at risk of following Stockton, another city in California's Central Valley, into bankruptcy court. To keep its budget balanced, Atwater had cut 40 percent of its workforce over the past five years. Atwater's new $12 million general fund budget approved late on Monday relies on revenue from a sales-tax hike and increased water, waste and garbage service rates, and will fund about 80 positions.
