In my small, rural community, it was evident several years ago that the city wanted to shut down the library. They had obviously cut back on staff and had cut b

In my small, rural community, it was evident several years ago that the city wanted to shut down the library. They had obviously cut back on staff and had cut back hours. Likewise, we went through the same with recycling and trash, where there was a proposal to add $3/mo to the recycling bill to keep weekly service. The city instead cut back to every-other-week, with the option of paying $30/mo if you wanted a second bin (because families produce more recycling over a two-week period than one bin will allow). Once recycling costs increased and it was no longer a revenue-generator for the city to sell their waste to Chinese recyclers... guess what, the rates increased anyway. In short, I've found that small-town services boil down a lot to: 1) Who is willing to speak up for them. 2) Fervent anti-tax retirees who moved to those small towns thinking their costs and taxes would be less. 3) Poor, often corrupt governance. 4) A limited tax base to begin with. In many of these rural areas, there might be at most tens of thousands of residents.