– Italian provinces warn cuts may close schools (Reuters, July 23, 2012):
Italian regional authorities may not be able to open schools after the summer break if spending cuts planned in the government’s latest spending review are carried through, the head of the Union of Italian Provinces (UPI) said on Monday.
“With these cuts we won’t be able to guarantee the opening of the school year,” UPI President Giuseppe Castiglione told reporters in Rome.
Piero Lacorazza, president of the province of Potenza in southern Italy, said the comment was “not an exaggeration”, adding that “half of the provinces are in serious financial difficulty”.
The comment underscores growing concern about the financial stability of Italy’s local and regional governments as the recession and cuts to central government spending bite into their finances.