Desperate times call for desperate measures and these are clearly desperate times for a lot of local governments.

In Highland Park, Michigan, near Detroit, the town is removing 1000 of its 1500 streetlights in a draconian attempt to save money as it scrambles to pay off $4 million in unpaid electric bills.

With $58 million in debt, unemployment at 22% and 42% of its roughly 12,000 residents living below the poverty line, Highland Park is clearly an extreme example of a municipality under stress. But towns from Santa Rosa, Calif. to North Andover, Mass. are similarly turning down or turning off the lights in an effort to save money, USA Today reports.

All across America, strapped municipalities are cutting back on what were once viewed as essentially public services.

For example, Denver has cut $500,000 from its trash-collection budget, Camden, NJ cut about 50% of its police force while Los Angeles, Pasadena and other California communities have been closing public libraries.

With less than a year until the next presidential election, without question the top issue for voters remains how to jumpstart the stalled economy.

Tonight, the eight Republican candidates for president are set to focus on just that issue at the latest GOP debate to be held in the swing state of Michigan -- ground zero for the Great Recession.

Michigan maintains the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation at 11.1%, or roughly two percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate. The Midwestern state also continues to face a housing crisis. Michigan ranks in the top 10 for the highest number of foreclosures in the country, with 1 in every 322 homes in bank repossession, according to RealtyTrac.

But even before the 2008 financial crisis, Michigan, and specifically Detroit, had fallen on hard times.

In the last decade, the Motor City's population declined 25% due to a shift in the auto industry's manufacturing base. Today tens of thousands of residential properties lay