It's not just funding, it's also that the local government in these areas is entirely corrupt. Any money they do receive from above or collect from below is sure to be siphoned one way or another. If it wasn't so un-American, I'd suggest the only way they can be saved is to have the state or feds take over, like too many of our school districts around here. Then again, every governor of IL goes to jail, so maybe just the feds.
"Metro East, the city of East St. Louis had always served as more of a legal shell for corporate privilege—low taxes, nonexistent regulation, minimal public services—than a fully functioning city. By the late 1980s, the city’s sewer system was failing, and the city government was being sued by the EPA for misusing federal funds that had been earmarked for its repair."
Corruption was a big part of the problem. But the root goes deeper. This was always a fake town, a hollow shell built to serve the interest of a business that no longer exists.
I know this sounds cruel but the sewage is only a symptom of a larger problem. The Fed shouldn't step in to fix the sewers, they should step in to assist in relocating the residents somewhere else and let the ghost town sink into the fetrid swamp.
