Flagstaff and other small cities across Arizona and the country could be at risk of losing money. That’s because the federal Office of Management and Budget is considering a rule change that would raise the standards for what constitutes a Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The change would mean that Metropolitan Statistical Areas would have to have a population of at least 100,000 people; right now, that threshold is 50,000. If it goes into effect, 142 Metropolitan Statistical Areas nationwide would lose that status.
In Arizona, those areas include Flagstaff, Prescott, Kingman and Lake Havasu City and Sierra Vista and Douglas.
To learn about the potential implications of this seemingly statistical change, The Show spoke with Paul Deasy, the mayor of Flagstaff.
