TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) - Hot Springs, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff and Texarkana are among 144 cities that the federal government is proposing to downgrade from the metropolitan statistical area designation -- and it could be more than just a matter of semantics.
Officials in affected cities elsewhere in the country said they worry that the change could have adverse implications for federal funding and economic development.
Under the new proposal, a metro area would have to have at least 100,000 people in its core city to count as an MSA, double the 50,000-person threshold that has been in place for the past 70 years. Cities formerly designated as metros with core populations between 50,000 and 100,000 people, like Bismarck and Sheboygan, would be changed to âmicropolitanâ statistical areas instead.