Michael Foreman, a government troubleshooter who has helped nurse several communities to fiscal health over the past dozen years, said Greenville's financial situation appears to be among the worst he has dealt with.

Auditors reported Thursday that the borough entered the year with a $1,062,000 deficit. The borough also used $667,000 from a $3.67 million bond issue reserved for a recreation and revitalization project and borrowed money from other borough funds to keep itself afloat.

The deficit is one-third the size of the borough's proposed $3.06 million budget.

"It would be one of the largest deficits we've ever dealt with for a community of this size," said Foreman, a policy specialist with the state Governor's Center for Local Government Services.

Council requested technical assistance from the state agency last month. Foreman said that assistance consists of advice and suggestions, and is a "more conservative, soft-shoe approach" to solving municipalities' fiscal problems.

The more aggressive approach, Foreman said, is the Distressed Communities Act, which also is known as Act 47.

Council voted unofficially Thursday to apply for help under the act. Residents also appeared to back the move. Before voting, council asked residents who supported Act 47 to raise their hands -- an overwhelming majority of the more than 200 on hand did.

Foreman said the borough needs to pass a resolution and turn in a petition applying for help under the act.

After that is done, Foreman said he would do "field work" to determine whether the borough meets one of 11 criteria -- multi-year deficits, missing payroll for at least 30 days or default on debt, among them -- to be considered for the program.

"The job of (Act 47) is to avoid, reduce and eliminate deficits and restore lost money," Foreman said.

Communities that qualify for the program are eligible to receive emergency, interest-free loans. Other benefits include free technical assistance, some grant money not available to other communities and more taxing power.

"Recovery plans are not pretty, cute or funny and they can be ugly," Foreman said.

"It allows tax hikes and decreases in services," he added. Layoffs can also be a grim fact of recovery efforts.

The program started in 1987 -- that year, Farrell became the first community to enter the program; it remains in it today.

Foreman said the goal is to get communities off the program. "Communities that stay in this program become wards of the state. That is not the role of the state or the purpose of this program," he said.