Population facts from the U.S. Census Bureau

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, our population has shrunk since 1990:

1990: 54,021
2000: 52,360
2005: 52,923 (estimated)

More detailed information is available on the 2000 census:

7442 people were over 65 years of age - that's 14.2% of the population. I'd expect that the majority of these people are on fixed incomes.

4,474 individuals were below poverty level - that's 8.8% of the population.

94.4% of the 22,336 housing units were occupied, and 55.2% were occupied by their owners. I'd expect that this figure had actually increased prior to the budget woes, as the real estate market was decidedly a seller's market up until a little while ago.

67.9% of the 2000 population were in the labor force. Per capita (i.e. per person) income was only $21,121 in the equivalent of the buying power of a 1999 dollar.

I'm not certain of the difference, but the median household income was only 42,393, and the median family income was 51,631.

... that's not a lot of money, even if you apply a standard cost of living increase, especially when many people's taxes have now increased thousands of dollars.