Rising gas prices are further squeezing local and state governments already struggling with increasing healthcare costs and dwindling tax revenue.

A survey of 474 cities and counties by the International City/ County Management Association for USA Today found that almost all have seen fuel costs rise since January. Sixty-two percent saw 10 percent to 20 percent increases. Almost one-third had spikes greater than 20 percent.

For some communities, it will mean reduced city services.

In Wethersfield, Conn., a city of 26,000 outside Hartford, city manager Bonnie Therrien expects a 36 percent increase in fuel costs in next year's budget, which may mean shutting off one-third of the city's street lights at night and forgoing some maintenance projects.

"It's really come down to what vehicles are necessary and what we can do without," Therrien says. "We have to take a look at the list of services we provide and whittle it down. We can't afford it."

The ICMA survey found that two-thirds of city and county managers are dealing with fuel costs by replacing vehicles with poor gas mileage and switching to vehicles that run on alternative fuels. Austin, San Francisco and Seattle lead the trend.

In Austin, almost one-third of the city's 4,000 vehicles use alternative fuel, from biodiesel to ethanol, fleet officer Jennifer Walls says. The city recently bought six garbage trucks that run on natural gas.

San Francisco spends $20 million a year on fuel, most of it for public buses, which run on biodiesel, says Jared Blumenfeld, the city's environment department director.

The city has changed how its 30,000 employees use city vehicles, he says. More gardeners and police officers ride bicycles. More work from home.

Biodiesel and hybrid vehicles are 43 percent of the city's fleet. Cities started buying them several years ago to minimize climate change.

"The big buzz the last two years was climate change," he says. "Now it's peak oil prices."

Counties are struggling, too. They are eating into reserve funds to buy fuel, limiting the use of official cars, reducing the number of school field trips and scaling back senior programs like Meals on Wheels, the National Association of Counties says.

Executive director Larry Naake says, "Counties are in the early stages of ... financial crisis as a direct result of the mortgage and foreclosure crisis and are getting hit again with record high gas prices."