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Local municipal treasurers said Tuesday they are worried the financial crisis on Wall Street could soon starting hitting home.

They said they have already heard colleagues outside the immediate area are having trouble borrowing money for their communities because credit is drying up.

"There is no borrowing at all in the market right now," North Attleboro Treasurer-Collector Diana Asanza said.

"It is clear the crisis on Wall Street and gridlock in Washington is freezing up available credit," said Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

Congressional leaders in Washington and President Bush have said the reason they are pushing for a Wall Street bailout bill is to free banks of bad debt so they can start borrowing again and get the economy moving. The House rejected the bailout bill Monday, but leaders said they are willing to try again. The Senate could vote on a plan as early as today.

Beckwith said so few investors are willing to lend money that any community trying to borrow now would have to pay higher interest rates to attract bidders.

"That is going to drive up municipal borrowing costs substantially," he said.

Asanza said she was scheduled to borrow $1.379 million for capital improvements on Oct. 31, but is pushing that off, hoping the credit market frees up in November.

To borrow now would mean either getting no bidders or so few that the interest rate would be too high, she said.

State Treasurer Tim Cahill has said the credit crunch is hurting state government.

Cahill said he had difficulty borrowing $400 million to make the state's payment to cities and towns for local aid that was due today.

And he said the credit market "froze" with him $170 million short, so he had to dip into state reserves.

Local municipal treasurers said sooner or later they will also have to get into the credit market, and they are concerned there will be no one willing to lend money.

Attleboro City Treasurer Ethel Sandbach said she was talking to the city's broker, and he told her another community he represents could not find anyone to bid on its bonds. She said Attleboro is fine for now, but she is worried about the future.

"Everybody is in a holding pattern," she said.

The city is lucky because it just borrowed money in August for water projects before the credit crunch hit. She said she was able to get a favorable interest rate of 3.126 percent, but that would be impossible today.

Sandbach said the biggest adjustment she has had to make is to put the city's money in safer savings accounts, but those pay less interest.

"The only impact it has had so far is we are being more and more cautious," she said.

Vivian Pitts, the collector-treasurer in Foxboro, said everyone is hearing stories of towns not being able to borrow.

"We're a nervous wreck. There is no money out there," she said.

She said Foxboro does not need to borrow at the present time, but she is keeping close tabs on the credit market.

Kathleen Parker, the collector-treasurer in Plainville, said her town will have to borrow money in June to pay for a fire engine it bought. A one-year temporary bond expires then, she said.

Parker said she hopes the problem is resolved by then, and that Plainville does not have to borrow in the meantime.

She said she has been in the business for 29 years, and has never heard of towns not being able to borrow before.

"Hopefully things will calm down soon," she said.