More than two years after the passage of landmark state legislation, Rhode Island's pension-reform saga may finally be coming to an end. When governments wait too long to address looming pension troubles, they often end up boxed in by the need to save money on one side and prohibitions against diminishing current employees' pensions on the other. But in this case, the final product has been worth the wait.

The pension-reform legislation was enacted in November 2011. Public-employee unions filed a lawsuit challenging it the following year. That December, a state Superior Court judge ordered the sides into talks brokered by a federal mediator. The recent agreement reached by outgoing Gov. Lincoln Chaffee, state Treasurer Gina Raimondo (who is running for governor) and the unions is fair and preserves most of the savings provided by the 2011 legislation. READ MORE

Last year I wrote about a Denver program called Peak Performance that invests in municipal employees to give them the tools to make city government more efficient. In recent months, the city's implementation of a state law legalizing recreational marijuana and a city ordinance that allows retail marijuana establishments to open has shown that the city's workforce takes a backseat to none when it comes to efficiency.

To apply to open a retail marijuana store, some applicants had to be fully licensed by last Oct. 1. Those not licensed by that date would have to wait until 2016 to apply. But in September, the director of Denver's Department of Excise and Licenses resigned. READ MORE

How can government procure innovation? Even better, how can government get innovation given to it? Challenge platforms such as the General Services Administration's (GSA) Challenge.gov demonstrate a new way for governments at all levels to procure innovative products, services and ideas and build pipelines to deliver these innovations constantly.

With competitions such as ones for developing a methodology to predict the flu season to designing sensors for sewer overflows, the Challenge.gov platform produces an opportunity for government savings, an engaged civic community producing a stream of innovation, and substantial exposure and rewards for small businesses and individuals. Last month the Innovations in American Government program at the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center gave its annual prize to GSA for showing that government can innovate better, faster and much cheaper by employing new, collaborative digital processes. READ MORE

Start with the public-transit industry, where employees often pay next to nothing toward their pensions and federal law provides them with up to six years of full pay and benefits if they're laid off, then add what have become the usual public-sector pension sustainability problems, and the result is a particularly toxic brew. That's the case in Colorado, where 1,670 Denver Regional Transit District (RTD) employees and retirees just got some very bad news about their local pension fund.

A consultant's study found that the $200 million Amalgamated Transit Union 1001 (ATU) pension fund was more than 100 percent funded in 2002, but problems became apparent the following year. By 2008 it was down to 86 percent funded, and last year, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the pension stood at less than 50 percent. Gabriel Roeder Smith & Co., which conducted the study, says the fund is on course to be fully depleted in 2032. READ MORE

Pennsylvania's reign as the nation's leader in structurally deficient bridges will likely come to an end over the next few years, thanks to a 2012 state law that will dramatically boost infrastructure investment by authorizing public-private partnerships on a wide range of transportation projects.

About 18 percent of Pennsylvania's bridges are structurally deficient, which means deterioration of at least one component puts the bridge at risk for weight restriction and eventual closure. The national average is less than 8 percent. READ MORE