Archive
Seeking to rectify an embarrassing and expensive mistake, the Arizona
legislature met in special session in October to call to a halt an
alternative-fuel tax-incentive program it had approved only five
months earlier.
Nursing homes are out of favor. Assisted living is in. Should
regulators keep their hands off this fast-growing form of care?
Very often, a big development project achieves regional goals but does
so by flattening a local community. Or vice versa.
Instant runoff voting, in which citizens rank candidates in order of
preference, is a simple concept. But there are political and technical
obstacles to implementing it.
Two years ago, Bill Sizemore got drubbed in Oregon's gubernatorial election. Running as a Republican against the incumbent Democrat, John Kitzhaber, he didn't even attract a third of the vote.
The city council elections are over, and now, as chief of staff to
Mayor Jamie Wiliams, you need to turn your attention to the next two
years--the last two years. The city charter prohibits the mayor of
Zenith City from seeking a third four-year term. Yet Mayor Wiliams has
to govern for two more years--during which time everyone will call her
(although not always to her face) a lame duck.
Groups of temporary workers in King County and Bellevue, Washington, won hefty settlements in so-called "permatemp" suits this summer.
The federal government is telling school systems exactly what they
must accomplish. It isn't doing much to help them accomplish it.
Taking a page from the nation's top retailers, Iowa is making a new promise to its citizens: If you're not happy with the services you receive from state government, you get your money back.
After a series of scandals, Connecticut is taking ethics seriously.
Governor Jodi Rell has a mandate to push for change.
To the list of personal problems that have become political, those living in Dallas County, Iowa, and Colville, Washington, can add cracked windshields and flat tires.
The mayor of Salt Lake City, Rocky Anderson, is talking about an
experiment he launched earlier this year. Once a week, his department
heads and senior managers are required to appear at an open meeting
and answer questions from ordinary voters. "I learned that from the
Sandinistas," he says.
If transit managers have their way, fare card machines may go the way of the onboard conductor. Transit systems around the country are examining ways to phase out station card sales by linking ride purchases to banks.
"Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee." The poet John Donne may have extolled the virtues of nudity, but the Institute in Basic Life Principles doesn't buy it. When the Christian home-schooling group arrived in Sacramento and saw an unclad statue of Poseidon outside the convention center where its week-long meeting was to be held, attendees recoiled in dismay.
Caffeine has created quite a quandary in the land of Starbucks. The drug has become so prevalent in the Seattle-area water supply that officials have had to change the way they track pollution.
Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura's weekly radio show is a forum for floating new ideas--and sometimes, even the far-fetched ones reach enough listeners who are willing to give them a try.
Public pensions are now well funded. But with the buildup in equities,
they have taken on more investment risk.
The feds are sending auditors to every state to scour Medicaid
accounts.
Booze flows freely on New Orleans' anything-goes Bourbon Street, where the only lewd behavior the cops seem to get fussy about is peeing in public. Relief is on the way, though, both for drinkers who can't hold it in and for residents who are tired of seeing their streets and alleys used as a urinal.
At their best, condo and homeowner associations are an effective form of local government that raises property values and imposes a healthy degree of order on communities.
A handful of states and localities are taking their digitized data to
a higher level.
How the Internet tax war plays out will have a major role in
determining future economic development strategies.
Forget about building a big all-purpose database. There are other ways
to integrate state and local information.
Several major cities are planning new municipal buildings that express
both their local identity and their stature in the global economy.
Originally, Kerriga Joseph, the city manager, had thought Hippiloto was a gamble. Most managers serve up the trendy management pitch about delegation, empowerment, discretion and responsibility. Joseph actually lived those principles.
If there's any group of American citizens you wouldn't expect to find at the cutting edge of political reform, it's the lobster fishermen along the coast of Maine. Not only do they have a national reputation for being cranky loners--they readily accept it.
One way for communities to expand is to grab any piece of unattached
territory nearby. But compulsive annexation carries a high price.
A reform-minded governor thinks performance measurement is the first
step toward a healthy state future.
State regulators need to work together if they want to keep the feds
from moving in on them.
Three things about Chicago's new downtown Millennium Park are well known: It's spectacular, way over budget (original estimate: $150 million, final cost: $475 million) and four years overdue.
One of the easiest ways to balance a budget is simply to predict
savings that may or may not ever come to pass.
A new approach to cutting health care costs may end up transferring
medical risk to consumers.
The problem in putting a price tag on government is that costs are
deferred--buried in borrowed money and out of voters' sight.
More and more governors are learning that the pen is mightier than the
legislature.
Last year at this time, it was the calm before the marketing storm of e-government. Dot-com companies were beginning to burst onto the scene, offering to make it easy and convenient for citizens to go online to pay tickets and taxes and get licenses and permits.
Many state and local officials were livid last spring when the e- commerce commission headed by Virginia Governor James Gilmore recommended against taxing goods sold over the Internet. They felt the report ignored their concern that such action would eat away at their sales-tax revenue and hurt Main Street retailers who still had to collect the tax.
The standard for evaluating states' special education efforts is
shifting from access to outcomes.
Six months after taking office this past January, Mayor Bill Moe of Spirit Lake, Idaho, found himself fighting a recall petition. Most mayors in that situation might have been shocked.
Regardless of real-world pressures, data should be made public. Absent
good information, bad information will prevail.
Significantly reducing transit prices can have dramatic effects on
getting people to give up driving their cars to work.
Connecticut's capital city seemed on the verge of a comeback, but the
recovery has largely stalled. The problem may be the structure of its
government.
A tour of Salem, Massachusetts' gruesome and supernatural landmarks by hearse? To Doug Antreassian, it seemed like the perfect business plan.
With mounting evidence that America's streets are becoming increasingly perilous for pedestrians, cities across the country are searching for ways to make them safer. In Spanish Fork, Utah, the solution is a $500 self-flagging sidewalk system.
The future looks dark for the George C. Platt Memorial Bridge in Philadelphia, as city and state officials continue an eight-year stalemate over who's responsible for the structure's lighting.
When public employees abuse their Internet privileges at work, IT
managers need to know how to deal with it.
In the wake of California's attempt to recall Governor Gray Davis, it
seems likely this tactic will be tried in other states.
The White House can't wait to sell off federal programs. The states
might want to look before buying.
Somebody keeps stealing garbage cans in Dallas, and it's causing a stink. Reason: These aren't your usual Rubbermaid trash cans; they're official City of Dallas receptacles, 90-gallon cans with wheels known as roll carts that are designed to work with automated garbage trucks.
A late budget is a clear sign that unproductive politics are
overwhelming a government's sensible management.
Several states made changes in their Medicaid and SCHIP programs that
will, in effect, push children off the rolls.
Paving with bricks is expensive, but many places think the ambience
they create is worth it.
Motorcycle riders in Memphis thought that installing flashing brake lights to attract the attention of other drivers was a way to protect themselves from accidents. But when bikers showed up for a yearly inspection required by city ordinance, the pulsating lights were declared illegal.
Wisconsin state Representative Mike Powers is going it alone--not politically but administratively.
What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one? If you've lost count, you're in good company with the Wichita City Council.
South Carolina recently held an electronic auction for $75 million in public funds, gavelling them off to the highest bidder in chunks of $5 million or less.
Because of the nature of the services they provide, states and
localities find it difficult to increase productivity.
Nothing can undermine the growth of online government faster than a
digital database that leaks information.
It's not just outsiders who need to be kept out of online files.
Limits have to be set on what public employees can see.
Excruciatingly tight budgets may mean that states, cities and counties aren't making as many big technology purchases this year, but many of their leaders, coming together at Governing's annual Managing Technology conference in Atlanta in May, agreed that the skillful management of technology can help them emerge from these difficult times more efficient and more effective.
Higher ed wants to offer states a deal: Let us run things our own way,
and then judge us by the result. Should states accept?
Budgeting is not going to get easier for states anytime soon. In a Rockefeller Institute report released in August, fiscal analyst Nicholas W. Jenny concluded that "underlying state revenue trends in fiscal year 2003 were still down."
"Why do I love Paris?" Cole Porter keeps asking, in one of his least clever songs. "Why, oh why, do I love Paris?" Finally he ends the suspense. It's because his sweetie is in the neighborhood.
Propane is a cheap and clean-burning motor fuel favored by some state and local fleet managers, but two developments in Texas show that when it comes to this alternative fuel, progress is still one step forward and one step back.
Top government officials find it easier to deal with huge budget
shortfalls than to get their agencies to share information.
Targeted tax incentives violate all the established principles of
sound tax policy. Yet, they keep proliferating.
The confusion and cost of complying with national terror alerts are
driving cities to question the whole system.
Reports on police stops in New York and in England and Wales bring attention to police departments regarding patterns of racial profiling.
The rural town of Adrian, Minn., opened a telepharmacy to continue conveniently serving the needs of its community after its local pharmacy closed down.
The defeat of taxes on candy and income, plus approval of a supermajority needed for future take hikes, removes a "path forward" for policymakers.
Philosophy students occasionally wile away idle moments by arguing over what constitutes a truly victimless crime. It's a more complicated issue than one might suppose.
The speed and clout of the Internet let community organizers mobilize
support in the flash of a mouse click.
The ex-Treasury Secretary is turning his talents to the inner city.
He's heading one of America's least-known but most powerful urban
organizations.
The presidential candidates' speeches provide few clues about their
views on federal-state relations.
Almost half a century ago, after he'd gotten home from the Korean War, Tom Coleman found himself selling chemical fertilizer to the farmers of south Georgia.
Do recent investment scandals mean public retirement systems need a
quick fix?
Instead of teaching a lesson on sex and appropriate behavior, the Montana health department recently learned one.
Cincinnati schools are marching toward the head of the performance- measurement class. If teachers ratify the plan in a mid-September vote, the city's school system will become a leader in the move to take teachers off a single-salary schedule and put them onto one based on job performance.
Efforts to lower premiums for urban drivers pit city dwellers against
suburbanites and insurance companies.
Tooth-rattling bumps, zigzag detours: These are what city drivers experience when roads are ripped up by telecommunications companies laying fiber-optic cable.
After four years of infighting, and with the nightmare of Hurricane Andrew's $16 billion devastation in mind, Florida's legislature adopted a new statewide Unified Building Code this May.
Legislative immunity is a 400-year-old idea. Applying it to the 21st
century can be a little difficult.
In a hot real estate market, some governments are seeking to cash in
on their city hall.
When Lady Luck smiles on lottery players, state officials are sometimes left gritting their teeth. On a single day in May, the Maryland Lottery paid out $7 million to more than 2,800 bettors who chose the winning numbers 1-1-1-1 in the state's Pick 4 game.
All those city council members who grumble about having to go out in the evening to attend a monthly meeting can be thankful they don't have to fly eight hours to get there.
Leveraging future revenues to build urban-like infrastructure is
getting special attention in small towns that are growing like Topsy.
The popular perception may be that all the jobs are moving to the
suburbs. But the statistical data show otherwise.
The GOP is near a high-water mark for legislative seats that dates back to 1928.
"Continuous upgrades are no longer an option." On this, the governor, the leadership of the West Dakota General Assembly, the Zenith City Tribune and your staff all agree.
In the mid-1980s, when metropolitan Portland first began planning a light-rail line, the downtown merchants in suburban Gresham, Oregon, discussed the issue and reached a quick consensus: They didn't want it.
You and I might not agree on the best American governors of recent years, but we would probably agree on what makes a governor effective. Mostly, it's a matter of having a coherent program and finding ways to get it enacted.
Wolves are back in Montana, and many of the citizens are upset about it. Carolyn Sime has the task of calming people down.Carolyn Sime had a stress-free job in the Montana backcountry that any lover of the outdoors would envy.
Mixed-use projects are putting library resources, residents and retail
in close proximity.
Can broader insurance coverage bring health care costs under control?
One state is betting on it.
Concern over whether or not schoolchildren wash their hands after using the bathroom is giving way to another health worry: Many urinal deodorizer blocks, a common feature in restrooms, contain a toxic chemical that can cause respiratory problems and even trigger asthma attacks.
Government finance officers tell it like it is. Will politicians finally listen?
One of the classic pick-up lines for those who live near the New Jersey Turnpike is to ask, "What exit?" So perhaps it was inevitable that a city along that highway would try to build some brand recognition around its exit number.
The town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, not only has a funny name but a funny way of electing its mayors. Voters pay $1 per vote--as many as they care to cast--and among the candidates in the November 2 election are a pot-bellied pig, a donkey and a labrador retriever.
Pittsburgh is prepared for the worst now that its hometown airline, US Airways, has slipped into Chapter 11 bankruptcy for a second time ["Wing and a Prayer," January].
Medicaid contract for disease management fails a fiscal test.
Quasi-governmental authorities spend billions of dollars of Empire
State taxpayers' money every year. They don't have to answer many
questions about it.
A free system could help states and localities improve the way they
alert responders and residents to emergencies.
The more tax cuts Congress passes, the more trouble states and
localities will have making ends meet.
Public art is a great thing, not least because of its ability to communicate complex ideas through symbolism. That was on the minds of city officials in the San Francisco suburb of Livermore, California, when they completed a new public library a few years ago and commissioned a $40,000 mural near the entrance to portray the tree of knowledge, with small portraits in its branches of great artists, writers, scientists and other historic figures.
Even as doubts grow about using performance data in budgeting, mental
health agencies provide fresh evidence of the benefits.
Health care costs for retirees are like a hurricane that's gathering
strength in the ocean before it makes landfall.
The SEC is going after muni bond issuers who fail to supply adequate
information when their debt goes on sale.
Economists have a reputation for being cool and dispassionate, but a few phrases or concepts have the capacity to turn even the meekest of them into hectoring ideologues, exasperated with the inability of others to exercise simple common sense.
State budget problems have sparked pragmatic, bipartisan debates about
alternatives to incarceration.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may have been elected as a political novice, but
he's outsmarting the pros at every turn.
Some say the words 'reform' and 'Rhode Island' don't belong in the
same sentence. Phil West is proving them wrong.
Writers have poetic license, special agent James Bond has a license to kill. In Louisiana, every florist has a license to arrange.
Ever been riding in a taxi and gotten into a discussion about politics with the driver? Did he happen to be a politician himself? You could have that experience in Boston, where Phil Scapicchio, a member of the city council, has taken to driving a cab.
Austin, Texas, is a well-run city, and by now managers there are accustomed to sharing their "best practices" with others. But Austin's latest consulting gig is a bit unusual: helping the U.S. Army run Baghdad.
When Governing analyzed county management in 2002, Maricopa County, Arizona, earned high praise [Government Performance Project, "Grading the Counties"]. The report applauded the county for its management style, noting that there were established methods to rein in wayward departments.
VoIP looks to be the next new thing, although an Internet-based
telephone system may not be right for all governments right now.
The federal anti-mandate law is almost 10 years old. It hasn't worked
any miracles, but it hasn't been a total loss, either.
Sometimes love can't be easily explained. Take the affection that skateboarders have for Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Plaza--better known as LOVE Park. This small park, just across from city hall and home of the bright-red sculpture with four letters--L-O-V-E--stacked in two rows, is the most popular site in all of urban skateboarding.
It's important to understand that five-year forecasts are going to be
wrong, but it's good to do them anyway.
Governor Bredesen aims to save TennCare, but one of his fixes flies in
the face of a cherished national notion.
The high costs and rising profiles of public employee pension benefits
are raising the public's hackles.
The Minnesota House and Senate went home for the summer a few weeks ago, having concluded a legislative session that left just about everyone disappointed.
Smart, decisive, IT-enabled improvements are critical to the new administrations currently taking shape around the country.
How to avoid the impulsive and shallow commitments that have too often characterized IT investments in the past.
Plus: The cost of rules, how bikes saves lives, and more management news.
Here's a quick overview of GOVERNING's coverage of the 2010 Midterm Elections. Pre-election ratings, real-time results and analysis, post-election live chats, and more.
Teaching a bureaucracy to think like an enterprise
The events of September 11 changed the debate over national
transportation policy. But there's one underlying reality: We have a
problem, and we're decades behind in fixing it.
Managing IT has traditionally been more about technology than it has
been about policy. This is likely to change.
State and local budgets are pressed to pay for more police, fire and
public health personnel and for new safety equipment.
Governmental power has been decentralizing for 20 years now. Some
think that's over. They should think again.
For someone who grew up in Philadelphia, Shirley Franklin has the
perfect Atlanta pedigree. That may explain why she managed a few weeks
ago to win the city's mayoralty without a runoff, and will take office
next month as Atlanta's first female chief executive.
Politics has always been rough in the Bay State. These days, though,
meanness sometimes seems like an end in itself.
Driven by the effect of rising drug prices on state budgets, seven
states are banding together to change the way they buy pharmaceuticals
for their employee-benefit plans.
It had to hurt. Washington State paid $85 million in court judgments
and settlements this past fiscal year, a 240 percent jump over the
year before and a quantum leap over the highest payout--$26 million--
in the past 10 years. "We tend to be the deep pocket," says Marty
Brown, director of the Governor's Office of Financial Management.
