Archive
Using a quantitative model, a professor predicts which party will have a greater influence on state legislative redistricting than ever before.
Alaska's Frank Murkowski left the U.S. Senate to take over a state
that's going broke. Why would he do that?
States are continuing to use the power of the investment purse to
challenge the way corporations do business.
What is the dumbest local government in America? Hard to say, but at least until recently New York's affluent suburb of Nassau County would have to be a contender. How dumb was Nassau's government? So dumb that it bought 1,200 computers a few years ago as backups for the Y2K problem, then left them in boxes for three years as employees begged for upgrades.
The cost of prescription drugs is rising faster than any other component of health care--as much as 20 percent this year, according to estimates. With those escalating prices in mind, several states are making efforts to help older citizens deal with the pocketbook pressure of paying for their medicines.
The state of Missouri signed a contract in November with a consortium of health care professionals and other emergency responders to provide medical care in case of disaster. The team, known as MO-1 MDAT, was formed four years ago to address federally declared disasters.
Animal-rights groups want stricter laws--or outright bans--on horses
in urban areas.
Anyone who has felt a little wobbly in the late afternoon understands the value of grabbing a quick snack as an energy boost. Apparently, some public schools in Virginia are applying a similar principle in preparing students to take the statewide achievement exams.
You've heard of the "thin blue line"? Bethany, Oklahoma, is pinning its hopes on a thick one. The town painted a bright blue, 8-foot-wide line to denote where its boundaries end and those of the next city over begin.
Over the past 18 months, visitors to state capitols have noticed many structural changes designed to enhance safety. But one change they won't get a chance to see is an old dumbwaiter that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has converted into an escape route.
There are two significant things to say right off the bat about Florida's new statewide anti-poverty program.
This winter, people sniffling in some of the country's coldest places couldn't stock up on over-the-counter remedies as easily as they once did.
Corporations today believe they owe it to their stockholders to
minimize business taxes any way they can.
Public pension funds have begun releasing data on their venture- capital investments, something they had not done in the past.
The problem is, it couldn't still be there. Small local bookstores can't make a go of it in most places these days. I wish that weren't true, but it is.
There's a lot that state political parties still don't know about the
new campaign finance law. They need to learn fast.
Florida and Palm Beach County are founding a new branch of the renowned Scripps Research Institute, hoping to turn a 1,900-acre orange grove into a home for thousands of high-paying jobs in biomedicine.
Early in the Nixon administration, when supporters of civil rights worried that the new president was about to follow up on the racially divisive rhetoric of his 1968 campaign, Attorney General John Mitchell sought to reassure them with a few simple words: "Don't watch what we say--watch what we do."
Health-care reformers say it can be done. Girard Miller doubts it.
Virtually every state's higher education system has climbed aboard the
distance-learning bandwagon. But their reasons and approaches vary
enormously.
Affiliated with, sponsored by, partnered with ...
They're phrases used by the not-for-profit government associations when they talk about deals they have cut with for-profit companies, usually to provide goods and services to members. Mayors, county executives and other members of national membership organizations may wonder how their associations decide to make agreements with particular technology vendors and e-government companies, why they do it, and how those deals benefit the associations and their members.
When it comes to protecting the food supply, states leave it to
Washington. Maybe they shouldn't.
Here's a challenge: Name a White House director of intergovernmental
affairs who has ever been a major player in federal policy. If you are
stumped, you are in good company. Nominally the liaison between the
president and state and local governments, he or she has tended to
serve as a glorified social secretary--an aide who leads cheers for
the president's programs and handles the protocol when the chief
executive gets together with the relevant officials outside
Washington, D.C.
The Dow's decline is racking up pension fund losses, but money
managers aren't panicking--yet.
Cars have been pushing pedestrians around forever. Pedestrians are
starting to push back.
Problems crop up when the grievance process is so complex and time-
consuming that it stifles managers and employees.
Cities are fighting against the liquor ads plastered all over inner-
city neighborhoods. It's a hard battle to win, but some of them are
winning.
There is growing pressure to revisit the policies of constraint that
make it so hard to build new projects.
America's worst public housing projects are being fixed up, and many
of them look pretty good. There's just one puzzling question: Where
did the old tenants go?
Mississippi's House speaker found he couldn't run the place the old-
fashioned way. So he invented a better way.
Thanks to a legislative change in tax policy, Mississippi will be able
to staunch tax losses on out-of-state gambler income next year.
Tennessee held off buying Pacific Gas & Electric Co. bonds during the
last year, aware that California's ongoing power crisis could cause a
downgrade in the long-term credit rating for that state's utility. But
Tennessee continued its historically conservative investments in
PG&E's commercial paper, not expecting the company's rating to plunge
in just a few short months.
A group of Southern tourist meccas, excluding Florida, is trying to
better compete with the world's top tourist destinations, and their
huge marketing bank accounts, by pooling its money. The cooperative
effort is called the Southern International Marketing Coalition.
A reinvigorated municipal bond market is attracting investors, as well
as helping issuers lower their costs.
The 20th century produced a pantheon of brilliant urban thinkers and
planners. Some built, some mostly wrote, some did both. Some did
better than others at translating their ideas into reality. But one
way or another, we are living with the consequences of their vision:
There's a new twist to zoning laws in some Colorado communities: Last
year, when the Lakewood city council discovered that five registered
sex offenders were living together in a rental home, it passed an
emergency amendment to the town code that makes it illegal for a
household to include more than one adult convicted of a sexual crime.
Philosophers are always in search of an audience, so they must be
thrilled that Albuquerque's public schools are offering a new, if
unusual, medium for deep thoughts: teachers' paychecks.
When the governor or mayor comes from the IT business world, it makes
implementing e-government easier--at least it should.
Creative approaches to the design and retrofit of public buildings
prove that safety doesn't have to be ugly.
There's a form of gun regulation that could save thousands of lives a
year. If we weren't so paranoid, we'd adopt it.
Last December, Michael Spence, Montana's chief medical officer, got an unexpected piece of mail. It was a Christmas card from the management of the Super 8 motel in Libby, Montana--a reminder of just how much time he had spent in the small town more than 300 miles away from his office in the state capitol of Helena.
Some cities have long had an appealingly simple answer to urban problems: annex their way out of them. The problem of cities, they say, is that affluent suburbs have surrounded them, so the secret is to annex those areas before they can incorporate.
The lack of good information to help voters make intelligent decisions
on ballot measures is startling.
Republicans control more legislatures this year than they have in
decades. They didn't pick the easiest time to take over.
By touting its success, advocates hope to spare the children's health
insurance program from the budget ax.
State politics is awash in fresh faces. Will that mean fresh ideas as
well? Perhaps.
Occasionally, a well-meaning piece of legislation turns out to embody the law of unintended consequences.
The people who work in the North Carolina state capitol building ain't afraid of no ghosts. But that's not because they think the apparitions are a hoax.
Durham County, North Carolina, is trying a new tactic to fight gang membership. The approach consists of three parts: education, counseling--and free tattoo removal.
Cops in Chicago are trading doughnuts for dollars under the police department's new incentive plan that pays them $250 for passing a physical fitness test.
The public turns to government to solve all manner of private troubles, yet is perennially disenchanted with government.
Even as the American public demands more, it remains ambivalent about government. The only 'solution' is enlightened leadership.
When it comes to putting scarce resources to use, we need to better understand costs and trade-offs.
Plus: City Budget Cuts, Stimulus Strains, And More Management News
The recession has been officially over for a year now, so when will we be back to normal? One way to look at it is to compare it to catching and recovering from a cold.
The President now says public works don't do a good job of stimulating the short-term economy. That's not news.
There's a lot riding on state legislative races this year because both parties want to be in control when the legislatures get to work on redistricting in 2011. While Democrats could lose chambers in nearly a dozen states, they are hoping for – important victories in New York, Ohio and Texas.
Initiatives to Web-enable the basic services of government are by no
means the most significant Internet-driven changes.
The way to evaluate the president's initiative is by what it achieves,
not how it's organized.
Three decades ago, as a young man in his early 30s, John H. Chichester
left Virginia's Democratic Party because he thought it had become too
friendly to big government. Fifteen years ago, at the mid-point of the
Reagan years in Washington, he ran for lieutenant governor as a Reagan
supporter and spokesman for his party's conservative wing.
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley is tracking performance on a scale
never seen before in local government. He wants change, in a hurry.
In response to rapidly growing Hispanic populations, law enforcement
agencies across the country are working to bring an understanding of
the Spanish language to their personnel.
The pressure is on Wisconsin localities to work together. Governor
Scott McCallum has endorsed a major recommendation in a report
commissioned by former Governor Tommy Thompson that was supposed to
come up with "radical and bold" ideas for Wisconsin government.
In 1999, when severe drought struck central Kentucky, localities
realized they needed a way to move available water resources across
and around a six-county region.
State plans to improve crumbling roads are usually greeted with cheers
in counties. Not so in Michigan, where a number of local officials
object to the method for funding Build Michigan III.
Homeowner associations are an increasingly prevalent--and troubled--
form of local government.
Health care costs are once again poised to create almost unbearable
pain for state health officials and legislators.
Offensiveness, like beauty, is generally in the eye of the beholder.
At least that's what the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles is
discoverning in its effort to banish bad taste from vanity license
plates.
If you're planning to run for office as a write-in, you might want to
be sure your surname is Jones--or Bush or even Gore. John D. Schmidt
of Hays County, Texas, found that out the hard way.
With the economy weakening, will the bottom drop out of the real
estate market--and property-tax collections--again?
Even in the era of the New Economy, a successful economic development
strategy still depends on plain ol' infrastructure.
The memo from Harriet Rangstrom, Zenith City's budget director, was
unambiguous. Like every other city agency, your Department of Public
Works will need to cut this fiscal year's expenditures by 5 percent
and next year's by 15 percent. With revenues declining, the West
Dakota legislature has reduced its support for the cities and counties
in the state. Zenith City is stuck. And so are you.
Conducting background checks on teachers and other workers is
expensive. But not doing them can also be costly.
Improving mass transit is one way to help inner-city and rural welfare
recipients get to where the jobs are. But it's not the only way.
This year's crop of new governors faced a transition task that their
predecessors did not. Incoming administrations have always had to
change names on office doors and update highway welcome signs. This
time, administration employees also had to update state Web sites to
reflect the change in administration.
Leaders in one booming suburban county have a solution to sprawl. But
selling it to the voters may not be easy.
Changing the board of regents may not be the best way to overhaul a
state university system. But it's one of the few weapons a legislature
has.
School reform through saturation testing is a simple and seductive
idea. It needs scrutiny.
When Mayor Milton Milan was convicted in December on corruption
charges, it seemed that the so-called "Curse of Camden" had dropped
this dysfunctional New Jersey city to a new low. Milan was the third
mayor in 20 years to plead guilty to felony charges, and his fall came
as the state of New Jersey, which already supervises some of the
city's finances, was pressing for legislation to assume complete
control of city operations. But the Camden City Council earned at
least a temporary reprieve by making an unorthodox choice as Milan's
replacement.
States need a more careful process of estimating the future financial
impact of legislation before legislators pass it.
The emergence of the Internet and other forms of telecommunications is
likely to result in major changes in land use.
You know you're in trouble when you're facing the death penalty and
your lawyer would rather go to jail himself than work on your case.
Celebrity in Los Angeles comes and goes like a fickle wind. But Mike
Antonovich's date with a sort of self-proclaimed stardom seems to
occur regularly every five years.
The tallest new structure to be built in Berkeley in 30 years opens in
June. But it will be opening without meeting the zoning requirement
that made its size possible.
The recent re-translation of the ancient--and seemingly gender-biased-
-Italian motto that appears on Maryland's state seal is being hailed
by feminists and others. But the change is purely symbolic.
Among the first things you see on entering Kerrville, Texas, are
dozens of yellow portable toilets. It's not the kind of pleasant
welcome that city officials had planned on when they changed zoning
restrictions in 1997. That's when planners decided to zone for a
"gateway" into town that would foster tourism with hotels, restaurants
and other visitor services.
North Carolina is giving its online retailers an ultimatum: collect sales taxes now or risk an audit later.
If the Republican wave is realized this Election Day then the gubernatorial picture will be grim indeed for the Democrats.
In many parts of the Northeast, E-ZPass makes it easy for drivers to
pay tolls without stopping. But the electronic-payments program hasn't
been so easy on the pocketbooks of the governments running it.
The difference was dramatic: In its January online auction, Kern
County, California, sold 88 percent of the 351 tax-defaulted
properties up for sale. The properties sold for an average of more
than $34,000 and over 140 bidders took part in the process.
A key factor in muni bond ratings these days is the quality of
governance or 'political risk' of an issuer.
Job reviews are nerve-racking for both managers and employees. Some
places are trying to make them less stressful and more meaningful.
The escalating abuse of prescription drugs has states scrambling to
respond.
The power of people to improve the way government works was the recurring theme of Governing's annual management conference, held September 17-19, 2002, in Austin, Texas. The program dialogue moved beyond the nuts and bolts of measuring performance to the finer points of using measures to motivate and improve performance.
Amnesty and forgiveness are two different things. Amnesty is indiscriminate--the canceling of debt, obligation or penalty not out of a desire for individual justice but out of a belief that there is something to be gained by simply wiping the slate clean.
If September 11, 2001, was the wakeup call, then March 11, 2004, >pushed public transportation officials out of bed.
Transit rides to the rescue of air-quality awareness.On mornings this summer when San Francisco's fog transforms into less desirable smog, area commuters can get some relief.
The tallest new structure to be built in Berkeley in 30 years opens in
June. But it will be opening without meeting the zoning requirement
that made its size possible.
Seen as a public health problem, suicide is preventable--at least
that's an approach several states are starting to take.
Ray Allen didn't set out to become an ally of liberal activists. He
just happened to agree with them on a few things.
A British agency turns the traditional purchasing model on its head to
fund up-to-date replacements of old technology.
When it comes to relations between the states and Washington, the
Reagan era is still going on.
As governments turn to private partners to put their transactions
online, they're finding that there's more than one way to make e-
commerce happen.
It's a funny time to talk about this (it has been raining a lot in Texas lately), but Dallas is running out of water, and the problem is one of its own making.
Contractors hoping to work on projects funded by the state of Connecticut now travel a smoother--and nearly paperless--road toward prequalification.
City seeks a means of managing access to health care services
Nursing homes in Oklahoma will soon be able to donate unused prescription drugs to state residents who can't afford them.
As sprawl puts neighborhoods in close proximity to military bases,
creating buffer zones of open space can ease conflicts.
Millions of kids under 16 are in the work force. There are laws to
protect them--but the laws were written for an economy that
disappeared long ago.
When the reality show "COPS" decided to come to Cincinnati earlier this summer, Police Chief Tom Streicher didn't foresee any problems with allowing video crews to film his 1,000-member force as they patrolled for bad boys.
They are accommodations any college student might die for, but it's different when South Carolina's chief executive is sleeping on a futon in the pool house on the grounds of the governor's mansion.
You might think that the recent release of Bill Clinton's memoirs would serve as a reminder to politicians of the perils of fooling around with interns. Apparently, however, legislators in New York State need a set of rules to discourage the practice.
As schools take up the fight against child obesity, soda machines and french fries are clear targets. But one public school in Massachusetts has identified another indulgence that could be making kids fat: birthday parties.
During the 2003 legislative session, 16 states had to make a choice: join the rest of the country and comply with a federal requirement to set a .08 blood alcohol content standard for drunk driving or lose a substantial amount of federal highway money ["Slow to Toe the DUI Line," May 2003].
States and cities are focusing on ways to lower the high cost of
keeping cars at the ready.
Colorado has set up a voucher program for higher ed. The new law also creates the nation's first fee-for-service system, in which colleges will contract with the state to provide various academic programs.
States and localities have increasingly used forms of variable-rate debt in their issuance, but now, as interest rates rise, that could land them in trouble.
When it comes to delivering social services, church-state cooperation
is rife with possibility--and controversy.
A few minutes into the movie "Traffic," in a Washington, D.C.,
cocktail party scene, an amiable red-haired man offers some wisdom
about the nation's drug problem: "You'll never solve this on the
supply side."
If competitors such as Ford and GM can build a joint e-market, non-
competing governments should be able to do so, too.
The next four years may alter the state-federal relationship for
decades to come.
Last winter, when Elian Gonzalez went to visit Walt Disney World in
Orange County, Florida, county workers got a chance to see what a
media pile-on looks like. Turns out, it was just a preview.
Don't always believe what you read, says Bruce Kenney, a systems
management engineer with the West Virginia Department of
Transportation. A local newspaper recently ran a story saying that
since the state privatized the striping of its highways, costs have
almost doubled to $9 million. And that, Kenney says, is simply not so.
The overall costs may actually be lower.
A payroll dispute between University of Hawaii faculty and the state
that has dragged on for two years is before the courts again. Whatever
the outcome, the situation highlights the difficulties in using an
accounting gimmick--delaying state employee paychecks--to manage
fiscal problems.
Everybody loves a park. This past year, taxpayers and legislators
voted to put up real money to show their affection.
Tiger Woods would love it. The city of Dallas' newly refurbished golf
course is designed to attract golfers who used to drive 30 minutes out
of the city to play on fancy, upper-end courses. Its quality grasses
can be mowed to an eighth of an inch so that balls roll as if they're
on low-nap carpet.
When food fights started erupting on a regular basis last fall at Paul
V. Moore High School in upstate New York, something had to be done. So
the principal came up with an idea: Have the parents of students
suspended for launching their lunch across the table--or the room--eat
in the cafeteria with their progeny for a week in exchange for
expunging the suspension from school records.
Having personal bodyguards isn't one of the perks of being the mayor
of Albuquerque. Nevertheless, Jim Baca was understandably concerned
when he activated the emergency alarm system in his City Hall office
and it failed to bring any assistance.
Can you imagine John Wayne packing heat in a fanny pack? Some
prosecutors in Illinois are warning that the Duke would get arrested
if he tried to get away with such a thing there.
For decades, the game of dodgeball has been a staple of playgrounds
and physical education classes, making the act of getting beaned by a
rubber ball a right of passage for millions of elementary school
students.But now, the game itself is under assault. Officials in Cecil County, Maryland, were set to vote in January on officially banning dodgeball from the school system.
State and local revenues are more exposed to an economic downturn
because they're more attuned to nonstop economic growth.
There's a looming battle over groceries, but the battleground itself
is the local government land-use approval process.
"Not again!" That's your first reaction (or at least your first
printable reaction). Clemma Rogers has filed another grievance, and,
if history provides any clue, she'll win this one, too. Clemma, it
would seem, makes her living filing grievances, and you, as the
commissioner for West Dakota's Department of Vocational
Rehabilitation, are the one who ultimately has to deal with them.
Experts have warned for years that antiquated voting procedures could
lead to disaster. Now they have. Will that be enough to change the
system?
Drawing new political districts is always chaotic, but this round
promises to be the wildest yet. Everyone at the table has an agenda.
Building housing downtown is the latest trend, but it's hardly the
return to the past that people think it is.
Rewriting the 1996 reform law could make it better. It could also make
it worse.
Three years ago, Randall Gnant founded what he called the "Mushroom
Coalition," a group of moderate Republicans in the Arizona Senate who
thought their leadership kept them in the dark and covered with bull
droppings. Now Gnant himself is the Senate president. He says his
first order of business will be "embarking on a new course" of making
the legislative process more open.
Most states can't tell you, with any authority, how much agencies
spend on training or how wisely they spend it.
Several Connecticut cities privatized collection of delinquent debt--
and learned to regret it.
New York's businessman-mayor is learning politics the hard way. But
he's learning it.
Amtrak's woes could affect state and local efforts to increase rail
ridership and thus reduce airport and highway congestion.
Is it government's obligation to provide services, or to see that they are provided?
North Carolina is trying a radical new vote count system. It’s an instant runoff — one that doesn’t require a second trip to the polls.
A backlash is brewing over the impact of Starbucks on local
neighborhoods.
