Archive
Renovating a building is expensive. It becomes even more costly, as
the Connecticut judiciary is learning, if you've already thrown out
some of your best original features.
A weed-whacker on wheels: That's how New Jersey Assemblyman Kenneth
LeFevre describes the sound of the motorized scooters that have become
popular with teens in his hometown of Brigantine Island.
Drivers and public safety officials across the country have long
complained that the solicitation of charitable donations from
motorists stopped at busy intersections is a nuisance and a potential
traffic hazard. The fundraisers, however, contend that their right to
ask for contributions is guaranteed under the First Amendment.
What's in a name? A whole lot, if the residents of St. Augusta,
Minnesota, are any indication. Last winter, facing the possibility of
being annexed by the neighboring city of St. Cloud, the township of
St. Augusta decided to incorporate.
Voters in the November elections gave a thumbs up to 75 percent of the
460 bonds proposed by states and localities, approving $14 billion
worth of projects.
As part of Iowa's fiscal 2002 budget process, state agencies
requesting technology funding had to quantify and explain the benefits
their initiatives would deliver.
Mississippi has struck a mega-deal with Nissan Motor Co. to build a
new auto plant north of Jackson, but will pay a pretty penny to get
the plant's 4,000 jobs.
The challenge in working for government transparency is that you are always working against its opposite: opacity. What we don’t see is often what's most harmful to us.
NYC's Department of Transportation is test-running a car-sharing program that's estimated to save the city over half a million dollars in fleet maintenance costs over four years.
A lower Latino vote would signal trouble for the Democratic Party in November. So far, there are few signs of the confidence and hope that prevailed at the polls in the high-turnout year of 2008.
President Obama wants Congress to approve $50 billion in new infrastructure funds, but he wants states to throw in their share, too.
An actuarial autopilot is necessary if Congress won't bite the bullet to control costs.
Effective, dynamic social programs are more common than you might think. The challenge is not finding them, it is unleashing their latent superpowers.
State and local debt is at an all time high -- governments have borrowed $2.4 trillion as of mid-2010.
The silo may have performed a vital function one century ago, but it's an antiquated concept.
Tearing down bureaucracies altogether might be overly ambitious, but poking a few holes may get at the very resources agencies need to succeed.
Criminal justice agencies badly need to trade information with each
other. But many are too turf-conscious to do it.
Twenty-five years ago, a mayor of Chicago was defeated for renomination because of an insult rendered by his public transit system. The city was digging out from a blizzard, and there weren't enough trains to carry all the passengers who needed service.
Shopping malls have a complicated relationship with public transit. Mall managers want buses to bring in shoppers and workers but don't want them to pull up too close to the door. Why? Various reasons are given, most having to do with safety, but class almost certainly plays a role.
State and local governments aren't being let in on the national
homeland security strategy. That may be because there isn't one.
Would you hire a county prosecutor to run a hospital network? If you
knew Mike Duggan, you might.
Overwhelmed by a flood of DNA evidence, public crime labs are
performing poorly.
To the extermination industry, bedbugs are as good as gold. But what effects could these little blood-suckers have on retail centers?
"Change is going to happen," declared Utah Governor Michael O. Leavitt
in his keynote address at Governing's annual management conference in
Salt Lake City.
If you live in Louisville, this is the time of year when it hurts your pride a little bit just to pick up the sports page. The cities that are your natural rivals--cities that used to rank right alongside you in size, image and self-confidence--are winning priceless national publicity on the professional football field.
Five Georgia school districts are trying out a score-based physical fitness program for students that's scheduled to go statewide in the 2011-2012 school year.
Every so often, voters in some states get to decide whether to write a new constitution. With Iowa, Maryland, Michigan and Montana set to take their turn next month, some worry that calling a convention amidst an angry political environment could do more harm than good.
Within the past year, the struggling middle class has given in and applied for everything from food stamps, to energy assistance, to help paying rent.
Cities that host high-profile trials seek ways to mitigate the costs
and local impact.
When it came time for Rowley, Massachusetts, to decide on a permanent site for its stuffed bird collection, the debate ruffled more than a few local feathers.
Being the home of a $162 million lottery winner may be every cash-strapped municipality's fantasy, but South Euclid, Ohio, just didn't have the ticket to claim its share.
Violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act and Public Information Act are hardly capital crimes; until recently, the rules were rarely even enforced ["The Endless Struggle Over Open Meetings," December 1997].
The ever-changing state flag of Georgia may finally have a settled design. Voters in March overwhelmingly approved a flag proposed by the legislature last year, closing years of controversy over a Confederate emblem.
Local transportation agencies around the country may have to delay projects, raise fares or cut operating costs to make up for a $1.2 billion shortfall.
A $1.1 billion unfunded liability in San Diego's pension system has prompted bond-rating downgrades and an investigation of possible city violations of federal law.
Budget-balancing acts dominated muni bond issuance in 2003. But debt
was also used creatively to solve more traditional problems.
Atlanta needs all the help it can get. Luckily, it has a mayor who
knows where to get it.
It's difficult to notice dogs that don't bark, as Sherlock Holmes demonstrated more than a century ago. It's also difficult to notice phones that don't ring.
Marco Lopez does things any ambitious young politician might do--he
just does them younger and better.
Some places in the United States are hoping to join hundreds of European and Asian cities already using a form of commuter transit that's cheaper than light rail: diesel multiple units.
Half the states are embroiled in lawsuits charging that school
spending is inadequate. How much money is enough -- and where will it
come from?
Since our last rating in August, four more state attorney general contests are favoring Republicans.
A lot is similar this year to the environment of the last GOP landslide. A lot is different as well.
States all over the country are eager to privatize services in the
worst way. That's just how some of them are doing it.
This fall's vaccine shortage was an early warning of more serious
trouble in the nation's public health systems.
The speakership of the Massachusetts House has long been a virtual license for one-man rule. Under Sal DiMasi, it may evolve into something a little less autocratic.
Performance measurement has become a powerful tool for some government agencies. For others, it's been useless.
Connecticut's Help Me Grow program helps diagnose children's disorders early and offers families quick access to community-based programs for treatment.
The 18th-century historic district in Charleston, South Carolina, has become so popular that very wealthy people are buying homes there to live in for a few weeks a year. What's wrong with that? It makes the area more like a museum than a real neighborhood.
Minneapolis has hired a manager to act as something of a customer service czar, responsible for deploying a new 311 call center, one- stop permitting and performance measurement.
Restaurant patrons in New York now are able to return home with more in their doggie bags than just food--namely, wine. The Empire State recently passed legislation allowing customers to carry out an unfinished bottle of wine.
"Upright Form V" was not the most beloved piece of public art in Wichita. The city never displayed the sculpture and the local paper described it as "11 tons of ugliness." Still, city officials are angry that parts of the piece were bought at auction for a fraction of its value.
There's new hope in Iowa for people who have dangerous addictions to casino gambling, but they have to know when to fold 'em, and when to walk away--for good.
While gay-marriage bans were sweeping the nation on Election Day, one city was taking a step in the opposite direction.
State and local governments bent on refinancing old debt had a new, if not unknown, hurdle to overcome this fall: no SLGS.
R&D has evolved from a private company effort to a collaboration
between private, public and academic partners.
The price of government cannot rise, author David Osborne told 400 high-level state and local officials at Governing's annual management conference, Managing Performance 2004.
"My fellow citizens, I rise today to speak in opposition to affordable housing, quality day care and the Baptist Church."
I briefly considered saying those words a few weeks ago as I spent a long Saturday afternoon at a County Board meeting in Arlington, Virginia, waiting for the five minutes allotted to me as a citizen speaker on a public issue.
No Child Left Behind represents a major change in state-federal
relations. But it may not be a good campaign issue for the president.
It's all about results. Government agencies are learning that by uniting data from many sources they can get a better understanding of how well their missions are being carried out.
It's been dubbed the Kokomo hum, but it isn't soothing music to the people who hear it. In the late 1990s, people in Kokomo, Indiana, started complaining about a baffling low-level noise they claimed was affecting their health.
Even among shoot-em-up video games sold today, "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" stands out.
If you want to get a driver's license, you're going to have to show your face. In light of security concerns, states are ending their previous practices of allowing religious exemptions for some individuals who didn't want to have their photographs taken.
Powder rooms, ladies' rooms, restrooms. Call them what you will, just make enough available for women in need, say members of the New York City Council, announcing a bill requiring public facilities to offer more lavatory amenities for women than men.
A team of researchers is rethinking the basis for calculating pensions.
What's the worst calamity ever to befall New York's borough of Brooklyn? Easy answer: losing the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team to Los Angeles in 1957. But now there's a serious effort to bring a big- time sports franchise to the borough.
Ed Rendell logged nearly 50,000 miles on a bus emblazoned with his image while campaigning for governor of Pennsylvania in 2002 ["The Gubernatorial Baby Boom," January 2003]. Once in office, he planned to use bus trips to make himself more accessible. Now dubbed "Commonwealth One," the latest bus was unveiled to much fanfare last May.
Alaska expects to issue a $75 million tax-exempt bond this year, backed by a pledge of the payments on student loans in its 2003 consolidation loan portfolio.
A new financing tool is helping public housing authorities raise money to fix up their properties. They can now issue revenue bonds that promise to repay today's loan with tomorrow's federal dollars.
As states and localities continue to struggle with budget problems, they are increasingly turning to a time-honored source for more dollars: out-of-towners. Tourism taxes are going up all over, with states taking their share from a traditionally local revenue stream.
A Wal-Mart grocery invasion could be very bad news for cities and the
tax revenue they get from local supermarkets.
The American people have a demonstrated tolerance for fiscal deceit, as long as it is carried off with a certain amount of style. When Governor Earl Long pushed through a tax increase in Louisiana, immediately after winning election on a no-new-tax platform, reporters asked him how he planned to explain his actions to the people.
A smart communicator tells a story that sets the stage for policy decisions.
With all the talk about gun control and keeping people safe from the modern-day dangers, we often forget about the biggest danger: ourselves.
Plus: A New Budget Gimmick, And More Management News
This “wiki” approach of allowing outsiders to work out solutions to public problems is a growing trend in better, faster, cheaper government.
Many of this year's Republican gubernatorial candidates have vowed to delay -- or permanently end -- the administration's high-profile plans for high-speed rail.
The mega infrastructure project was supposed to make the city a less congested, more livable place to work and live. It has succeeded.
Easy-to-find cost savings are a thing of the past. If you want to find treasure today, you have to dig.
A growing number of local agencies--and even a state legislature--are
hiring CIOs to bolster their top management teams.
Runaway teens don't belong in adult court, but they're often too old
for juvenile court. The law tends to ignore them.
States are finally getting their federal care package. Local
governments would like to see some of it.
California's new finance director, Donna Arduin, is bringing tough-
love budgeting to a deficit-addicted state.
This sounds like something Enron would have dreamed up. Cities across the country are being visited by financiers with a startling offer: Lease us your sewer systems, transit lines or civic centers, and we'll give you a pot of money.
Applying the principles of managing for results to running a child's
soccer team leads to some unexpected outcomes.
The times may be ripe to form new--and surprising--alliances to solve
the crisis in health insurance.
Bill Richardson has been a fixture in New Mexico politics for 25 years, but the state is still getting used to him. New Mexico has always been, politically at least, a rather sleepy sort of place.
Most of the 24 governors who took office a year ago haven't made much
headway on their agendas for change.
When Amy Sinnwell, an elementary school teacher in Iowa, paid her property taxes, she wasn't expecting to get any money back. But she ended up getting $500 from the Iowa State County Treasurers Association's "Get Back" contest, which gave an award to one randomly chosen taxpayer who filed online.
Florida has become the center of controversy over the right to die, following the legislature's decision to extend the life of a severely brain-damaged woman.
People who work in government don't expect their workplaces to be glamorous. But neither do they expect to find heaps of smelly garbage piling up in the lobby.
Jim McGreevey's anti-sprawl campaign in New Jersey is regrouping a year after the governor declared uncontrolled development his state's worst enemy ["McGreevey's Magic Map," May 2003].
In January of 2000, Governing's cover story highlighted the miraculous relationship that Mayor Jerry Brown and City Manager Robert Bobb had forged in an attempt to revitalize Oakland ["Mayor Brown & Mr. Bobb"].
There's an $80 billion gap in what we spend and what we need to spend
to maintain our infrastructure as is.
The Dallas Police Department is using smart-phone technology to take the classic neighborhood crime-watch idea to the 21st century.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel left the White House to pursue a bid to be the next Mayor of Chicago. Who visited Emanuel while in the White House, and what could that meant for his future -- and the White House's?
It's not abortion and gay marriage that citizens will be voting on at the polls this year. It’s taxes and spending.
More and more government agencies are using social media tools to disseminate information, to share ideas and to communicate with the general public.
Cities in California and elsewhere look to save money by outsourcing public library services.
Michigan broadens its IT consolidation initiative to facilities and administrative services.
In boom times, states forget the bust years. That’s worrisome as revenues show signs of life.
As states face funding problems, retirees and employees will feel pressure to chip in.
Court cases rarely travel up to the Supreme Court, so lower courts are often the last stop for controversial cases.
Downtowns, the soul of every city, are hanging on.
A political transition down South will test the resilience of procurement reform.
San Francisco's two-year pilot project will adjust parking prices based on time and location.
States stuck with maintaining federal highways are paying more attention to the potential of interstate tolls.
Is this the perfect year for Florida voters to constrain development?
Students design medical technologies with the patient in mind.
Government keeps adapting to how information and people travel.
Some states are taking their time spending stimulus highway dollars, and jobs aren't being created as quickly as the feds had hoped.
Performance measurement in government "is not a fad, but it is not yet a movement, either," Robert P. O'Neill Jr., executive director of the International City/County Management Association, told Governing's 2003 Managing Performance Conference in October. Public officials, O'Neill pointed out, have been talking about performance measurement for more than 70 years.
Fifty-eight years ago, Justice Felix Frankfurter told his brethren to stay out of the business of drawing political maps. "Courts ought not to enter this political thicket," Frankfurter warned in Colegrove v. Green. "The fulfillment of this duty cannot be judicially enforced."
A shakeout in the airline industry is creating major turbulence for
hub-and-spoke cities and their airports. At the same time, some other
localities are getting a lift.
Democrats are poised to lose a slew of state legislative chambers and attorney general offices.
Bobby Jindal took office with a mandate to change state government. Three years later, it’s the governor’s approach to leadership that has changed instead.
In the nine states that don’t levy a personal income tax, the politics of staying that course remains powerful.
From Vermont to Hawaii, moderate governors are leaving office after the fall elections. Will partisan purists soon be running state government?
The historic trend of information technology applications going first to big governments and only later to the small ones is about to flip.
Given ongoing technology developments, the most efficient scale for technology service operations is small government.
A recently released study by Vanderbilt University on performance-based pay for teachers showed bonus pay alone was not enough to affect student test scores. So what now?
Rules are part of the public-sector terrain, but they can be the most frustrating aspect of government.
The Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling opened up a massive hole in the disclosure regime governing campaign spending. And it affected the number of independent groups disclosing to the Federal Election Commission.
The hard truth is that our procurement processes work contrary to our original goal of efficient stewardship. Worse yet, they stifle creativity and innovation.
Massachusetts' Jon Kingsdale discusses health insurance exchanges and the opportunities -- and challenges -- of health reform.
Just a few years ago crowdsourcing was a novel concept, mainly untried. Now that the idea has gained traction, it could be used in any realm -- even in government.
We need to question each and every rule, regulation, and law that limits people from exercising their good judgment.
As a part of a nationwide electric vehicle infrastructure project, Knoxville, Tenn., will soon host about 350 public charging stations for electric vehicles.
The economics of meter privatization are rather straightforward. The politics of meter privatization, however, are another matter entirely.
Last year’s impeachment of the scandal-plagued Illinois governor has led to a state ballot measure that would give citizens a chance to vote on removing his successors. With no organized opposition, it seems certain to be enacted by a wide margin, but critics question whether it will be effective.
