Archive
Fair- and foul-weather cities alike are gearing up to make it safer
and easier for commuters to bicycle to work.
It's been 16 years since a Democrat ruled Massachusetts. That won't
make Deval Patrick's job any easier.
Recent court rulings fail to settle a firestorm over how localities
should deal with overtime pay for paramedics.
In New York, it's the governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate
president who decide all the state's crucial policy questions.
Is there anything new to try in fighting poverty? The mayor of New
York thinks so.
A popular planning book praises sprawl and ignores the mess left by
misguided transportation policies.
It's repair time on a lot of urban interstates. Drivers fear the
worst; DOTs are trying to calm them down.
It's taken a dozen years and may take a few more as states struggle to
put IT into their child welfare systems.
A new law gives the president broader authority to call out the
National Guard.
After losing a GOP primary bid for lieutenant governor, Nebraska state
auditor Kate Witek is seeking reelection--as a Democrat.
States believe the new Congress will listen to them more than the old
one did.
Cities hate parking decks because parking is a lousy use of downtown land. Hulking decks suck the life out of streets. Plus, a retail complex, hotel or office tower generates much more in property taxes than a parking deck. The street-killing aspect is so recognized these days that some cities require developers to put retail on the ground level of their parking structures.
Public school enrollments are plummeting along the West Coast.
Statewide, California schools lost 10,000 students this year, the
first such decline in a quarter-century, the Los Angeles Times
reported.
Washington State is making a big push to get citizens more involved in
the performance auditing process.
In an experiment with the city of Houston, the Johnson Space Center
this spring let its employees work flexible hours. As a result, the
average travel time along the NASA Parkway was cut by about 5 minutes-
-from 22.7 minutes to 17.5 minutes.
Premiums for health insurance coverage continue to rise--but the pace
has slowed.
Oklahoma State University is sending a telemedicine bus to rural
communities to bring underserved patients access to higher levels of
medical care, procedures and screenings. The bus also can be mobilized
for immunization clinics and in disaster situations.
The NRA's list of agenda items was getting a bit thin--until it found
some juicy new ones.
In many metro areas, distinct periods of congestion have morphed into
heavy traffic all day long.
Fancy new voting machines work pretty well if everyone knows how to
use them. In much of the country, that's still a big if.
The Illinois Department of Revenue has revoked the tax-exempt status
of a hospital in Champaign, finding that it doesn't provide enough
free care to justify that status. The move was unprecedented for a
state agency but was just one salvo in the war Illinois regulators are
waging against nonprofit hospitals.
States are experiencing a lot of pain in switching seniors out of
state programs and into the Medicare Part D drug plan.
In a number of states, there's starting to be pushback against
rezoning industrial land for housing.
Wisconsin lawmakers plan to restructure the state's economic development efforts, after a sweeping state audit found substantial mismanagement among those programs.
The practice of performance management links elected officials with
the front lines of government.
The rise of health clinics in retail stores could affect both health
policy and regulation.
The Bush administration is pushing health providers to get up to speed on information technology, and it wants states to help. President Bush issued an executive order in August directing federal agencies to demand that health vendors step up their use of IT to make quality and price information more transparent, and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has been lobbying governors to do likewise.
Kentucky is launching an electronic medical record program that will create a database of health records on newborn infants. Public health departments will be able to update the records throughout the patient's life with information such as when vaccines were received.
California governors have a penchant for reinventing themselves in an
election year. And voters seem to admire the audacity of a chameleon.
Governors are finding success in the unlikeliest places. They're doing
it by choosing boldness over caution.
This has been a rebuilding year for states. As the economic recovery that began two years ago continues, states have been able to shore up their fiscal safety nets
The best trade missions aren't really trade missions at all.
Increasingly, the goal is not to sell or trade but to learn.
Performance measures are coming to the tradition-bound world of state
courts.
The 2006 campaign is being fought with digital weapons--and candidates
aren't always at the controls.
Council-manager cities and strong-mayor cities aren't polar opposites anymore. Most cities have aspects of both systems.
Maryland and Minnesota are seeking some of Pennsylvania's success with test programs aimed at alerting drivers to keep a safe distance from the car in front of them. Pennsylvania uses white dots and signs to guide drivers on rural roads to stay at least three seconds (two dots) apart.
After Katrina wiped out one of the worst school systems in the
country, New Orleans has seized the chance to redesign its whole
approach to public education.
A new report tells governments something they need to know--but would
rather not hear.
Miami built some reform momentum, then squandered it. Pete Hernandez will try to bring it back.
Congress hates to raise taxes--unless it can force other levels of
government to collect them.
Disinvestment remains a powerful human-rights weapon--as long as it's
done carefully.
Telling people not to drink is usually futile. Telling them where to
drink may serve a public purpose.
A number of states are looking to career-building programs to grow
their workforces of the future.
State-sponsored Web sites are enabling consumers to compare hospital and physician prices and performance.
It turns out that lower-income people are not the ones clogging up emergency rooms.
There's economic turbulence ahead that state budget and fiscal systems
may not weather well.
Sophisticated new tests reveal small amounts of steroids and other
drugs in drinking water. How big a threat are these contaminants?
A successful transit line means a more intense commercial life around
the stations, and that means higher property values, higher rents and
the invasion of chain stores.
Over the past five years, Indiana has lost money on its toll road. In January, its fortunes changed: The state was offered $3.85 billion by a Spanish-Australian consortium for the right to maintain and operate the road. If the offer is approved by Indiana's legislature, the influx of cash would fund all of Indiana's road projects for the next 10 years with money to spare.
If I ever go fresh-water fishing with my nephews in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I'll have a state license. Not that I'm much of an angler. I'm a great indoors type who knows more about electronic "phishing" scams than pond fishing for crappie. But thanks to Alabama's e- government initiative, I can sit at home in Virginia and click to an Alabama Web form to purchase a non-resident fishing license.
Being a non-partisan organization may seem ambiguous, but Sunlight Foundation maintains that transparency is something both political sides can agree on and fight for.
The closure of the Defense Department's Business Transformation Agency is unfortunate, but too often these things fall into a pattern as predictable as the end of "Titanic."
Whenever Doug Brown tries to retire, New Mexico comes up with another
job for him to do.
Performance measures are finally being taken out of the box and
applied to agency plans and budgets.
If you think judges should be above petty politics, try not to watch
them campaign this year.
Wikis, blogs and other interactive tools are making it easier to find
out what people really think of their government and its services.
Health savings accounts can spur consumers to shop for the best care
at the lowest price. But these insurance plans also carry a lot of
risk.
Florida and Kentucky are custom-tailoring the benefits package in an
effort to make fiscal sense of the program.
Voters may be coming around to the idea that government needs their
money to keep public works up to speed.
A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation can help states prepare to enroll and care for childless adults that will be eligible for Medicaid in 2014.
The past decade has brought a marked increase in partisan
unpleasantness in legislative bodies almost everywhere in the country.
Transportation officials in Orange County, California, have agreed to bail out the financially beleaguered San Joaquin Hills tollway. The deal will keep the toll road from defaulting on nearly $2 billion in bonds.
Term limit laws have created some clear winners and losers. Among the
losers are the legislatures themselves.
Success can depend as much on tweaking the way people use tools as on
what those tools are.
Federal disaster money doesn't help much unless governments get
together on how to use it.
Should doctors run EMS programs? Louisville thought so--that's how
Neal Richmond got there.
A business-dominated commission may help Texas out of its school
funding mess.
The nation's newest lottery may be more of a gamble than anybody
thought.
If your city is thinking of creating a municipal wireless Internet system, you might encourage officials to answer a question: If they're successful, how will the city be better for it?
Many of the statistics policy makers use today are set in concrete but
made of quicksand.
Get-tough programs for juvenile offenders have largely failed to
reduce recidivism. Missouri has had success with a less punitive
approach.
As legislatures in most states come back into session this month, their members will be spending an unusual amount of time dealing with issues that involve other levels of government.
It's time to walk people through the choices they have to make in
order to get health care that works for everyone.
Increasingly, local governments are limiting or banning solicitations
along public rights-of-way.
With slow growth from traditional investments, pension fund managers
are tempted by the snappy returns of alternatives.
As governments move toward uniform building codes, they are being
lobbied by two rival groups that offer competing sets of standards.
Nebraska's single-house legislative body is unlike any that has
existed in any state before or since.
Should the building of vital infrastructure be left to big business or
big government?
After years of neglect and false starts, low-income housing is finally
finding an online home.
Ron Dellums, the angry Berkeley radical of the 1960s, is making a
comeback. But he doesn't sound so angry anymore.
Residents of Los Angeles spend an average of 93 hours stuck in traffic per year, according to the Texas Transportation Institute--by far the highest degree of congestion in any American city. Frustrated drivers who turn to L.A.'s public transportation system--historically something of a joke--don't find the going much smoother, as the feature on p. 44 of this magazine shows.
States are the main forum for debate on reproductive issues, and the
trend is for greater restriction.
Half of all new housing built in the past 25 years has been under the rule of community associations, which are a cross between local government and the assistant principal for discipline at a very strict high school. These associations have two functions: to provide services and enforce rules of behavior. It's the second function that tends to cause trouble, the Baltimore Sun reported recently.
When it comes to health insurance for mental illness, states are still
wary of full coverage.
New Jersey has put its chemical processing plants--all 140 of them--on notice. Under a state order signed last fall, those facilities will have to outline their security weaknesses and report them to state officials. That makes the state, which is among a handful of states with the most potentially dangerous chemical sites, the first to change from a voluntary to mandatory reporting system.
As baby boomers retire, governments are trying to keep knowledge and
experience from going out the door with them.
Hoping to shore up its ailing hospital industry, New York is shrinking the number of health care facilities in the state. It is doing so by using a process similar to the way the Pentagon closes military bases.
This is a busy gubernatorial year, with contests in more than two-
thirds of the states. It may also be a year of significant change.
Inconsistencies in how patients' bodies are marked for surgery can
have serious consequences.
An innovative program in Flint, Michigan--the Genesee County Land Bank--is helping to salvage vacant and abandoned properties and transfer them to new owners for redevelopment.
The vibrant past history and current woes of Lockport, New York, are a
wake-up call for struggling post-industrial regions.
Does an unconventional coalition in Colorado offer a model for
Democrats around the country?
New high-tech tools can make buses a lot more efficient than they used
to be. Will that be enough to satisfy riders?
We have a weakness for anointing eager young sons with modest
credentials, solely on the strength of their connection to fathers we
wouldn't take back if they begged us.
The West Virginia legislature recently gave the thumbs up to a radical experiment in health care: doctor-run pay-in-advance plans that provide a family unlimited primary and urgent care for $125 a month. No insurance coverage is involved.
It will cost Texas $500 million or more over the next two years, but a class-action lawsuit that has been hanging over its Medicaid program for 14 years has been settled. Under the agreement, Texas must fix the program--making sure regular check-ups are offered to children and providing Medicaid mothers with adequate information about guaranteed services.
State and local spending for health care is rising significantly. Medicaid accounts for the bulk of those expenditures, especially as the costs of long-term care continue to rise. But according to a recent study published in Health Affairs policy journal, fallout from Medicare Part D, the federal government's prescription drug program, is also contributing to the increase.
Three experts share their views on efforts to reform the mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and why state and local governments should care.
When it comes to health care, some states are haves and some are have- nots. That's the central conclusion of a new report from the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that conducts health care research.
It's simple: Use IT to implement a cost-effective shared services model.
What's the quickest way to make $1,900 a year for each man, woman and child in the country? Use technology to implement a cost-effective shared services model.
Five years ago, I started a daily column called Urban Notebook on the Governing Web site. Eventually, it found its way here to the print edition. In those years, I've written 1,200 columns on everything from economic development and transit issues to neighborhood renewal and public safety--with a sprinkling about the sometimes bizarre world of urban life.
Nineteen schools in Delaware are piloting a new state law that requires students to be tested on their physical fitness and reports on the results to be sent home to parents.
Last summer, Boston brokered a truce between two of its bloodiest gangs in a ceasefire that was kept secret until recently, when the Boston Globe published a long article about the process.
Borrowing a page from private health insurers, state Medicaid programs
are testing the wellness waters.
A fire department taps into microblogging to keep itself on top of
situations.
Virginia transportation officials plan to put HOV lanes on parts of the Capital Beltway around Washington, D.C. Solo drivers who want to ride in the less-congested lane would pay a fee, and drivers with carpoolers could ride the HOT lane for free. But who belongs in the free lane, and who doesn't? "You have to police the rules," says Jeffrey Caldwell, a Virginia transportation spokesman.
Steve Beshear once hoped to be Kentucky's wonder-boy governor. Now,
he's coming in as an elder statesman.
Governments shouldn't consider it inevitable that they will get bad
press.
Minnesota is the only state to limit gifts drug companies can give doctors, but its cap of no more than $50 a year in free food or other presents may catch on elsewhere. In September, New Jersey created a task force to examine ways to set similar limits. The freebies are seen as unduly influencing prescription-writing and raising costs.
Airports are catering to busy travelers and their animals with kennels
fit for Fideaux.
In the $2.5 trillion muni bond market, where states, localities and nonprofits sell debt to finance everything from sewers to spaceports, the Securities and Exchange Commission sets the rules for what the government issuers must disclose to investors. Generally, the standards are much lower than those for corporations because federal securities law gives the SEC less authority over state and local governments than over companies.
State tax collections had a strong case of the milds in the second quarter of 2007--a 6.1 percent increase in tax revenue, compared to the same quarter of 2006. That said, this nominal growth rate, as measured by the Rockfeller Institute's "State Revenue Report," was weak by long-term historical standards.
Jon Corzine worked miracles at Goldman Sachs. Doing it in Trenton is a
different story.
A recent survey finds that state and local employees have certain
compensatory advantages.
Increasingly, criminal cases are being stalled because intimidated
witnesses don't show up or because they recant their statements.
After Sioux Falls, South Dakota, installed red-light cameras at a key intersection, it saw its revenue from tickets for red-light infractions plummet.
Just how natural became apparent one day in 1975 when Bratton, a
rookie sergeant with the Boston Police Department, got a call that
would have made a veteran blanch: bank holdup; shot fired; possible
hostage situation.
Fabian Nunez doesn't think compromise is a dirty word. California's
Assembly speaker has played a classic legislative leadership role as
the bridge between a Republican governor and a strongly liberal
majority Democratic caucus, helping to forge and shepherd through a
long list of impressive legislation over the past couple of years.
To say that Christine Gregoire's start as governor of Washington was inauspicious would be an understatement. After an apparent 130-vote win in November 2004, the election was marred by multiple recounts and a lawsuit. When the Democratic majority in the legislature moved to certify her election, Republicans mustered on the front lawn of the statehouse chanting, "Revote! Revote!"
Much of the time in government, change is brought about by those on the inside. Over the years, we have often told the story of career public servants who knew precisely how to transform troubled institutions once they got the chance.
Natwar Gandhi knows how to make red ink turn to black. This spring, he was approached by Amtrak, which hoped to lure him to erase an enormous deficit as he had already done as chief financial officer for Washington, D.C. City officials did everything they could think of to keep Gandhi in his current position, including boosting his salary by nearly $100,000. And this money maestro, who arrived in America from India 40 years ago with $7 in his pocket, chose to stay put.
Almost as soon as the election returns are in, every new governor must decide on a chief of staff. Most of them pick their campaign managers, party operatives and longtime confidantes. In this context, the choice of Bill Leighty by Virginia Governor Mark Warner was an aberration.
Two years ago, Missouri's new governor, Matt Blunt, and the state's new chief information officer, Dan Ross, had a vision: an efficient, centralized, streamlined IT operation that delivered each cabinet agency the services it needed while relieving the agencies of the considerable burden of managing an IT shop. Accomplishing this goal meant consolidating the technology operations of 14 agencies, with thousands of employees and more than $250 million in funding among them.
