Archive
In his first inaugural speech, Bill White urged Houston to "embrace strangers." At the time, the new mayor didn't know just how much his call for inclusiveness, a big theme in his 2003 campaign, would be put to the test. Less than two years later, Hurricane Katrina would ravage Louisiana and Mississippi, and more than 100,000 strangers--neighbors, White likes to say--showed up on Houston's doorstep. Mayor White, and his city, gave them a bear hug.
Having worked on both sides, Coughlin is passionate in his belief in the assisted-living philosophy, and that belief drives the way he approaches regulation. A key part of assisted living, he points out, is a resident's right to autonomy, but autonomy poses safety risks.
John Kitzhaber has been to the top in politics. He thinks he may be
able to achieve more working from the bottom up.
Diversity accomplishes many things--but it may not make us better
citizens.
States are at their peril when they try to ease rules to make life in
the U.S. less difficult for illegal immigrants.
Social Security reformers need a fair plan for the six million free-riders.
The emerging topic for state CIOs is how to reconfigure desktops and
computing practices to save energy.
Picking up and dialing from a pay phone is the best way to give an
anonymous crime tip to police. Or is it?
For nearly 40 years, Ernie Chambers has made his colleagues mad--and
made them listen.
The latest buzzword in managing health care costs is "wellness"--
programs that emphasize prevention and personal accountability.
Nonprofits have always been subject to high performance benchmarks to ensure they provide quality services. Now, New York State is making sure that the state agencies that contract with nonprofits are doing a better job.
Policy makers in King County, Washington, are hungry for restaurant
regulation.
With health costs, retiree benefits and other local government
expenses increasing every year, localities are asking their agencies
to get creative in finding new revenue. The Department of Parks and
Recreation in Jefferson, Georgia, did just that this past August when
it launched a community radio station.
Many cities and states that saw real-estate growth and speculation
drive up property values in recent years are now feeling the pain of
the bubble's burst.
When the economy is down and government funds are scarce, the need for assistance often goes up. Rainy day funds and increased efficiencies could help provide more when some have less.
The absurd salaries paid to the top brass in Bell, Calif., not only illuminate what happens when self-interest trumps public service, but also goes to the heart of what public service means.
John Buntin interviews Brookings' Alan Berube and Bill Frey on the Metropolitan Policy Project's latest report, "The State of Metropolitan America."
Boise is the latest city to educate residents about homelessness and encourage them to donate to local charities instead of panhandlers.
Local governments have been automating the process of catching
speeders and red-light runners for years, but traffic scofflaws on
state highways always knew they'd be pulled over by a trooper. Now,
Arizona is changing that.
As of mid-July, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation
Authority's perpetual funding crisis was over. A few weeks later, it's
back.
Florida lawmakers make deep cuts in the property tax and leave it to
voters to OK even deeper cuts.
As Chicago's transit chief, Ron Huberman is playing some dangerous
games. He may not have much choice
In many legislatures, suburbs have the votes to prevail--if they can
find a way to work together.
Bashing the legislature is one way to get elected governor. It's a
lousy way to govern.
Can health information exchange systems keep snoops out of patients' online records?
The "miracle of compound interest" helped put Bell, Calif., in the doghouse.
A handful of B&G Report readers speak out about the positives and negatives of devices that allow them to stay in touch with their work around the clock.
Localities are struggling to deal with the issues that arise from
being adjacent to Indian lands.
One could argue that state and local governments are the proverbial canary in the coal mine, the first to deal with a flood of fiscal sacrifices that eventually wash across the beltway.
State and local government officials should also sit on the president's new deficit reduction commission.
This month, the Public Great blog looks at why government processes are like a series of pipes, and why they're so clogged up.
Government salaries have always been public record. But not the way they are now.
State politicians have returned to the slippery slopes of social
investing and pension divestment. In the 1980s, South Africa was the
target. Last year, it was Sudan, followed quickly by Iran, and now
"all terrorist nations" are on blacklists in some states.
Increasingly, state and local governments are expecting their workers
to pay a greater share of their own health care and prescription drug
costs.
What we think we can really teach social innovators, no matter what sector they work in, is how to sustain real change.
Partnering for value can be great for a state or city, but the devil is in the details.
State and local governments use social networks to save time and enhance collaboration.
Hammered by budget cuts, some libraries must cut more than just hours.
Shifting the sales tax approach could solve Social Security and Medicare funding.
Federal, state and local governments can't seem to agree whether to legalize cannabis.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has a rare chance to turn the city around.
The 'Minnesconsin' adventure may not always be easy, but the two states have found that collaboration is cost-effective.
Some state officials insist financially helping the Twin River Casino would be a smart move.
The Big Apple needs some serious help to make city buses be a faster, more reliable method of transportation.
Can medical trusts be the answer to the shrinking retiree health-care benefit?
A growing source of profit for card companies took a hit in Vermont.
Will New York's next attorney general embrace his predecessors or blaze her own path?
New Jersey's new governor has a take-no-prisoners style, but there are signs he is learning the art of the deal.
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.
More than half of the states exceeded their budgeted tax revenue in
the 2007 fiscal year, according to data compiled by the National
Association of State Budget Officers in their biennial "Fiscal Survey
of States." Revenue came in below projections in just nine states.
A popular book from the 1980s chronicled the strategies of successful companies. Government leaders today are on a similar quest for effectiveness.
The saying may have its merits, but getting out ahead of a crisis is more sustainable and attainable.
Don't wait for a crisis to drive change, make change a constant feature of government.
Christopher Epps thought he would follow the path of his family members and get his Ph.D. Instead, he made a career at one of Mississippi's most fabled prisons, working his way up to state corrections commissioner.
A new city ordinance requiring retailers to display how much radiation cell phones give off is causing quite a stir with the wireless industry.
In 2003, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius Eliminated The State's Motor Vehicle Pool. Cars Were Sold Off. Agencies Were Directed To Rent The Vehicles They Need. Sibelius Predicted Major Savings.
Illinois is Moving Ahead With a New Formula for Rubber-Tire Roadways.
William Ruckelshaus has had lots of tough assignments. He's got
another one now.
After a period of eclipse, anti-secrecy and open-government laws are
making a comeback.
If you own stock in a company, you might want it to move to North
Dakota.
The city famous for civil rights turmoil is arguing over race in
schools again.
Mark Funkhouser has to make the switch from pointing out problems to
solving them.
If there's a way to tame long-term-care costs, a program that puts
patients in control may be it.
What Michelle Rhee has done in Washington, D.C., is not to turn the schools upside down, but to turn them upside right.
Outrage over lavish salaries and pensions in Bell, California, could fire up reform in public compensation laws and practices.
Governor Ed Rendell wants to lease out the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Things could get ugly along the way.
Nine years ago, voters in Dallas opted to remake the riparian no-
man's-land in the center of the city. Now its leaders are fighting
over what they meant.
When Virginia reacted to the Supreme Court's eminent-domain decision,
no one had a trickier balancing act than Governor Tim Kaine.
Governor Mike Beebe has split up his state's huge health and social
services agency after a painful two-year experiment with
consolidation.
It happens like clockwork. As soon as a magnanimous stock market
boosts pension assets to high-water marks, pension raiders lurk
around--they can't wait to get their hands on the "overfunded"
portfolio.
Cal eConnect will oversee the state health care system's move from a paper-based industry to one reliant on electronic health records.
A push is on in state legislatures to ease the serious shortage of
organ donors. With more than 94,000 Americans waiting for a liver,
kidney, cornea or other organ, many states are looking at the uniform
organ donation laws they adopted in 1968 and debating an update.
Liability rather than serendipity is the focus of playground design.
Some are trying to change that.
The revenue losses are huge. According to an analysis by the Institute
on Taxation and Economic Policy, the 252 largest and most profitable
American corporations collectively avoided $41.7 billion in state
income taxes between 2001 and 2003. More than a quarter of the
companies managed to pay no state corporate taxes during at least one
of the years in question.
Current law prohibits it, but the SEC chairman is talking about
reasons to regulate the municipal bond market.
Political success is never simple. But it seems the new governors who
are making a mark are the ones who've paid their dues in state
politics.
Chicago and Indiana were the pioneers: They tapped into public-private
partnerships--known as P3s--to improve their highways and infuse their
coffers with billions of dollars.
In an all-but-deadlocked Montana House, iconoclast Rick Jore holds the
balance of power.
L.A. County supervisors have done something unusual--given up power
voluntarily.
It's hard to imagine a worse start than the one Nevada's governor is
off to.
By one vote, the U.S. Supreme Court has altered the politics of air
pollution.
Immigrants and baby boomers need each other. They're just slow to
realize it.
Allowing skinny houses to be built on small lots can increase both
density and affordability.
If tomorrow's cars won't be fueled by gas, what will run them and
who'll pick the winner?
Federal prosecutors are increasingly eager to invoke capital
punishment--even in states that don't like it.
Despite spending millions on security upgrades, drinking-water systems
are still vulnerable to sabotage.
Hospital emergency departments are finding a good reason to charge
ahead with electronic medical systems: They save money.
Cities are finding ways to raise revenue from suburbanites, without
actually calling the levy a commuter tax.
During the 1980s, Iowa was one of the earliest states to approve of
casino gambling. And it pioneered a new idea for how to control the
games: It required that its casinos be water-borne. In Iowa's case,
they had to be actual riverboats offering no fewer than 100 excursion
tours per year.
Starting this summer, New York State meetings must be webcast for the
public if they fall under the state's open meetings law. As one of his
first official actions as governor, Eliot Spitzer signed an executive
order requiring state agencies and public authorities to come up with
plans to broadcast all such meetings on the Internet.
Some municipal bond underwriters are peddling the idea that public
agencies should sell bonds now to "pre-fund" their promised retiree
medical-benefit-plan liabilities.
Tougher lobby laws are being discussed all over the country. A few
states have enacted them. Whether they will work remains to be seen.
A downturn in the housing market is beginning to spell a slowdown in
local revenue.
As part of a national effort to eliminate racial disparities in
healthcare, the state of Indiana launched the Indiana Minority Health
Disparities Initiative/CEO Roundtable.
If budgets are financial plans, then CAFRs tell you what happened to
the plan. So why don't more people pay attention to them?
Real-life sinkholes are a problem in South Florida, but the one giving
Miami-Dade County officials headaches these days is figurative: Miami
International Airport's finances.
States are ready to put up big bucks to speed up passenger rail
service--if someone would just push freight trains out of the way.
Do TV shows about crime investigation influence real-life jurors?
A handful of large and small telehealth programs are finding that
remote monitoring can curb the costs of long-term care.
New Jersey's ill-fated pension reform plan is history. As 2006 drew to
a close, the governor and legislature, hoping to pay for property-tax
reduction through pension plan reforms, failed to come to an
agreement--much to the relief of thousands of state workers, unionized
and otherwise, who marched on Trenton to make known their concerns
about benefit adjustments.
Insurance companies see a potential Katrina almost everywhere they
look. And they want homeowners to pay in advance.
A growing number of states and localities are turning to incentives to
move the employees they insure into healthier lifestyles. Indiana is
going one step further. It is trying to target employees who are at
risk for illnesses and offering them special services to improve their
odds of staying healthy.
There's a new and higher level of strain in the already-tense
relationship between GASB and state and local officials.
2006 had its ups and downs--although it was mostly positive for
issuers and negative for some underwriters.
Washington, D.C.'s subway system hopes to have its elevators and
escalators on the up and up thanks to a new training facility for the
mechanics that keep them working.
Nobody likes John Leopold but the voters. They've put him in charge of
one of Maryland's biggest jurisdictions.
A number of states and cities are piloting a much-debated management
tool to pay teachers.
The current system of blame and lawsuits is no way to deal with medical errors.
Sometimes transit operators' and cab drivers' personal beliefs
conflict with their jobs and passengers.
If the economy turns down this year, will the feds rescue the states
the way they did in 2003?
The practice of collecting data to monitor and improve government
performance continues to gain momentum and evolve.
Most interesting is the report’s call for a centralized entity whose sole purpose is to promote competitive efficiency within state government.
An unprecedented plan to tackle stormwater runoff hits the streets of Philadelphia.
A plan in Philadelphia to build a greener, more sustainable stormwater system may well blast green infrastructure into the mainstream.
In the public sector, failure is often a career ender. A panel at the Urban Institute discussed why it shouldn't be a last step, but a step towards success.
