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Girard Miller

Girard Miller

Finance Columnist

Girard Miller is the finance columnist for Governing. He is a retired investment and public finance professional and the author of “Enlightened Public Finance” (2019). Miller brings 30 years of experience in public finance and investments as a former Governmental Accounting Standards Board member and ICMA Retirement Corp. president.

Miller writes Governing's bi-weekly newsletter on public finance, which you can sign up for here.

He can be reached at millergirard@yahoo.com. 

Local governments could turn to special assessment districts to cost-effectively assure safety improvements, bypassing occupants’ foot-dragging and dysfunctional homeowners’ associations.
Congress should rewrite the ground rules to minimize nuisance lawsuits that can cost local taxpayers millions, while focusing civil courts on bad cops and blind-eye departments.
State laws and local practices vary widely, so the impact on budgets will defy generalizations. But it’s unlikely that rising revenues will uniformly cover impending growth in municipal costs.
State and local leaders should prod Washington for the funding that can close the digital divide, protect utilities from cyber criminals, build smart cities and shape incentives for high-tech manufacturing.
The warring camps in Washington are unlikely to find a middle ground on their own. Governors and mayors need to take a seat at the adult tax-policy table.
Much depends on their tax structures, particularly if Prop. 13-style tax caps are in place. But inflation-driven pressure for wage increases could squeeze budgets and crush pension funds.
While Washington politicians argue over the latest White House proposals, governors and local leaders should promote achievable federal plans that would reduce their costs of funding health care.
Progressives and anti-taxers oppose blue-state proposals to remove the federal limit on state and local tax deductions. Reforms must address both tax competition and income confiscation.
Maryland is leading the way, but its new levy faces plenty of pushback in the courts and Congress. States that want to follow suit should act quickly to craft viable uniform model legislation.
The White House is formulating a massive infrastructure package. Here are cost-cutting ways for Congress to help states and localities float the bonds to fund their share. Muni "flower bonds," anyone?