AFSCME Information Highway

Source: Intergovernmental Forum on Transportation Finance, January 2008

From the press release:
WASHINGTON, March 12 --
The gap between America's surface transportation needs and the financial resources required to bridge them is large, immediate and long-term, according to a report released by state and local government groups. All levels of government must work together to set system-performance goals and provide the financial means to meet those goals, the report concluded.

Posted by Info Center at 4:44 PM in Intergovernmental Relations | State & Local Finance | Transportation | Permalink

Source: Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security released grant guidance and application kits for two grant programs totaling more than $35 million to help states prepare to implement REAL ID provisions that require a standard format for state-issued driver's licenses. The REAL ID Demonstration Grant Program will provide $31.3 million in grants to the states to check motor vehicle records in other states to ensure drivers don't have multiple licenses, and to verify immigration status against federal records. It will help standardize methods by which states may seamlessly verify an applicant's information with another state and deploy verification capabilities that can be used by all states, while protecting personal identification information.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 REAL ID Vital Events Verification State Project Grant Verification

Posted by Info Center at 12:34 PM in Intergovernmental Relations | Permalink

Source: National Association of State Chief Information Officers

Citizen demand for efficient government often drives state agencies to seek out opportunities to deliver traditional services in non-traditional ways. Engaging in cross-boundary collaboration can be a way for states to leverage costs while providing citizens with streamlined services. Such collaboration is inevitable for state CIOs and this brief (PDF; 211 KB), a product of NASCIO's Cross-Boundary Collaboration Committee, explores the unique challenges and opportunities of cross-boundary collaboration between state and local government entities. Highlighting successful examples of state-local collaborations already underway, this brief features the governance and financial models that were utilized for these collaborations. In addition, this brief examines the unique challenges facing state-local challenges and explores the ways in which states and localities can work together to achieve success and to lay the groundwork for future collaborative efforts.

Posted by Info Center at 3:08 PM in Intergovernmental Relations | Permalink

Source: Carl Tubbesing and Vic Miller, State Legislatures, Vol. 33 no. 4, April 2007
(subscription required)

Fiscal relations between the states and federal government may be at an all-time low.

For two decades, unfunded federal mandates have symbolized the growing fracture in state-federal fiscal relations. Most legislators can readily name the current offenders—the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, No Child Left Behind, the Help America Vote Act and homeland security. And they are girding for the possibility of the next huge one, the Real ID act. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that the federal government has shifted $100 billion in costs to states over the past four fiscal years—not including the $11 billion that Real ID could cost states over the next five years

Posted by Info Center at 12:35 PM in Intergovernmental Relations | State & Local Finance | Permalink

Source: Lisa Blomgren Bingham and Rosemary O’Leary, Public Administration Review, December 2006, Vol. 66 supplement

In their coda to this special issue of PAR, Lisa Blomgren Bingham and Rosemary O’Leary employ an intriguing scholarly lens to analyze gaps in current collaborative management research based on the findings of scholarly papers in this symposium. While pointing out the tremendous intellectual progress that is apparent in these investigations of this seminal topic, the authors conclude that there is a missing synthesis between work on collaborative public management, civic engagement, and public participation and work on negotiation, conflict resolution, dispute system design, and consensus building. The authors challenge the field to end the practice of intellectual “parallel play.”

Posted by Info Center at 11:44 AM in Intergovernmental Relations | Permalink

Source: Robert Agranoff, Public Administration Review, December 2006, Vol. 66 supplement

Based on extensive empirical research with federal, state and local government managers who work within intergovernmental collaborative networks, this article suggests new ways in which public agencies can overcome nettlesome policy conundrums while advancing the public interest. Although networks may differ significantly from organization to organization, the author emphasizes that the “era of networks” is a modern-day administrative reality that requires effective management, much like any other organizational structure.

This paper offers practical insights for public managers as they work within interorganizational networks. It is based on the author's empirical study of 14 networks involving federal, state, and local government managers working with nongovernmental organizations. The findings suggest that networks are hardly crowding out the role of public agencies; though they are limited in their decision scope, they can add collaborative public value when approaching nettlesome policy and program problems.

Posted by Info Center at 11:12 AM in Intergovernmental Relations | Management | Permalink