Recently in Local Government Category

Source: Empire Center, August 26, 2010

The names and salaries of 186,223 people who worked for New York's county, city, town and village governments in 2009-10 are available at www.SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy.

The Empire Center also released a report, "2009-10 Public Payrolls," which summarizes average wages on a regional basis for each of the 1,512 local governments (outside New York City) contained in the database, which is based on reports filed with the state pension system. Some highlights:

- County and municipal salaries during the period totaled nearly $9.6 billion.

- The highest paid municipal employee in the state in 2009-10 was Town of Clarkstown Police Chief Peter Noonan, who earned a total of $301,534.

- Among those appearing on multiple payrolls during the year, the individual with the most numerous employers was Raynor Duncombe, who earned $36,959 as a part-time attorney for 11 Schoharie County jurisdictions.

- One individual who appeared on both the "highest-paid" and "multiple employers" list was Michael J. Bolender, who collected a total of $249,979 in salaries while working for six different western New York towns and villages.

- The highest average salary for any group--$158,965--was reported for the 46 officers employed by the Village of Lynbrook on Long Island. Among larger employers, the town of Clarkstown paid its 168 cops a state-leading average of $146,067. Six-figure average salaries were the norm for local police and firefighters throughout Long Island and the lower Mid-Hudson region.

- For general employees outside the police and fire pension system, the top average salary of $81,172 was paid by the Village of Old Westbury. Among counties, Westchester general employees were paid the highest statewide average salary at $69,607. Among cities, Yonkers topped the statewide list at $71,659. And among towns, the statewide leader was yet another Westchester jurisdiction--New Castle, at $67,126.

Source: Jerrell D. Coggburn, Center for State and Local Government Excellence, August 2010

From the summary:
This new issue brief finds that the economy has slowed the ability of local governments to address long-term funding of their retiree health care obligations.

The brief follows up on a 2009 survey in which 206 local governments indicated they were likely to adopt a long-term strategy to strengthen their retiree health care funding, including

* establishing a Section 115 trust (governmental); medical subaccount [401(h)]; or Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust [501(c)(9)];
* issuing OPEB bonds;
* increasing the years of service for vesting for RHC;
* increasing the age at which RHC is available;
* terminating retiree health care for all new hires.

Since then, the economy, insufficient revenues, and competing budget priorities have posed the greatest impediment to their plans.

The new brief finds that many jurisdictions are making sweeping changes in their retiree health care plans:

* 36 percent have increased or plan to increase the years of service required to vest.
* 11 percent have increased the retirement age.
* 39 percent have eliminated or plan to eliminate retiree health benefits for new hires.

Source: Donald J. Boyd and Lucy Dadayan, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, Data Alert, August 10, 2010

Friday's July employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that total employment in the nation declined by 131,000 jobs. The decline was driven by a combination of very weak growth in the private sector (+71,000 jobs), a large decline in federal government employment (-154,000) primarily reflecting the departure of 143,000 temporary Census 2010 workers, and a decline of 48,000 in state and local government jobs.

Source: Ethan Pollack, Economic Policy Institute, Issue Brief #279, May 27, 2010

From the summary:
Although recent economic indicators suggest a turnaround, much of the economy is still struggling, and these elements could keep unemployment high. Local governments in particular have suffered from the recession, which has led to massive budget gaps caused by a combination of depressed tax revenues and higher costs from a social safety net that more and more Americans are forced to rely on.

These budget gaps will translate into a loss of jobs, over half of which have yet to occur. Unlike the federal government, most local governments must balance their budgets each year. This means, among other things, that vital local public servants like teachers, firefighters, and police are a target of budget cuts and could be laid off. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 180,000 local public-sector jobs have already been lost since August 2008.

And it will get worse--much worse.

Source: National Association of Counties, 2010

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010, makes significant changes to the way health insurance is regulated. Plans in effect on March 23, including renewals, and coverage for family members and new employees, are exempt from some of the new requirements as "grandfathered plans."

Beginning in 2014, counties that do not offer affordable basic coverage may be subject to a "free rider" penalty.

Here is an overview of the key provisions that may affect the way that you provide health benefits for your county employees.
See also:
- How did NACo priorities fare in final legislation
- Health Reform Timeline

Source: Robert Barkin, American City and County, May 20, 2010

What the new healthcare legislation may mean to cities and counties.

Since late March, local government officials around the country have been parsing the language and combing through the fine details of the landmark $1 trillion Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, one of the most important and complicated pieces of legislation to emerge from Washington in more than a generation. Whether they supported Democrats in pushing through the historic legislation or fought it, local leaders will bear much of the responsibility of implementing the change that the bill envisions.

Source: Evelina Moulder and Ron Carlee, Public Management, Vol. 92 no. 4, May 2010

The January 15, 2010, headline in Bloomberg's news and data information said, "Municipal Market Handles Biggest Week of Bond Sales in a Month." During the past two years, volatility in the bond market and downgraded ratings for both the bond insurers and the bond issuers have had an impact on the municipal bond market. Although the majority of local governments responding to ICMA's 2009 "State of the Profession" survey indicated that the bond market had not affected them, what does the future hold?

ICMA's 2009 survey indicated that local governments across a wide spectrum are suffering from the economic crisis, with impacts varying for a wide variety of reasons. Of significance are the different approaches used to deal with the downturn. Local governments with Aaa bond ratings are managing the economic crisis differently from other local governments, survey data show.

This article examines the differences between the responding local governments with a Moody's Aaa bond rating and other respondents. Moody's has given Aaa ratings to 133 municipalities and counties, 45 of which responded to the "State of the Profession" survey. The responses of the 45 Aaa communities are compared with the 2,169 local governments that responded to the survey and do not have a Moody's Aaa rating.

Source: Kelly LeRoux, Paul W. Brandenburger, Sanjay K. Pandey, Public Administration Review, Vol. 70 no. 2, March-April 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Local governments increasingly confront policy problems that span the boundaries of individual political jurisdictions. Institutional theories of local governance and intergovernmental relations emphasize the importance of networks for fostering service cooperation among local governments. Yet empirical research fails to examine systematically the effects of social networks on interlocal service cooperation. Do the individual networks of local government actors increase their jurisdiction's level of interlocal service delivery? Drawing data from the National Administrative Studies Project IV (NASP-IV), multivariate analysis is applied to examine this question among 919 municipal managers and department heads across the United States. The findings indicate that interlocal service cooperation increases when jurisdictional actors network frequently through a regional association or council of government and when they are united by a common set of professional norms and disciplinary values. Manager participation in professional associations, however, does not increase interjurisdictional cooperation. The key conclusion for local government practitioners searching for ways to increase collaboration: networks that afford opportunities for more face-to-face interaction yield better results for effective service partnerships.

Source: Daniel Henstra, Public Administration Review, Vol. 70 no. 2, March-April 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Local governments play a key role in emergency management by developing the necessary policies and concrete procedures for responding effectively to community emergencies and their aftermath. However, because emergency measures in most jurisdictions are rarely, if ever, activated, public managers find it difficult to evaluate and assess the quality of existing emergency management programs. Drawing on expert literature to identify 30 elements of a high-quality local emergency management program, key elements are refined and synthesized into a single framework that provides clear-cut best practices for emergency program evaluation and performance measurement.

Source: National Employment Law Project, January 10, 2010

Urban areas across the United States (including Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and St. Paul) have limited discrimination in city and county jobs against people with criminal records. As Mayor Richard Daley explained when he announced Chicago's new hiring policy, "Implementing this new policy won't be easy, but it's the right thing to do. . . . We cannot ask private employers to consider hiring former prisoners unless the City practices what it preaches."