Recently in Local Government Category

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."

Source: Rebecca Otto, State of Minnesota, Office of the State Auditor, 2008

From the summary:
According to a just released Minnesota State Auditor's report, cities are relying more heavily on property tax revenue to fund their services. In the past decade (1999-2008) this revenue grew 102%. The report contains many other interesting facts such as "Over the ten-year period of 1999 to 2008, an examination of city finances shows that when adjusted for inflation, 2008 expenditure levels are below 1999 levels and decreased 7 percent over the ten-year period."

Source: Stephanie Bornstein, Robert J. Rathmell, Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, December 2009

From the press release:
At least 63 local governments in 22 states--including some of the nation's major urban areas--have passed employment anti‐discrimination laws that go beyond federal and state statutes to ensure that those with caregiving responsibilities are not discriminated against at work. Cases filed under these local laws, such as one recent decision in Chicago, have the potential to result in substantial damages, fines, and attorneys fees.

Today, the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law released the first comprehensive nationwide survey of state and local laws that prohibit family responsibilities discrimination, or FRD. FRD occurs when employees are penalized at work--fired, demoted, denied promotions or employment benefits, or harassed--because of their caregiving responsibilities at home, whether for children, an ill partner, or an elderly relative. While most of the local laws cover parents and those with responsibilities for children, some go further to include other caregiving relationships.

The new report shows that, going beyond state and federal statutes, cities and counties have taken it upon themselves to ensure their residents are not discriminated against in public and private employment settings based on familial status or responsibilities.

Source: George W. Hammond, Mehmet S. Tosun, IZA Discussion Paper No. 4574, November 2009

We analyze the impact of fiscal decentralization on U.S. county population, employment, and real income growth. Our findings suggest that government organization matters for local economic growth, but that the impacts vary by government unit and by economic indicator. We find that single-purpose governments per square mile have a positive impact on metropolitan population and employment growth, but no significant impact on nonmetropolitan counties. In contrast, the fragmentation of general-purpose governments per capita has a negative impact on employment and population growth in nonmetropolitan counties. Our results suggest that local government decentralization matters differently for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties.

Source: American City and County, November 19, 2009

Increased workloads, longer hours and strained resources caused by the recession have lowered federal, state and local government workers' morale, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com. In the survey of more than 200 government employers, 25 percent rated their organization's current employee morale as low.

Source: Jacqueline Byers, National Association of Counties, November 2009

In mid October 2009 NACo conducted a survey to look at the continuing impact of the economy on a sample of counties across the country. The sample group was made up primarily of midsize to smaller counties. Media reports of the impact of the economy have largely focused on the counties with the largest populations, but the majority of the counties in the country are midsize or smaller. This survey reveals that the downturn is widespread and is impacting counties of all sizes from several directions.

Source: Jon Johnson and Chris Fabian, Public Management, Vol. 91 no. 9, October 2009
(subscription required)

The current fiscal reality for most if not all local governments is challenging and bleak, to say the least. Declining revenues, slower if not stagnant growth, and depleted reserves are factors forcing the local government manager to become more involved as a partner with the finance officer in order to identify the symptoms and causes of the organization's fiscal distress. Working together this way, they can use the diagnostic analysis performed to correctly prescribe and apply the most appropriate and effective treatments.

By asking a series of basic diagnostic questions, the manager is able to gain a better understanding of the organization's fiscal health. It isn't enough, however, to simply pose the questions to the finance officer. It's also necessary to follow up with another question: Can you show me? Without documented and demonstrated analysis supporting the answer, the manager may be relying on inaccurate assumptions or unsubstantiated conclusions that don't treat the real symptoms.
See also:
Part 1

Source: Linda Lobao, Davie Kraybill, Growth and Change, Volume 40 Issue 3, published online: 2 Sep 2009
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Social scientists have given substantial attention to poverty across U.S. localities. However, most work views localities through the lens of population aggregates, not as units of government. Few poverty researchers question whether governments of poorer localities have the capacity to engage in economic development and service activities that might improve community well-being. This issue is increasingly important as responsibilities for growth and redistribution are decentralized to local governments that vary dramatically in resources. Do poorer communities have less activist local governments? Are they more likely to be engaged in a race to the bottom, focusing on business attraction activities but neglecting services for families and working people? We bring together two distinct literatures, critical research on decentralization and research on local development efforts, that provide contrasting views about the penalty of poverty. Data are from a unique, national survey of county governments measuring activity across two time points. The most consistent determinants of activity are local government capacity, devolutionary pressures, and inertia or past use of strategies. Net of these factors, levels and changes in poverty do not significantly impact government activity. There is no evidence the nations' poorest counties are racing to the bottom. Findings challenge views that poverty is a systematic structural barrier to pursuing innovative economic development policies and suggest that even poorer communities can take steps to build local capacity, resources, and networks that expand programs for local businesses and low-wage people.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Press Release, CB09-161, October 26, 2009

At 8.9 million, education workers accounted for more than half of the 16.7 million state and local government full-time equivalent employees nationwide in 2008, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

State and local governments had a 1.4 percent increase in employment from 2007. Local governments -- which include counties, cities, townships, special districts and school districts -- accounted for 12.3 million full-time equivalent employees in 2008, compared with 4.4 million full-time equivalents that were employed by state governments.
See also:
Data Tables

Source: David N. Ammons, ICMA, October 2009

From the summary:
The mammoth $787 billion stimulus legislative package passed in February 2009 included $280 billion in programs and projects administered through states and localities. Officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, this initiative is an intergovernmental partnership of historic scale. Now that the first projects have been funded, the debate has shifted to judging the effectiveness and the outcomes from the investment.

Questions remain about the effects of the stimulus and whether we have developed the right way to catalog and assess the outcomes of our government expenditures. A new paper from ICMA provides a framework to the challenge of evaluating such investments. Measuring the Results of Economic Stimulus Investments: Local Government Leading the Way proposes that local governments rely upon uniform outcome measures that draw upon commonly collected data at the local level and offers specific metrics to help evaluate related outcomes.