Suchergebnisse

There are upward of 90,000 local governmental units in the United States. These frequently cash-strapped local governments offer similar amenities to comparable beneficiary groups often differentiated only by jurisdictional lines. Therefore, operational collaboration seems an obvious prospect in any efforts to reduce costs, tighten management, and improve quality in local government. For the same reasons, the topic of collaboration has become a hallmark of academic research in public administration. It is a recurrent theme in scholarly endeavors on local government and a touchstone of attempts to enhance efficacy at the local level through study and investigation. Adapted from the source document.

Government budget cuts have been commonplace in state and local governments for most of the last seven years. One way state and local governments can cope with these cuts is to reduce the amount they must pay for the interest and principle on their financial obligations, including what they have borrowed or what they anticipate with good reason having to pay. If state and local governments were not cash-strapped, they could attempt to pay off such obligations or where permissible they could use reserves to create investment funds to pay them. Nevertheless, state and local governments that wish to reduce debt service pressure on the budget can refinance their financial obligations in such a way as to reduce or better manage the recurring interest and other costs. Cutting debt service to help absorb revenue cuts can be an appealing avenue for helping to restructure state and municipal operating budgets and the funds that these budgets comprise. Adapted from the source document.

In this issue of State and Local Government Review's Government Matters Section, two articles examine the implementation of energy sustainability programs. One article examines how state capacity affected the plans of the U.S. government to fund state energy programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The other article examines local-level citizen participation in environmental issues both in the United States and in Kyrgyzstan. The two essays are complementary; they examine different levels of government and different countries. The ARRA article presents an analysis using published data and examines program-specific cases. The citizen participation piece uses cases studied in three cities to illustrate principles for local participation. Adapted from the source document.

Does the outsourcing of public services present distinct ethical challenges for practitioners and unique transparency tests for policy makers? Do these need to be addressed by particular mechanisms that should be closely monitored and contantly improved upon to protect the public interest. These are the questions that both essays in this Goveranance Matters section address. Their perspectives are somewhat different, but they call attention to an important, but underemphasized area for effective state and local governance. Adapted from the source document.