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This paper proposes a new conceptual framework for integrating cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cash-flow analysis (CFA) into a two-tiered methodology for evaluating local government activities. The evaluation procedure may be entered from either a CBA or a CFA perspective. The revolution in financing of American stale and local governments engendered by fiscal austerity is steadily breaching the traditional separation of revenue and expenditure in CBA. This paper demonstrates that breaching and its implications explain the major issues encountered in developing an integrated, two-tiered methodology for project evaluation, and it applies the methodology to illustrative case studies of a parking garage and an emergency ambulance service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This opinion piece focuses upon a research paper that evaluated performance-based budgeting at the state government level in the U.S. during both boom and bust years by fashioning an analytical framework from a survey of the U.S. states. The author of this paper urges that governmental officials should develop a decision strategy to widen the range of information and data points used during the development of budgeting decisions.

This article focuses on the Coalition To Improve Management In State And Local Government. The coalition was organized in 1984 to address the emerging need for administrative management assistance to U.S. state and local governments which were taking on increasing responsibility for domestic programs of service delivery. The coalition helps jurisdictions develop the executive capabilities and strategies needed to cope simultaneously with rapid economic and social change, reduced national grant money, increased service demands, and resistance to higher taxes. The coalition developed a seven-point strategy based on successful efforts of the best administered governments. The strategy links public administration principles and theory with action-generating implementation methods explained by practitioners in how to do it management guides.

The article comments on open and closed systems of decision making. This paper analyzes how toxic waste management issues move from a position where they are decided by a small, narrowly constituted elite to one where they are now influenced by a more diverse set of actors. In the U.S., until the mid-1970s the issue of toxic waste sites was not on the systemic or institutional agendas of most local and state governments, nor on the federal government's agenda. Government leaders and the public then became aware of the issue through incidents such as Love Canal, and it was pushed onto the systemic agenda of many local, state, and federal agencies. As more people became concerned about the health and environmental dangers associated with toxic waste dumps, the scope of conflict expanded and the problem began moving from a closed to an open decision-making context, and from a systemic agenda to an institutional one. The problem that public officials now face is how to combine the core democratic values of accountability and representativeness with the tenets of administrative efficiency, e.g., increasing demands for technical expertise, economy, and efficiency.

Textbook descriptions of the role of the mayor in the council-manager form of government invariably describe the mayor's role in a titular and restrictive fashion. These descriptions fail to acknowledge that the mayor may play an aggressive policy-making leadership role. The argument set forth in this paper, based on field interviews conducted with city mayors and managers in Virginia, is that the mayor, for a variety of reasons, usually functions as a strong policy leader. The implications flowing from the exercise of strong mayoral leadership include the emergence of teamwork governance, the merging of policy-making and administration, and the "democratization" of the council-manager plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes reports on biennial budgeting and the reform of the budget process of the U.S. federal government. The U.S. General Accounting Office report is a review of state government use of biennial budget processes. The report of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Operations is a compilation of the issues and recent testimony on 19 budget reform proposals. It is important to note that the state trend is clearly toward annual rather than biennial budgeting.

This mini-symposium on strong governorship and its status and problems, has been developed from the reduction and revision of three papers presented at the Northeast Political Science Association meeting of November 1974 and addressed to the topic: "Have Recent Developments Weakened the Case for Strong State Chief Executives?" To what extent the observations and conclusions would have to be modified if a national survey were made is of course an open question. But in any event the materials here presented provide an informed and insightful "opening" of an important subject. Recent developments to all the panelists meant the familiar train of events associated with executive actions in Vietnam, Watergate, and similar matters. The question was whether experience in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey suggested a need for rethinking the assumed value of strengthening of the chief executive's role in state government. In all three states reform goals with respect to the governorship have largely been achieved and governors there are generally in a strong position with respect both to administrative control and overall policy-making leadership. So the writers of the articles asked the question whether governors in those states have used their powers to provoke attacks on their prerogatives comparable to those now being directed at the presidency.

What did the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) accomplish before it was disbanded in 1996? Were its accomplishments sufficiently valuable to justify reestablishing the organization? This article reviews the commission's origins, history, and accomplishments, and addresses future intergovernmental needs. The ACIR's accomplishments were substantial, but are largely unavailable today. Lessons learned from the ACIR suggest the need to (1) recreate a network of intergovernmental advocates within the legislative and executive branches of the federal government; (2) restart the information flows and high-level federal, state, and local policy dialogues that withered after the ACIR's demise; (3) strengthen boundary-crossing institutions capable of addressing metropolitan and multistate problems; and (4) develop new opportunities to achieve public policy outcomes that can be attained only by the cumulative efforts of federal, state, and local governments working together-often with private parties as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trends in states’ civil service reforms since the Winter Commission’s report was published in 1993 are described and evaluated in the context of its recommendations. The authors argue that the commission’s reform agenda relies on a public service bargain that requires public employees, elected officials, and other stakeholders to respect, trust, and support each other’s efforts to serve the public interest. Its recommendations for modernizing state and local personnel systems are discussed and related to the “reinvention” and New Public Management initiatives of the past 20 years. Many of these ideas have been adopted by state governments, but there is no single reform model that has been followed across the states. Some states, such as Georgia and Florida, have engaged in radical reforms that include replacing traditional merit systems with at-will employment models. The general pattern involves decentralization, deregulation, and limitation of employee protections. While many of the management-oriented changes advocated by the Winter Commission are staples of states’ civil service reforms, its emphasis on a “trust and lead” strategy based on public service values, partnership, and leadership in the public interest has not received much attention. In general, objective evaluations of states’ reforms are needed to determine whether their purposes are being achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its 1993 report, the Winter Commission gave direction to the federal government in the area of health policy and Medicaid: lead, follow, or get out of the way. This article examines how the federal government responded to that advice, specifically asking what has happened in the allocation of responsibility in health policies between 1993 and 2006. In short, unlike the suggestion that there be a better-defined direction in federal–state policy assignments in health, the ensuing years have resulted in more of the same. The authors examine what has happened, particularly focusing on vertical diffusion—where the states have acted first—and on the role of policy learning in federal decision making. They find little recognition of policy learning in recent federal health laws—even in areas in which state experience was extensive. The federal government is leading in some health policies—but it is leading without learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the rankings of American states in one fast-growing policy area, e-government, states with the most sophisticated and comprehensive policies varied over a five-year period. What factors account for change in digital government policy innovation over time? Using time-series analysis and 50-state data, the authors find that state institutional capacity is important for continued innovation. They also find an association between reinvention in state governments and the institutionalization of information technology, suggesting a more general orientation toward government reform and modernization. Although state wealth and education were not significant in previous studies, they emerge as predictors of later innovation. The theoretical contribution of this study is to better understand the dynamic character of innovation over time and the role of institutions. The link between reinvention and e-government raises the possibility that the modernization of state institutions generally facilitates innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State governments in the United States have enthusiastically embraced the idea of managing for results. This appears to represent a victory for New Public Management policy ideas transferred from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The managing for results doctrine that emerged from these countries called for an increased focus on results but also increased managerial authority to achieve results. In return, it was claimed, governments would enjoy dramatic performance improvement and results-based accountability. This article assesses the implementation of public management reform in the United States and argues that the managing for results doctrine has been only partially adopted. State governments selected some of the New Public Management ideas but largely ignored others. In short, state governments emphasized strategic planning and performance measurement but were less successful in implementing reforms that would enhance managerial authority, undermining the logic that promised high performance improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking back on the twentieth century, the American public has witnessed numerous incidents of unethical behavior by a variety of federal, state, and local government officials. Ongoing cases of political and bureaucratic corruption raise questions about what governments are doing to prevent these ‘ethical lapses’. Most state governments have comprehensive ethics laws and ethics commissions to enforce these laws. Very few studies have examined the role of ethics commissions in state government. This article stems from research conducted during 1997–98 involving more than 60 anonymous interviews with ethics officials and stakeholders in Connecticut, Florida, and New York. This analysis reveals that ethics commissions are instruments and symbols, policemen and consultants, politicians and neutral technicians, and interpreters of and prisoners to the ethics laws. The article concludes with 10 recommendations to improve ethics enforcement and the ethics- building capacity of state governments as society enters the next millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reform is a common theme in American public administration. During the twentieth century at least 12 major administrative reforms have taken place at the federal level and countless others in state and local governments. Frequently, these reforms have addressed the operation of public personnel management systems. Recent efforts associated with the reinventing government movement, for example, have proposed numerous alterations to civil service rules and procedures, and many jurisdictions have implemented significant changes in their personnel practices. This article examines the extent to which these kinds of personnel reforms have been implemented by state governments. A reform index is developed to document the considerable variation among the states in their approach to personnel practices. Several state characteristics are associated with scores on this index, including legislative professionalism, which bears a positive relationship to reform, and the level of unemployment within a state and the proportion of state employees associated with public employee unions, which are both negatively associated with reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government performance is an enduring concern for students of public management, public administration, and political science. Government's administrative arrangements and managerial behavior can profoundly influence programmatic content, activities, and outcomes; therefore, considering public management's effects is necessary for a true understanding of public policy and government performance. This article uses data from the Maxwell School's Government Performance Project to examine the relationship between state governments' managerial capacity and a measure of government performance (specifically, state policy priorities). We find that state management capacity has direct effects on state policy commitments: States possessing higher levels of management capacity tend to favor programmatic areas that distribute societal benefits widely (that is, collective benefits) as opposed to narrowly (that is, particularized benefits). Our analysis demonstrates that public interest group activity, government ideology, and citizen ideology each have significant, predictable effects on state policy commitments. Thus, our findings place managerial capacity alongside other more commonly studied state characteristics as an important influence on government activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the capacity of U.S. governments to provide greater homeland security will require numerous changes in the way federal, state, and local governments are organized and operate. It also will require significant alterations in intergovernmental relations. Changes will be required in intergovernmental dimensions, including operational, financial, legal, and political dimensions. A dual-track approach to rearranging intergovernmental relationships in order to provide a coordinated intergovernmental response to the requirements of homeland security is to be expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its appeal for improving government, many state and local governments have not developed performance-measurement systems, and even fewer use these systems to improve decision making. This study examines the factors that affect the utilization of performance measurement, based on the results of a national survey of state and local government officials. The goals of the study were to provide better information on the patterns of usage of performance measurement and to use this information to develop an elaborated model of the factors presumed to affect utilization. Using distinctions from the policy and evaluation literature, hypotheses were tested and confirmed: Policy adoption is driven more heavily by factors from rational and technocratic theory, whereas actual implementation is influenced by factors addressed by political and cultural considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are states doing with respect to human resource practices to improve government operations? Using data collected by the Government Performance Project, this article identifies emerging trends and innovations in state personnel systems. Specifically, it provides a national comparison in the areas of personnel authority, workforce planning, selection, classification, and performance management. Results show that many states are delegating authority for personnel functions to agencies and managers, shifting their human resource missions to being more proactive and collaborative with agencies, and adopting performance management systems that integrate organizational and individual goals. In short, many states are investing considerable resources to modernize their human resource management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether reinventing government is the state reform wave of the 1990s. Reform waves flowing across the American political landscape are not new. In the states they have paralleled and sometimes preceded national government reforms that began early in this century and extended into recent decades. The administration's National Performance Review represented a turning point in federal administrative reform. Analysts have carefully reviewed the many specific proposals that emerged from it, as well as the more general reinvention proposals, and tried to place the reforms in a systematic framework. By the mid-1990s, some states were actively implementing reforms that could be labeled "reinvention," particularly those components associated with total quality management. A survey in 1992 found that total quality management programs were underway in 31 states. Measuring and explaining reinvention required that it be conceptualized in a manner amenable to measurement across the states and across individual agencies. INSET: Methodology.

This paper discusses the need for institutional analysis, one possible approach to it, and the contribution it can make to policy analysis for state and local government. Institutional issues have recently become prominent in the U.S. government. One reason is widespread disillusionment with government's ability to design effective and efficient social policies, much of the skepticism stems from the limited success and high cost of many Great Society programs. Another reason is fiscal scarcity. The sluggish economy of recent years no longer guarantees steadily rising real revenues. Implementation problems can no longer be overcome simply by more spending or new programs. Accordingly, public policy is gradually shifting its focus toward what might be called institutional development. There is an increasing effort to improve government performance without more spending, through the reform of administrative and political structures. Governmental restructuring is now going on at all levels of government. Bureaucratic reorganization is underway in Washington and in many states and revenue sharing measures have importantly changed intergovernmental relations. Up to now, however, public officials usually have made decisions about institutional arrangements without benefit of systematic analysis.

Decision support systems are computer information systems which provide information as a basis for nonroutine, semistructured, decision making. The focus of this article is on the extent to which decision support systems have been used, specific applications, and the perceived value of these systems. Based on a survey across several state agencies, the authors found decision support systems to be sporadic in use. Users of decision support systems thought that the primary benefit of these systems is the ability to anticipate problems and respond accordingly. The article provides suggestions for managers in advocating further use of decision support systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the effort to prepare Florida state government for the challenge of managing its information technology resources. The State of Florida recently made a multiyear commitment to establish a new statewide information technology resource policy and planning process. Successful implementation has demanded a sensitivity to the practices of public sector management, an understanding of technology, and an appreciation for the dynamics of organizational change. Achieving the goal of managing information and technology, a tremendous undertaking in the best of environments, has required significant investments in developing top management awareness, new strategic planning processes, special budget review processes, new organizational arrangements, and enhanced human resource skills. Once complete, the new policy and planning infrastructure will allow Florida to strategically shape the future direction of its investment in information technology resources and will allow state government to step up to the challenge of managing technical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of link of state employment and training and economic development programs in the United States. Effectiveness of state economic development programs is contingent on successful coordination of traditional physical capital and human capital improvement activities. The major stimulant to better linkages has been the growing perception that the movement of physical capital is heavily influenced by the skills and educational levels of the potential workforce. The article focuses on examination of the degree to which states have attempted to link physical and human capital development programs and to explore the correlates of these state efforts. The study explores the political, socioeconomic, and programmatic correlates of state organizational efforts. The results show that states which have forged the closest linkages are those which are confronted by declining economies despite extensive state fiscal incentives in support of the private sector and in which governors have fewer constraints on their powers to impose organizational changes.

Economic development initiatives have become common in recent years as stales and localities have sought to attract jobs and economic activity. Despite the popularity of industrial location incentives among state and local policy makers, it is not clear that current policies are either efficient or effective. Acknowledging that states and localities are not likely to cease offering economic development incentives, an alternative approach is presented here. By first determining how they fare in terms of uncontrollable business costs (transportation, energy, and labor costs), stales and localities can better focus their use of industrial location incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State and local governments are increasingly engaged in efforts to create jobs and stimulate economic activity. While these economic development policies have a momentum of their own, many depend on federal tax, spending, and regulatory policies. State and local officials view some past and potential future federal policies as threats to their development efforts. In turn, federal officials view some state and local economic development activities as counterproductive. Some oppose issuance of tax-exempt bonds and other efforts which they think threaten the internal United States free market. Debates over federal tax reform and the federal deficit provide considerable room for continuing federal/state/local conflicts. In the long run, incentives for cooperation are stronger than those for conflict, and cooperative forces should prevail. State and local officials need federal cooperation to pursue many development objectives. Particularly important are federal research activities that can be linked to state and local efforts to expand technology transfer capabilities of state and local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most electric and gas utilities provide free or low-cost energy audits to their residential customers, usually as pan of the federal Residential Conservation Service (RCS). RCS programs in the few states where competent evaluations were done show incremental energy savings for participants of approximately 3-5 percent. Assessing the economic worth of RCS programs is particularly difficult (and very site-specific) because of factors such as future fuel prices, differences between marginal and average fuel prices, discount rates, and differences in how programs are implemented. The meager evidence on RCS program cost-effectiveness suggests that the economic benefits are generally small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses several aspects of the state of governmental immunity in the U.S. The introduction of reasonable measures to accommodate these rights will minimize litigation and secure some measure of immunity as a result of good faith action. Eric Schnapper, an attorney for the parties bringing the Monell case, argues that properly structured delegations of authority may be a means of decreasing liability. Their are eligibilities that do not presently exist as a matter of course, and for state and local governments to bear the cost of defense litigation and plaintiff attorney fees is a troublesome burden. A more radical approach would be to introduce a strategy of federal indemnification, similar to what exists for nuclear power facilities under the Price-Anderson Act. All liability above the maximum is borne by the federal government under an indemnification scheme. An indemnification scheme covering Section 1983 judgments could cap the maximum liability for individual programs or governments, and could assign priorities among the various classes of damages so that those which are the most severe and readily computable would receive first consideration.

This article discusses the growing fiscal and policy dependency of local governments on their states and on the federal government in the U.S. Enlarged dependence matters a great deal if it means loss in the capacity of local governments to respond to local problems and to meet the diverse needs of individual citizens in local communities where they live. A table shows the growth over the last 30 years of revenue dependency by the combined local governments in the country. The table tells that over 40 percent of local revenues now come from other levels of government. Federal mandates and state mandates imposed by the states of California, Washington, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and New Jersey, were inventoried and the impacts of both the federal and state mandates on one city and one county in each of the five states were explored. The healthy local government must have the capacity to respond to local problems and to meet the diverse needs of its individual citizens.

This article presents a review on state revenue limitations and the alternatives with which localities deal with such fiscal constraints in the U.S. The actions of the Maryland General Assembly during the 1978 and 1979 legislative sessions to shift tax burdens and alter taxation procedures between the state and the local governments are examined as a case study of a state attempting to relieve fiscal pressures on its localities. Intergovernmental fiscal competition is also a limiting factor for localities. If property tax rates differ significantly among counties and cities in metropolitan areas, those with higher rates may observe a significant outflow of population. The alternative solutions may be categorized in four areas: property tax reform, the use of other taxes, state ameliorative actions, and the creation or continuation of intergovernmental and private sector contracting and aid. First and most important in the fiscal discussion is that the state should act to lessen the dependence of local governments on the property tax as the primary source of local revenues.

This article presents the evaluation of the fiscal realignment in the contemporary intergovernmental finance system in states in the U.S. Despite the apparent force of contemporary public demand for control of public finance, substantial ambiguity surrounds the direct causes and indirect consequences of the apparent rush toward new tax and expenditure limitations among several states. The most dramatic effect of California's Proposition 13 of 1978 was to increase the strength of citizen belief that the public fiscal world was penetrable, and perhaps controllable. In 1978, Idaho voters were confronted with a carbon copy of California's one percent limitation (Proposition I). As one of the central targets of the modern sunbelt migration, Arizona is a major beneficiary of contemporary population and economic relocations. The Oregon tax system compares closely to other western States. The taxpayers' revolt of the late 1970's has made a significant difference in local government budgets and functions.

Identifies and analyzes the level of efforts that are directed toward or substantially contribute to strengthening the overall management process of state and local governments in the United States, and the role and capacity of elected officials within that process. Office of Management and Budget's Study Committee on Policy Management Assistance; Utilization of technical assistance programs; Perceptions of various agencies concerning their role relative to state and local capability.

The article examines long-term trends in the qualities of American state administrative leadership from the 1960s to the 1990s. There are multiple reasons why the administrative status and capacity of the states are of major significance. First, as decentralization from the national government to the states proceeds, the ability of the states to accept and discharge duties in implementing the devolved programs depends heavily on each state's administrative capacities. Second, given the nature and character of the American federal system, state governments have historically played a critical role in governing as autonomous and semi-sovereign political entities. Third, the American states have appropriately been called "laboratories of democracy." A fourth and less direct reason argues for the significance of state administration. Administration has been generally perceived as a hidden or inconsequential component of governance in the states. State administrators are working executives who allocate their time among competing internal and external claims, and who function within important horizontal and vertical networks. Typically they work over 50 hours per week, split their time about equally between internal and external relations, interact intensively with the governor and legislative actors, and have the highest levels of contacts with citizens, clientele groups, and their peers who head other state agencies.

The article examines long-term trends in the qualities of state administrative leadership from the 1960s to the 1990s. Although administrative and policy reformers often urge coordination as the key to more effective delivery of public services, there is little beyond anecdotal evidence to suggest that most approaches to coordination can actually improve public services in multi-organizational delivery systems. This article examines the effect of coordination patterns and administrative arrangements on the accomplishment of policy goals in the delivery of employment and training services under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). JTPA service delivery occurs at the local level in Service Delivery Areas (SDAs), and the Department of Labor measures performance outcomes at the SDA level, since it is there that clients are actually served. The article's study has two conclusions. First, in the current era of performance measurement and accountability; policymakers need to be aware that success along one dimension of policy performance does not necessarily mean success along others. Because the different dimensions may not be related to each other, constructing overall measures of performance will be misleading. Second, steps can be taken in the administration of employment and training programs to enhance performance along some dimensions. Coordination activities, despite the frequent grousing about them, can pay off.

In the last quarter century, change was a predominant characteristic of state budgeting practices. Some of the most dramatic and thorough changes came in the areas of computer applications to budgeting, in the capabilities of accounting systems, and in the financial control exerted by budget offices through accounting systems. Budget office personnel have become better educated. A noticeable shift has occurred away from professional training in business and accounting toward public administration. Although states substantially increased their use of program information and analysis in budgeting between 1970 and 1990, some backsliding was detected between 1990 and 1995, a fact that may be disheartening to budget reformers. Regardless of whether these trends of the 1990s continue, by the year 2000 long-advocated reforms will almost certainly not be accomplished in many state governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act is the federal government's first major bloc grant to state and local governments, and it provides an opportunity to examine this approach to federal grant-in-aid assistance. As one of the first bloc grant programs enacted by Congress, the Safe Streets Act has caused controversy among the representatives of the cities and the states over the role of state governments in administering federal assistance. It has also created tensions between federal officials and state planners over the appropriate amount of federal authority in administration of a bloc grant program. Although the goals of the bloc grants include simplification of intergovernmental relations and reduction of federal dominance, the law enforcement program is complex because each of the major participants strives to gain or maintain control over the allocation of funds. Since the Nixon Administration favors use of bloc grants, the experiences with this program deserve serious attention and may suggest future patterns of intergovernmental relations in other grant fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses ubiquitous anomie, that is, bureaucrat bashing that throughout the federal service. Civil servants by themselves cannot do much to improve the situation because their situation is the effect not the cause. The cause lies in ideological dissensus within the political stratum, profound disagreements over equality, democracy and hence the role of government, disagreements that create conflicting expectations that no conceivable cadre of civil servants can meet. What is possible is to approach better understanding of why there is and will continue to be this ubiquitous anomie and to encourage members of the public service to ameliorate what they alone cannot change. When Max Weber provided the classical definition of bureaucracy, scholar Irving Spitzberg emphasized two features: security of tenure and monopoly of expertise. In the U.S., this monopoly, though it never existed entirely in a system of checks and balances, has been shattered by the rise of policy analysis. All around the country, in think-tanks, consulting firms, universities, state and local governments, congressional staffs and elsewhere, there are rival teams of analysts who have recently been or expect soon to be in government. They know as much as those in the bureaucracy.