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Previous studies have reported a positive relationship between local government spending and health outcomes. However, there is limited scholarly research on how the different policy tools used for delivering public health services affect the health of local residents. This study adopted a comprehensive model, widely utilized in health policy and management research, to control for health behaviors, socioeconomic factors, physical environment, and clinical care. It provides evidence that a county with higher health spending through contracting has a higher health ranking among New York counties, indicating that service provision arrangements affect health outcomes. Thus, county efforts to improve health outcomes should consider the effects of differing service delivery arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, going to jail or prison increasingly comes with a hefty price tag for incarcerated persons. As states continue to cut public spending, individuals are required to cover costs for basic necessities, such as food, health care, and telecommunications. Most have to rely on financial support from friends and family members to make ends meet during incarceration, thus drawing further resources from already vulnerable communities. Based on ethnographic interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals, and on the personal experience of one of the authors with the New York penal system, this article explores the effects of budget cuts and austerity measures on the everyday lives of the incarcerated, as well as the myriad forms of labor that prisoners perform to fill the gaps in institutional commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New York legislature took steps to make sure that the opioid settlement money did not suffer the same fate as the Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry and the states, in which the money which was supposed to go to treatment for tobacco‐related diseases went instead into the states' general treasuries. The legislature guaranteed that an independent advisory board would make recommendations on how the opioid settlement money would be spent. But the first batch of that money, $208 million, appears to be disappearing into a state‐run secret system in which the advisory board is being shafted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stabilizing local governments' expenditures over time is essential to ensure the continuity of public service provision. However, there is little agreement on the managerial determinants of expenditure stabilization. We identify whether and which aspects of financial capacity are related to expenditure stabilization. Using a sample of local governments in New York State, we find that the ability to maintain fiscal reserves, the potential to borrow external financial resources, and the fiscal flexibility to run deficits reduce expenditure gaps. This study contributes to our understanding of the link between the financial capacity and local governments' decisions on expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the interjurisdictional comparisons of appropriations and revenues for local governments. Section one of the article discusses measures of efficiency that has the potential to be used, the determination of the composition of the sample and conflicts that must addressed, and the basis on which the information is to be compared. Section two presents a 1976 comparison of Rochester, New York, Buffalo, New York, and Syracuse, New York, as an example of how an interjurisdictional comparison may be implemented. Inferences that can be drawn and comparison responses are briefly discussed in Section three.

The article presents information on studies on labor and industrial relations by researchers at Columbia University, New York in 1974. A study on the impacts of governmental economic policy on manpower utilization is being conducted by James Kuhn. An investigation by Alfred Eichner and Charles Brecher, along with new staff specialists in child welfare and education, focuses on Large-City Budgeting for Human Resources Expenditures, with New York City as the base. Jerome Schnee, Eli Ginzberg and their colleagues have been conducting an exploratory study for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Criteria for a Public Investment Program. Ivar Berg, Marcia Freedman, and Patricia Bonfield are studying the principal institutions and forces affecting worker attitudes and behavior.

The article discusses the thousands of homeowners and hurricane survivors who remain homeless three years after Superstorm Sandy struck the New Jersey and New York region on October 28, 2012, and it mentions the economic aspects of flooding, as well as the costs of natural disasters in the U.S. and financial assistance from America's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The U.S. National Flood Insurance Program, disaster relief, and flood insurance claims are assessed.

Publicly funded social services are an increasingly important component of social provision spending, accounting for approximately one-fifth of today's welfare state expenditures. These funds are often allocated through purchase of service contracts between state and municipal agencies and third-party providers, usually nonprofit organizations. This study uses a unique dataset of government contracts with nonprofit organizations in New York City between 1997 and 2001 to study the relationship between the allocation of social services funding across neighborhoods and neighborhood need. We distinguish between local organizations serving their immediate neighborhoods and distributive organizations serving multiple neighborhoods. Overall, contract dollars allocated to both organizational types are positively associated with socioeconomic disadvantage, although distributive organizations are less likely to be physically located in needy neighborhoods. However, contract dollars for services targeted to specific populations are sometimes negatively associated with the prevalence of these targeted populations, especially when those contracts go to distributive organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of forecasters, horizons, revenue categories, and forecast timing in relation to decision making on forecast bias or accuracy. The significant findings are: for the most part forecasters tend to report forecasts that are similar rather than competitive. Forecast bias (underforecasting) increases over longer horizons; consequently claims of structural budget deficit are suspect, as an assertion of structural deficit requires that a reliable forecast of revenue shows continuous shortfall compared with a reliable forecast of expenditures. There is an overforecasting bias in property tax, possibly reflecting demand for services. There is an underforecasting forecast bias in two revenue categories, all other taxes and federal categorical grants, resulting in a net total underforecasting bias for the city's revenue. There appears to be a period effect (forecasts in June are substantially biased), but this effect requires further study. The study suggests further examination of the bias associated with revenue categories, time within the budget cycle, and forecast horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct voter involvement (or even the potential for direct involvement) in policymaking through initiatives, referenda, and other mechanisms has forever altered the governance landscape in many municipalities. Nowhere is this more evident than the causes and con- sequences of tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) This paper explores the recent history and potential implications of a particular kind of TEL-property tax rate limitation-for municipalities in New York The authors use an innovative simulation approach to show that rate limitations might be a fiscally sound and politically effective option for lawmakers who seek to provide tax relief while not causing substantial fiscal harm to municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Procurement is an essential business function of government. Despite the importance of effective procurement practices to government efficiency, very little is known about what local governments do in practice, and how procurement practices affect government spending. This paper reports the results of a survey on procurement practices used by New York State school districts. To examine the potential costs savings from adoption of particular procurement practices, the authors estimate cost models for materials, supplies, and equipment spending. Results from the cost model indicate that the use of competitive bidding, purchasing calendars, central warehouses, and bidders lists are associated with significant cost savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the proposed memorial at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center in New York. It states that the proposed memorial site plan would cost $1 billion to complete. "The New York Daily News," criticize the one billion dollar budget as unaffordable and impractical. Another publication, "The New York Times," who obtained a confidential memo revealing the proposed estimate called it breathtaking. According to the author, the former site of the twin towers will surely attract much more scrutiny in years to come.

This article illustrates how chief executives approach deficit plan design. A decision model is developed that lays out the deficit-closing options and their cumulative impact on the multiple competing goals of minimizing political loss while maintaining long-term fiscal balance. The article analyzes the deficit-closing plans of New York City mayors from fiscal year 1981 to fiscal year 2004. The authors classify the nature of the deficit-closing options employed each year and the constraints associated with each option and investigate the political loss associated with alternative decisions. The findings suggest that in any given year, an attempt is made to achieve a balance between the long-term gains of structural budget balance and the loss of political support. Even in election years some semblance of balance is normally maintained, however, there is an attempt to hold down the total size of the deficit, thus reducing loss of political support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines New York City's system of public financing of political campaigns after 15 years of operation. The author suggests that many of the objectives of reform: lower expenditures, increased competition, and higher voter turnout have not been realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the author's experiences of working in the New York City Mayor's Office of Management and Budget. It was the author's first job out of school and, apart from knowing a lot about Manhattan, he had little knowledge of the size and complexity of New York City's government. The author opines that New York City must balance its budget every year and the City Council must pass a budget plan for the next fiscal year that will match expenses against anticipated revenues. This plan must be updated and re-forecasted every quarter based on new revenue numbers and potential expenses that may require additional appropriations.

In a time of decreasing institutional resources, the ability to refine and target donor campaigns is more critical than ever. This chapter demonstrates how GIS can be used to better understand where alumni are located and, further, where to focus future campaign activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which examined expenditure politics of each postfiscal crisis New York City mayor, Ed Koch, David Dinkins and Rudolph Giuliani, after 1975 until 2003. Information on the publicly stated fiscal policies of each mayor; External economic factors within which the mayors operated; Factors which contribute to complexities of expenditure analysis.

The article presents the Presidential Address, delivered at the Opening General Session of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association on November 5, 1979 in New York City. He discusses the "Great Society," specifically the movement to hold back public expenditures and to lessen the role of governmental activities. He also mentions the condition of the U.S. among other countries concerning the health status of children which includes death in infants.

This article focuses on the federal aid to education. The most prevalent arguments for increased state and federal aid to education are concerned with equity criteria. Relatively little has been written or discussed concerning the efficiency aspects of aid to education. This paper uses a median voter decision model and certain assumptions about the functional form of demand functions to obtain an estimate of the efficient level of expenditure for each of 104 school districts in New York State. A utility maximizing household will demand that quantity of school expenditures for which the marginal utility of a unit increment is equal to price times the marginal utility of income. The marginal cost to a household of a $1 increase in expenditure per pupil can also be determined. A household pays a proportion of the district marginal cost according to the ratio of the value of its property to total district property. The commercial and industrial property lowers the price of public expenditures. The efficient quantity of expenditure in a district is that for which the sum of the marginal benefits of all households equals the marginal social cost.

This paper relates New York City's experience since 1975, a period characterized by local economic and fiscal crisis and a gradual recovery from it, to four prevailing themes in the contemporary literature of cities and public administration. Drawing on analysis in the first five volumes of the Setting Municipal Priorities project, the authors suggest that: (1) urban economic decline is neither a continuous nor inevitable process, and that local government policy can play an important role in reversing such decline; (2) public officials have more ability to alter spending priorities than the incrementalist/decrementalist model of budgeting admits; (3) municipal government retrenchment, or the paring down of ‘slack’ resources, promotes rather than impedes managerial innovation and improvement; (4) cuts in public expenditure do not necessarily translate into reductions in the level and quality of public services. From the authors' perspective, studies that emphasize the immutability of forces causing urban decline, the inability of public officials to control the allocation and improve the management of public resources, and the dependence of better services on more expenditure contribute to undue pessimism about the future of cities and their management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on budgetary systems in the U.S. states, as of September 1981. The institutional roles of a state's central budget office are to assure the submission and maintenance of a balanced budget, to help implement program policy consistent with legislative and gubernatorial intent, and to oversee management practices throughout the state government, thereby assisting the governor in the constitutional role of chief executive officer. Budgetary systems are the only organized and orderly decision-making process linking all segments of the governmental apparatus. The role of the central budget office varies from state to state, depending on the strength of its executive budget process. In New York State, as elsewhere, there is a formal process to assure adherence to gubernatorial policy during executive budget formulation, but the informal process is also important. The execution of the budget, once adopted by the legislature, poses its own problems in democratic accountability. Here the role of a central budget office is to execute legislative and gubernatorial intent. For the past half-dozen years or more, fiscal austerity has strained normal relationships among the agencies, legislative staffs and the Division of the Budget in New York and elsewhere.

The article focuses on the argument by a municipal bond analyst for a major security rating services, that the cure for New York City's fiscal problems was to force it into bankruptcy and subsequently to massively privatize public services. It was stated that the writers' evidence of its effectivity was an anecdote about a small Michigan town, without considering the possibility that the reported cost was nothing more than an accounting fiction. However, editors and most readers of the article believe that neither the idea nor the evidence seemed improbable. Moreover, an overview of the two imperative actions in changing the situation is offered.

The article presents a discussion on the budgetary politics of New York City. It mentions that theories on budgetary politics of a city must be reconsidered when significant changes fail to be foreseen. It examines the case of New York City and its budgeting framework since 1945. It discusses the theoretical schools of budgeting including the input-output analysis and the policy-process theory. The article also analyzes the factors that affect budgetary concerns including the city's market position and political system.

The article presents abstracts related to housing. They include "Housing Services: The Neglected Dimension," "The New York State Regional Housing Model: Simulation for Public Policy-Making," "Reforming Rent Control in New York City: Analysis of Housing Expenditures and Market Rentals," and "Welfare Hotels."

The New York City Productivity Program is designed to maintain and improve the quality of service provided to New Yorkers despite the steady shrinkage in the city work force which has now been underway for two years. The program incorporates and builds upon earlier innovations which provide the administrative context and data base which make such a program possible - rational, unified organization, of city agencies, advanced analytic techniques, and program-performance budgeting. The systematic improvement of public sector productivity is a relatively new field to the professional public administrator and even more to the average citizen. There is a long history of complaint and exhortation about work standards in the public service, but very little careful work on the problem of getting more and better service out of a given level of tax investment. Beyond these major obstacles there is a long series of less cosmic but still quite difficult obstacles to a successful government productivity program in an urban setting. Work rule agreements and traditions-which the New York courts often invest with the force of contractual obligation-are replete with restrictions upon flexible use of manpower.

The article focuses on the status of the urban tax reform in New York. The author remarks that New York has been spending more than it can afford for years and for various reasons is a very sick city, financially. In the city of New York as a whole, population is increasing and in a sufficient period of time a tax on buildings will tend to fall upon the users because the erection of new buildings will be checked until rents have risen sufficiently to make the ownership of buildings profitable. If an existing tax shall be removed, the ownership of a building will be more profitable until the competition of new buildings has forced a reduction of rents. A tax on land tends to fall upon the owner and only upon him who owns the land at the time the tax is imposed. The author remarks that outlook for reform of the city's public expenditures and of its administration of the present real property tax is not encouraging. Hence an effort to reform the tax structure as a whole must be made in a very complex situation, the voters must be educated to seek a total reform of public finance in the city, rather than merely a change in the tax source.

Mental-health care is a major public-sector problem in the State of New York. We were asked by the Ways and Means Committee of the New York State Assembly to recommend a new fiscal structure with shared funding; between the state and the counties to better achieve the objective of the state's mental-health-care program. We developed a simulation model for the problem and used it to design new funding plans; the results of our analysis have been written into legislation introduced into the New York State Assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on portions of an empirical study of New York outdoor recreation expenditures in fiscal 1968 to determine the personal income distribution effects of a public project or program. Conceptual approaches used and compared in the study; Determination of the incidence of the tax by income class; Subtraction of burden from gross transfer payments.

The existence of large numbers of similar work groups which do not compete for jobs within a metropolitan region weaken the regional market concept. If commutation occur over long distances and over all parts of the region, an area wide market theory is valid. If commutation is relegated to short distances around sub-centers a sub-market concept is more appropriate. Thus, the index can be used as a policy instrument to determine whether low-cost housing, a mass transit system, search cost subsidies or changes in wage structures will best rectify the dislocations in the labor markets. Decision makers also test the effectiveness of alternative policies against this relatively un-complicated mobility measures.