Building a better contract
By: By Lori Scozzafava
Before outsourcing solid waste services to private companies, read the following instructions....
INSIDE WASHINGTON/Battling over bucks
By: By Mark Preston
Locals say State of the Union offers little hope for fiscal relief....
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/A new way to budget
By: By Dewey Stokes
Faced with declining revenue and cuts in state and federal aid, cities and counties are looking for new ways to meet an increasing demand for services...
Cities, counties look to Canada for meds
By: Mark Preston
When President Bush signed the historic Medicare bill into law last month, a provision legalizing the importation of prescription drugs from Canada was...
Tough fiscal times continue for cities
By: Christopher Hoene
Cities hard pressed to meet financial obligations....
Who should reap the benefits?
By: By Mary Ann Barton
The mayor and council members in Lexington-Fayette Urban County, Ky., are in a tug-of-war over whether to offer domestic partner benefits to city employees....
Dealing with the mutual fund mess
By: Michael Fickes
Federal and state regulators have begun investigating more than a dozen mutual fund companies for allegedly allowing questionable investment practices....
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/The price of growth
By: By Phil Flavin
Promoting robust economic development is a priority for every local government. Cities and counties are on a continual quest to lure new businesses and...
Making the grade
By: By Lindsay Isaacs
Sometimes an ordinary event can leave an indelible impression, and for Akron, Ohio, Mayor Donald Plusquellic, that impression was made eight years ago...
INSIDE WASHINGTON/Greening brownfields
By: By Mark Preston
Local government officials are calling on Congress to amend the landmark 2002 brownfields law that was intended to help cities and counties fund revitalization...
INSIDE WASHINGTON/New TEA time set
By: By Mark Preston
City and county leaders must wait until next year to learn how much money the federal government will dedicate to future transportation projects, after...
Communities born again
By: By Alexander von Hoffman
It was the early 1980s, the dawn of the public-private partnership era and the twilight of Mayor Kevin White's administration in Boston. After a terrible...
Building a solid foundation
By: By Lindsay Isaacs, Managing Editor
You can't complain about what's going on in your world if you don't do something about it. Angela Connolly remembers hearing her grandmother say those...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Recouping delinquent property taxes
By: By Gwendolyn Faison
Property taxes fund a large percentage of any city's services and programs. Therefore, the efficient and successful collection of such taxes is vital....
INSIDE WASHINGTON/Locals seek strength in numbers
By: By Mark Preston
Armed with two recent surveys that provide hard data showing municipalities in fiscal distress, local leaders are preparing a renewed lobbying effort...
PURCHASING/City reaches more vendors with online bid service
By: Stephen Ursery
In an effort to increase the pool of vendors for government contracts, New Port Richey, Fla., has begun using an online bid notification system. The online...
URBAN REVITALIZATION/Shopping center brings new life to neighborhood
By: Stephen Ursery
In an effort to revitalize the retail component of its Midtown neighborhood, Milwaukee helped design and finance the construction of a new shopping center....
Planning for pension payoffs
By: By Girard Miller
Local governments are facing complex challenges in managing the retirement plans of their employees. Several factors have converged to create the fiscal...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Changing public library funding
By: By Steve Coffman
These are tough times for libraries. Last year, Seattle shut down all its libraries and furloughed staff for two weeks after the city cut the system's...
INSIDE WASHINGTON/Bill seeks funds for affordable housing
By: By Mark Preston
City officials across the country are rallying behind federal legislation that would create a dedicated funding stream to help alleviate the nation's...
No walk in the park
By: By Gary N. Bowen
The funds to run parks and other recreational facilities are fast becoming a casualty of local governments' battles to balance their budgets. Many communities...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Saving money in tough times
By: By Donna Hodgson
For the past several years, cities and counties have been riding high atop the wave of budget surpluses. Now, local governments are peering down a precipitously...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Reserves are essential to fiscal health
By: John Incorvaia
A municipality's fiscal policies should include a plan for maintaining reserves. Operating reserves (or fund balance) are a prudent fiscal management...
Head of the class
By: Beth Wade, Managing Editor
Twenty-four years before he was elected mayor of New Haven, Conn., John DeStefano discovered his passion for politics. I was 14 years old, and I worked...
