Fiscal policy space: Changing the discourse from city fiscal condition to city fiscal behavior

Free and open to the public.
 

Click HERE to read the full text of Michael Pagano's presentation.

Description:
To effectively address the fiscal challenges confronting cities, we cannot assume that that there is a mythical ‘average’ city or ‘best practice’ to prescribe, nor can we assume that cities are created with the same set of responsibilities and legal authority. Meaningful comparative research can be used to develop a framework that city leaders can use to learn from each other and that better informs other public policy makers and government officials. We call the framework “The Fiscal Policy Space of Cities.” The FPS comprises five key attributes that constrain and frame city fiscal choices and behavior. The attributes are: the intergovernmental system; the underlying economic base; locally imposed legal constraints; citizen and customer demand/need for services; and local political culture.

Data from 100 cities over a 20-year period are collected and analyzed to cluster cities by similar FPS position, to analyze fiscal policy actions that were adopted, to assess the extent to which the shape of their FPS changed over the past two decades, and to change the national political discourse about the state of city finances.

From the speaker's bio:

Michael A. Pagano is Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, professor of public administration, elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and former co-editor of Urban Affairs Review (2001-14). He is Project Director of an annual conference, the UIC Urban Forum, designed to address contemporary urban problems. He has published five books, including Metropolitan Resilience in a Time of Economic Turmoil, Cityscapes and Capital and The Dynamics of Federalism, and over 80 articles on urban finance, capital budgeting, federalism, transportation policy, infrastructure, urban development and fiscal policy; since 1991, he has written the annual City Fiscal Conditions report for the National League of Cities and is currently the Principal Investigator, with Christopher Hoene, of a 3-year project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to research city fiscal behavior and city financial adaptations during the Great Recession.

Slides from the lecture.  (Adobe PDF)

Sponsored by:
University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP)

Co-sponsored by:
University of Michigan Center for Social Impact
University of Michigan Nonprofit and Public Management Center
Citizens Research Council of Michigan

For more information contact Bonnie Roberts 734-647-4091; email [email protected]; or visit CLOSUP's website www.closup.umich.edu. 

• Nonprofit
• NPM