Alternative Tax Strategies for Local Governments

During the fiscal year 2004-05, New Yorker’s paid approximately $111 billion in state and local taxes. Of this total, local taxes accounted for 55$61 billion. Local tax revenues come mainly from the property tax and sales tax, which account for $34 billion and$10 billion, respectively. Taxes are important to development for two reasons. First, the tax burden on low and middle class families affects local citizen’s standard of life, access to affordable housing, and level of expendable income. Second, states and municipalities have long relied on lowering taxes and providing tax incentives as their primary tools for attracting business. Traditional tax strategies must be re-examined because of problems in both areas

Global environmental governance: the role of local governments

This repository item contains a single issue of Sustainable Development Insights, a series of short policy essays that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. The series seeks to promote a broad interdisciplinary dialogue on how to accelerate sustainable development at all levels.Is there a role for cities in the Global Environmental Governance (GEG) system and, if so, what exactly should that role be? Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, the Director of ICLEI, argues that cities and local governments have played a leading role in developing programs to reduce greenhouse gases, and have much to offer in national and global efforts to address climate change and other major environmental issues. A new and improved GEG framework should include direct connections to and involvement by local and subnational governments as well as business, giving these important stakeholders input into important policies and decisions that ultimately affect them

Malaysian local governments’ role towards sustainable development focusing on knowledge transfer practices framework

Local Governments are facing very demanding and dynamic situation in development agenda when dealing with sustainable development. When the development’s activities do not start with the sustainability elements at Local Governments, the negative impacts are imminent and it will cause hazards to society, economy and environment. Hence, the knowledge of sustainability needs to be inculcated in Local Governments’ practices. It needs to be shown in the stage of planning approval since this is where the development begins. In relation to that, the research objectives are to identify the constraints in knowledge transfer practices of sustainable development in the planning approval at Local Governments, to study the perceptions of stakeholders involved in the planning approval stage at Local Governments regarding knowledge transfer practices towards sustainable development, to study the knowledge transfer practices towards sustainable development at Local Governments and to develop the framework of knowledge transfer practices towards sustainable development into the planning approval stage at Local Governments. Therefore, respondents involved are 55 selected Malaysian Local Governments for questionnaire, 17 selected Malaysian Local Governments for interview and 9 selected stakeholders. The results of this study show that there is lacking in clear direction which bring to the unsupportive policy and management, the perceptions of stakeholders suggest that Local Governments need to show their capabilities in handling sustainable development at the planning approval stage and overall result demonstrates that staffs have low percentage of below 30% in acquiring and participating in activities related to sustainable development. In relation to that, it contributes to the lack of knowledge on sustainable development. Hence knowledge transfer practices towards sustainable development at the planning approval stage are needed as suggested in the analysis of interviews. Therefore, this research has developed a framework of the knowledge transfer practices towards sustainable development at planning approval stage in Malaysian Local Governments, which is to improve the process of the planning approval for sustainability delivery

Alignment dynamics in eGovernment: behind the scenes of local governments

Local governments are increasingly swamped by the endless possibilities that arise from information and communication technologies. They are challenged to incorporate ICTs in their daily processess and strive to thus become more efficient and effective organizations. Yet, a lot of factors come into play when ICTs are introduced within local governments. Soon organizational dynamics are entangled with the new dynamics that stem from the newly introduced ICTs. In this paper we explore the dynamic process of aligning local governments with technology by using the 7Smodel as a framework to analyze how seven different elements, both hard and soft, mutually affect each other and make out the local dynamics. We state that these elements influence how local governments deal with change, and in this respect, how they deal with technology. We stress the interrelations between the seven factors and the organizational dynamics as a result of the interplay between these factors to point out the complexity of the alignment process in local governments. Beter insights in the organizational factors that encircle the implementation of ICTs will lead to a more profound understanding of how the process of alignment comes into practice in local governments. By taking into account the complex process of alignment ICT-projects will be more successful

Estimating Differential Responses to Local Fiscal Conditions: A Mixture Model Analysis

Alternative hypotheses exist regarding the impact of local sales and income taxes on local governments' taxing and spending decisions. One hypothesis is that local governments use sales and income taxes to pay for spending increases and leave property tax collections unchanged, while an equally plausible alternative is that local governments use sales and income taxes to reduce property taxes. Traditional models that restrict the impact of these local taxes to be the same across all local governments are not able to capture both types of behavior. The methodological difficulty lies in allowing for differences in behavior with no a priori information on which cities belong in which category. In this article, the authors use panel data to estimate a mixture model of spending and property tax response to the existence of local taxes. These empirical results provide evidence to support both hypotheses. These differences are both substantive and statistically significant

RevenueSources of State and Local Governments

This report compares the reliance on various revenue sources across Georgia compared with eight other states. FRC Report 16

Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Local Governments

The Philippines` geographical location makes it a disaster-prone country. In the Southeast Asian region, it ranks the highest in terms of the multiple climate hazard index measure. Given that the country`s local communities take the brunt of the effects of disasters, this Policy Note offers suggestions for local governments in building their local capacity in disaster risk reduction and management.Philippines, natural disasters, survey, Rosario, Batangas, disaster risk reduction, disaster risk management, local governments

A MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,