State of Cities 2016

As the economy rebounds and fiscal health stabilizes, mayors across the country are using their State of the City speeches to tout the progress their communities have made through hard work, innovation and collaboration. The State of the City speech is a mayor's opportunity to reflect on the city's recent accomplishments, current challenges and roadmap for the future. Its words provide unique insight into the state of municipal leadership, revealing the issues that matter most to city leaders.In 2016, mayors are focusing most on economic development, public safety, budgets, infrastructure and housing as broad strategies to advance their cities. The prominence of these top-line issues, or those receiving what we call "significant coverage" within mayors' speeches, has been consistent in the three years since we started the analysis. Economic development has been the most widespread issue addressed by mayors in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Infrastructure, public safety and budgets have remained in the top five, and education and housing have vied for a spot in the top rankings over the past few years

Paying for Local Infrastructure in a New Era of Federalism: A State-By-State Analysis

Despite the fact that infrastructure is a critical part of daily life for all Americans, the infrastructure deficit in the United States grows with each passing day. The National League of Cities (NLC) today released a new report on the ability of cities to address the nation's growing infrastructure challenges. The costs of building, operating and maintaining road, transit and water/wastewater systems are falling increasingly to local governments with the decline of state and federal funding, an increase in mandates and a misalignment of priorities. In this era of "new federalism," local governments have assumed a greater responsibility to meet their infrastructure needs, but much of this devolution of responsibility has come without authority to raise funds locally."Paying for Local Infrastructure in a New Era of Federalism" shows that cities need a more deliberate approach that recognizes the central role of infrastructure in the success of our nation's economic engines. To achieve this, cities need strategic and predictable investment from federal and state governments; better communication between cities and states on funding priorities; and greater local authority to raise revenue and implement creative solutions with multi-sector partners."A new federalism - where cities are leading in addressing the nation's most critical challenges - is emerging," said Clarence E. Anthony, National League of Cities (NLC) CEO and executive director. "Despite the fact that cities have increased responsibility for our nation's infrastructure, most states limit the ability of localities to raise revenues to meet their communities' needs. It's critical that local governments have the funding and decision-making authority they need to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century, and enable American cities to be competitive on the global stage." The report presents a state-by-state analysis and comparison of local tools to fund infrastructure, including local taxes and fees and emerging mechanisms such as state infrastructure banks and public-private partnerships. It is the second annual collaborative project with the state municipal leagues, and is based on federal, state and local government data as well as a survey and interviews with state municipal leagues.

2015 State of the Cities

In the aftermath of the tension and unrest seen in cities such as Ferguson and New York last year, cities have been the focus of societal issues surrounding race, equity and opportunity. The National League of Cities (NLC) released the "2015 State of the Cities" report, which found that economic development was the most-covered topic in mayoral "state of the city" speeches given in the first quarter of 2015. In talking about economic development issues, mayors often spoke of equity and workforce development, and highlighted ways that local governments are providing the leadership needed to create more inclusive, equitable communities

How Can Local Governments Address Pandemic Inequities?

COVID‐19 is exposing a nexus between communities disproportionately suffering from underlying health conditions, policy‐reinforced disparities, and susceptibility to the disease. As the virus spreads, policy responses will need to shift from focusing on surveillance and mitigation to recovery and prevention. Local governments, with their histories of mutual aid and familiarity with local communities, are capable of meeting these challenges. However, funding must flow in a flexible enough fashion for local governments to tailor their efforts to preserve vital services and rebuild local economies. We argue in this article that the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) programs are mechanisms for how to provide funds in a manner adaptable to local context while also focusing on increasing social equity. Administrators must emphasize the fourth pillar of public administration ‐‐ social equity ‐‐ in framing government responses to the pandemic