PCRD

Hints of Recovery: Indiana's State & Local Governments as the Recovery Begins

Today, Purdue Economist Larry DeBoer will present a free webinar on the topic of Hints of Recovery: Indiana's State & Local Governments as the Recovery Begins. The webinar is scheduled for 1:30-4:00pm today (Thursday, May 26, 2011) and you are welcome to join us by clicking here.

You may also download the handout here. If you do decide to join us I would ask you to give us some feedback of the program by completing a VERY QUICK survey by clicking here. If you are viewing in a group setting and need a hardcopy of the evaluation you can find it here. Here is a little more information about today's program.

The end of April and the first weeks of May were important for Indiana state and local governments. The legislative session ended on time, on April 29, and the General Assembly passed a budget. Shortly before the end of the session, the state got the first up-beat revenue forecast in six years. Revenue projections increased by $762 million. That helped, of course, but Indiana’s budget for the coming biennium is still as tight as any in memory. That’s especially important for local schools, because school operating costs now depend almost entirely on state aid. Then came Election Day, May 3, and the voters decided seven school referenda. Each new round of referenda teaches us more about what influences yes and no votes. Then, property tax bills were due on May 10 in almost all the counties. In some counties taxpayers were unpleasantly surprised by tax bill increases, because of the loss of state and local homestead credits, and the increase in tax rates resulting from slow growth or decline in assessments. Higher tax bills make for more tax cap credits, and we now have data on tax cap credit revenue losses for many counties. Professor Larry DeBoer will discuss these and other important issues for local government. 

A Tax Echo for 2009

Here is a new podcast from Purdue University Economist Larry DeBoer. The topic is A Tax Echo in 2009. It is available in both mp3 and wmv formats.

Government & Web 2.0

This month's Governing Magazine has an interesting article about how Web 2.0 tools - wikis, blogs, etc. can and should change the way in which state and local government functions. Here's a quote from Mark Forman, a partner at KPMG - People who learn how to harness wikis and other new tools to the benefit of government will be hailed as the next great visionaries. You can read the entire article here.

New Podcast Available: Indiana Circuit Breakers

Our friends at Purdue Extension ECD have produced their very first On Local Government podcast featuring Purdue Economist Larry DeBoer. In this month's podcast Larry explains the Indiana circuit breaker. You can download this and load it to an iPod or listen online with QuickTime or Windows Media Player. The two formats are listed below:

• April 2008 Capital Comments Podcast (wmv format)
• April 2008 Capital Comments Podcast (mp3 format)

Metropolitan Fragmentation & Economic Competitiveness

Here is an interesting "working paper" from the Carnegie Mellon Center for Economic Development. It takes a look at the correlation between metropolitan fragmentation (how many units of government there are in a region) and economic competitiveness (average wages). Guess what. More units of government typically means a region is less competitive. Guess what else. It looks like the Midwest has regions that are more fragmented then other parts of the U.S. There is no date on the working paper but it seems to be a bit old (uses data from 1972-2000). Nice little analytical model, though.

Indiana's Knowledge Corridor

Here's a pretty remarkable statistic - nearly half of Indiana's well-educated population lives along a corridor that stretches across eight counties anchored by Tippecanoe County to the north and Monroe County to the south. This is the subject of a PCRD publication called Indiana's Knowledge Corridor (available here) written by Purdue Economist Brigitte Waldorf. The report has some specific recommendations for leveraging this asset:

The growth and increasing concentration of the highly educated population in the knowledge corridor provides an opportunity for unprecedented economic growth and a boost to Indiana’s ability to compete in the global knowledge economy. To facilitate further growth, the report recommends assigning special status to the knowledge corridor as a coherent regional entity, aggressive marketing of the corridor’s locational advantages, and support for improved transportation infrastructure.

OK, what now? How do leaders in Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Monroe, and Tippecanoe Counties come together to figure out how to leverage this asset? How can we get the "Indiana Knowledge Corridor" to become the next Research Triangle or Silicon Valley?

Great Ideas for Local Governement Leaders

Many local officials recognize that their community does not exist in an small economic bubble and but rather is tied to a much larger regional economy. The challenge comes in figuring out how to work across city, county, and sometimes state lines to collaboratively address economic and quality-of-life challenges (and to take advantage of economic opportunities). The Alliance for Regional Stewardship and the National League of Cities have a very practical report called Guide to Successful Local Government Collaboration in America's Regions (download here). It has lots of examples of success stories and tools for local and regional leaders.

The guide provides sets of tools that are categorized as (1) Easier Options and (2) Harder Options. Here are examples of what you will find in each:

Easier Options

• Informal Cooperation
• Interlocal Service Contracts
• Joint Powers Agreements
• Extraterritorial Powers
• Councils of Governments
• Federally Encouraged Single-Purpose Regional Bodies
• State Planning and Development Districts
• Contracting
• Regional Purchasing Agreements

Harder Options

• Local Special Districts
• Transfer of Functions
• Annexation
• Special Districts and Authorities
• Metro Multipurpose Districts
• Reformed Urban County
• Regional Asset Districts
• Merger/Consolidation