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The first thing I thought about Detroit is that the state’s appointment of a receiver demonstrated the Republican governor’s profound indifference to the democratic process of a Democratic city, not to mention a white governor’s profound indifference to a black city. This may be true, but it’s also true that Detroit’s finances are such a [...]
Archive for the ‘Public management’ Category
June 13th, 2013
Harold Pollack offers an acute analysis of the effect of deinstitutionalization in his latest Washington Post piece. Many commentators have pronounced the policy a blanket success or a complete failure, but as Harold points out, it’s more complex than that: On the whole, deinstitutionalization improved the lives of millions of Americans living with intellectual and [...]
May 20th, 2013
Tomorrow, Los Angeles voters go to the polls to elect a new Mayor. (At least a few of them, anyway: current estimates predict onyl 25% turnout, about which more later). In September, New Yorkers will do the same. And depending upon the way things turn out, political and cultural reporters could have a field day. [...]
April 14th, 2013
Category: Public management, Spirituality and Religion
Eight ideas for reforming the Vatican.
January 4th, 2013
Category: 501(c)(3), charity, Education policy, High-stakes school testing, NonProfits, Philanthropy, Public management, Secrecy in government
There’s an old joke about a man who asks a woman to sleep with him for $1 million. She agrees, whereupon he asks her to sleep with him for $1. “What kind of a girl do you think I am?” asks the woman indignantly. “We’ve settled that,” replies the man, “We’re just arguing about the [...]
October 9th, 2012
Here’s a new wrinkle in the ever-popular saga “Taxation of the Tax Exempt”: members of the Scranton City Council threaten to withhold zoning changes from owners of tax-exempt property unless they make “voluntary” PILOTS (Payments In Lieu Of Taxation). I’m certainly open to the notion that non-charitable tax-exempt organizations should have to pay property taxes, [...]
October 6th, 2012
Government needs to have mandatory discipline for high-ranking officials who act like jerks, and a mandatory snitch rule for lower-level employees who pretend they didn’t see it. If Massachusetts had such a policy, we might not be in the mess we now face about faked test results at the state lab. Have you ever heard [...]
October 1st, 2012
Category: Public management
The Rockefeller Institute has reported some largely encouraging data on states’ fiscal health. Average tax receipts have risen for the tenth straight quarter following the bloodshed of The Great Recession. The picture would have been much brighter if not for the outsized influence of California, which saw 2012 quarter 2 estimated tax receipts fall by [...]