Death and Taxes

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Consulting with Citizens

October 23, 2017 / Whitney Afonso / 0 Comments

Consultation is a different beast altogether than information sharing. Whereas information sharing is a one way relationship, consultation creates a two way relationship based on citizen feedback. It relies on a fundamental assumption by local leaders that citizen feedback is beneficial to the budget process and decision making (often with regard to expenditures or even tax rate setting). This method provides for and encourages citizen input while still allowing local leaders to define the agenda. The key is that practitioners and elected officials solicit input a set of issues and questions that they create and control.

Budgeting in Local Government: Registration now open

September 26, 2017 / Whitney Afonso / 0 Comments

Budgeting in Local Government
October 31^st – November 3^rd, 2017, School of Government

This four-day course covers the legal and management framework of budget preparation and enactment in North Carolina local government. Participants will discuss the numerous processes and techniques used to produce an annual operating budget and capital budget.

Engaging our future: A guide to going into the classroom

September 25, 2017 / Whitney Afonso / 0 Comments

In the last three blogs we have been talking about citizen engagement (see here, here, and here). One of the areas that is most frustrating for governments is often their attempts to engage citizens are not particularly successful. Citizens may not have time or easy access to the events and resources, but there are ways around that. What happens when it is simply that citizens DO NOT WANT to engage? That is often the reality. Governments spend precious time and resources developing great opportunities but no one (or few) takes advantage of them. This is an aspect of citizen engagement I have been personally interested in and one that I believe we can address by starting ‘em young.

Municipalities and the Great Recession

September 18, 2017 / Cary Christian / 0 Comments

Much has been written about the impact of the Great Recession on state governments and larger cities, but we have yet to see deep analysis on how smaller municipalities weathered the recession. To get the ball rolling my students and I have analyzed the impact of the recession on smaller cities in Georgia and Florida and are currently adding an additional eleven states to the analysis. To begin we selected two states that have somewhat different revenue structures:

State Collection of County Financial Data Sources

September 5, 2017 / Zach Mohr / 0 Comments

By Zach Mohr and Madison Esterle

One of the fundamental problems for local government public budget and finance research in the United States is the availability of audited financial data in a format that is easy to collect and analyze. This is a problem for both researchers that are trying to assemble large data sets and for practitioners that live in states that do not have centralized collection of this data. It is also a problem for cross state data collection, which is quite common for local jurisdictions that live on the borders of states. Undoubtedly, there is much duplication of effort and a great need for local government financial information that is comparable for research and practice.

The classics: Traditional modes of information sharing

August 30, 2017 / Whitney Afonso / 0 Comments

Consider these tactics and efforts the Moby Dick, Wuthering Heights, and Alice in Wonderland of sharing budget information. Except no one makes you read (or watch) these in high school.

The first step in citizen engagement: Information Sharing

August 28, 2017 / Whitney Afonso / 0 Comments

The first step, in my opinion, in productive citizen engagement is providing information and helping educate citizens about government and budgeting. This is because government is just a black box to most people. They sort of understand some of the most basic functions of government, but may not have any idea of which level of government does it. Who pays for libraries? Roads? Do I have police and a sheriff? What about fire service? What does the state even do? These are not unrealistic questions. Continue reading

Running a Successful PUV Auditing Program

August 21, 2017 / Jeremy Akins / 0 Comments

“Don’t mess with the farmers!” I’ve heard these words of wisdom a few times in my career, always from well-meaning individuals who had come out on the wrong side of a PUV auditing program. They had come to the conclusion that it wasn’t politically feasible to conduct stringent audits of their farms in the present use program, and that the county was better off letting everyone but the most egregious non-qualifiers go through.

Transparency with your Business Personal Property Audit Program

August 18, 2017 / Kirk Boone / 0 Comments

Possibly the most well-known method of delivering the mission of the School of Government is through teaching. But to me personally, another very important delivery method is through advising. Last year, 45 faculty and other professionals at the School of Government reported 13,105 advising events. I hope my individual advising can become an increasingly valuable resource for you. I believe I can be more valuable to everyone when you individually ask me to be involved. A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to provide advice on a presentation. The Randolph County commissioners requested the assessor’s office to do something that makes government better in my opinion. The request was to be more transparent and informative for their taxpayers, but more specifically regarding the county’s business personal property (BPP) tax audit program. The assessor’s office was asked to put together a presentation on their program and they asked for my ideas. I want to share some of those ideas so you will hopefully share your thoughts in the comments section and we can grow this resource for everyone’s use. Maybe this post can be a tool for collaboration. Continue reading

Autonomous Vehicles are coming, is your city ready?

August 3, 2017 / Benjamin Y. Clark / 0 Comments

Do you want your bonds to kill your city’s bond ratings?

Do you want your bonds to go into default?

Do you want to be responsible for a backlash against the mayor/council for not planning for a future you should have known was coming?

Do you want your city to become even more clogged with traffic, but this time the cars are empty and slowing everyone down?

Ignoring autonomous vehicles (AVs) may be possible today, but just know, they are coming soon–and by soon I mean this year (2017). While AVs may not yet be mainstream transportation today, do not count on it just being something your grandkids use. Cities have to start planning now, or their leaders will be saying YES (begrudgingly) to those questions above. A new report out from the folks at the Sustainable Cities Initiative at the University of Oregon is looking to help you deal with these questions. You can read our report here.