Benedict S. Jimenez

Does Local Government Fragmentation Reduce Local Spending

This study uses multiple measures of fragmentation and decentralization to assess the effects of these conditions on total local spending in 126 metropolitan regions and 538 counties in the same regions in 2002. The measures are derived from a recognized scheme that distinguishes among total, horizontal, and vertical dimensions of these conditions, and the models control for other causes of total local spending, including sprawl and interlocal spending. The study finds support for the claim that total spending by local governments is higher in regions and counties with more single purpose governments (vertical fragmentation), but also jurisdictions where a greater percentage of spending is done by counties (centralization). Findings also vary by unit of analysis and type of special purpose government, which suggests that the effects of governing structure are not as straightforward as theory suggests.

Does Performance Management Affect Job Turnover Intention in the Federal Government

From a reform strategy that promises to restore citizen confidence in government, to a hydra-headed monster that has produced unintended negative consequences, performance management has indeed been a controversial topic in the field of public administration. This study examines how performance-based management practices shape organizational behavior, specifically employee job turnover intention. Using data from the 2005 Merit Principles Survey, the authors find that performance-based reward system and performance-supporting supervision are associated with a decrease in the likelihood that federal employees will leave their agencies. The implications of the findings are discussed in the study.

Fiscal Stress and the Allocation of Expenditure Responsibilities between State and Local Governments: An Exploratory Study

This article examines the intergovernmental dimension of state fiscal stress. Using data from 1980-2005 and covering 47 U.S. states, the study answers two questions. First, does fiscal stress experienced at the state level reduce state governments’ expenditure responsibilities vis-a-vis the local public sector? Second, what functional responsibilities are implicitly devolved to local governments or centralized at the state level as a consequence of declining state fiscal condition? Three general frameworks are used to explain how the fiscal condition of states can affect state-local fiscal relations – fiscal federalism, the politics or interest group perspective, and the organizational model of fiscal slack.

Is Government Consolidation the Answer

The Great Recession that started in late 2007 is threatening to alter the local government landscape in the United States. With the steep decline in property and sales taxes, a number of state governments are now reviewing how their local government systems can be restructured to improve service delivery. Scholars from two camps—the advocacy of regional versus multiple centers of local government—have proposed contrasting visions of how the local public sector should be organized. The century-old debate between regionalists and localists has generated a considerable body of theoretical and empirical literature from which state governments can draw as they consider the most effective way of organizing their local governments. This essay discusses the different arguments for local government fragmentation versus consolidation, reviews the empirical evidence, and identifies future areas of research. It focuses on the impacts of the local public sector structure on service delivery, social class and racial segregation, and urban sprawl.

What Factors Affect Management Quality?: State Infrastructure Management and the Government Performance Project

Whether the US

The Fiscal Performance of Overlapping Local Governments

131 billion set aside for infrastructure projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 can make a lasting contribution to improving the nation’s public infrastructure will depend, in part, on the quality of infrastructure management systems and practices in the states. In this article, we examine the factors that influence how well state governments plan for and manage public infrastructure using results from the 2005 and 2008 Government Performance Project. The pooled Tobit regression analysis shows that capital management quality is affected by political variables such as divided legislatures and legislative term limits, fiscal institutions including tax and expenditure limits, and environmental demand factors, specifically the extent of urbanization.

Smart Cuts?: Strategic Planning, Performance Management and Budget Cutting in U.S. Cities During the Great Recession

Research on the fiscal consequences of multilevel governance has largely focused on the interaction between federal and state governments. Yet, the federal system in the United States is considerably more complex and includes the vertical layering of governments at the local level. This research examines the relationship between the overlapping system of local governments and fiscal discipline in the public sector. It focuses on both the static and dynamic aspects of fiscal performance, specifically own-source revenues and debt. Using different measures of the vertical structure of the local governance system, and controlling for the effects of other factors including measures of horizontal competition, the empirical analysis finds that the overlaying of local governments creates a bias for a bigger public sector, but much of the bias can be traced to a specific type of government.

Externalities in the Fragmented Metropolis Local Institutional Choices and the Efficiency–Equity Trade-Off

Periods of fiscal decline present an opportunity for city officials to transform their local government into a leaner and more effective organization by targeting cuts to non-essential programs and services. However, the political nature of the fiscal retrenchment process means that such opportunity is often squandered. Could the application of strategic planning and performance management in cutback management lead to a more focused and targeted budget cutting? Advocates of rational management believe that information gathering, analysis and use in decision-making can help local governments adapt to a fiscal crisis by facilitating targeted cuts in expenditures that preserve administrative capacity, and avoiding across-the-board cuts that trim both the organizations muscle and fat. The results of this research show that rational analytic techniques do matter in budget cutting.

Organizational Strategy and the Outcomes of Fiscal Retrenchment in Major Cities in the United States

A highly fragmented system of local governance represents a market-like arrangement in which competition among service providers benefits citizen-consumers by improving the efficiency of local public service delivery. Yet, the local public market can also fail, producing negative outcomes for some communities and their residents. Because fragmentation can have differential impacts on the welfare of different groups of citizens—benefiting others and harming some—the organization of the local public sector raises important equity questions. This research focuses on the negative outcomes or externalities generated by local government fragmentation, specifically urban sprawl and spatial economic segregation. The results of the empirical analysis suggest that the design of the local public sector structure involves a trade-off between efficiency and equity.

Fiscal Institutional Externalities: The Negative Effects of Local Tax and Expenditure Limits on Municipal Budgetary Solvency: The Negative Effects of Local Tax and Expenditure Limits on Municipal Budgetary Solvency

ABSTRACT This study examines if organizational strategy—specifically strategy formulation and strategic stance—influences the outcomes of fiscal retrenchment in city governments. Fiscal retrenchment is defined here as the process of responding to a budget crisis. Analysis of data from a 2015 national survey of municipalities in the United States with a population of 50,000 or more indicates that a rational planning process is associated with fiscal recovery, whereas a defender strategy stance, which emphasizes organizational stability and efficiency, correlates with continuing fiscal difficulties. Examining the complex interactions between strategy formulation, strategic stance, and environmental turbulence, the empirical analysis indicates that a rational planning process that results in a defending stance is associated with slower fiscal recovery, but there is limited evidence that the relationship between strategy and fiscal recovery is dependent on external economic conditions.