Michael Thom

All of the Above How Fiscal, Political, and Workforce Traits Affect Pension Funding

Public sector pension funding varies significantly across the states, a phenomenon often linked with budget conditions, but do political factors also play a role? Utilizing data collected between 2000 and 2008, this article investigates the role of political, fiscal, and workforce characteristics as determinants of long-term pension funding, a measure with implications for fiscal sustainability and ongoing reform deliberations. Results suggest a significant relationship between pension funding and legislative partisanship, citizen ideology, public school employee coverage, and outstanding state debt. Certain other fiscal variables do not shape pension-funding levels independent of these factors, nor does executive partisanship.

The Drivers of Public Sector Pension Reform Across the U.S. States

This study analyzes the diffusion of public sector pension reforms across the American states between 1999 and 2012, a policy area notable for its fiscal implications as much as its recent political polarization. Previous enactment in other, non-contiguous states was the largest and most consistent driver of reform. Otherwise, empirical findings suggest that reform antecedents varied by reform type. Existing funding levels reduced the likelihood that states would cut benefits, change pension governance, or reduce cost of living allowances, but had no effect otherwise. Evidence for partisan legislative influence is weak, although Republican control had partial, positive effects on the enactment of pension governance reforms and increases to the retirement age. Across the board, other relevant factors such as constitutional pension protections, collective bargaining rights, and union membership density had no effect. That external contagion pressures have a more robust influence than endogenous conditions raises questions about the future efficacy of pension reform.

Lights, Camera, but No Action? Tax and Economic Development Lessons From State Motion Picture Incentive Programs

Despite mixed results, state government use of targeted economic development programs has escalated. This study evaluates the impact of motion picture incentive programs, an array of tax incentives employed by over 40 states to entice film and television productions out of California and New York, on labor and economic conditions from 1998 through 2013. Results suggest that sales and lodging tax waivers had no effect on any of four different economic indicators. Transferable tax credits had a small, sustained effect on motion picture employment levels but no effect on wages. Refundable tax credits had no employment effect and only a temporary wage effect. Neither credit affected gross state product or motion picture industry concentration. Incentive spending also had no influence. These findings demonstrate the heterogeneous impacts of different incentives offered under a single program and should inform future economic development policy design.

Underfunding Annual Pension Contributions: Examining the Factors Behind an Ongoing Fiscal Phenomenon

Inadequate contributions are one factor behind the gap between pension assets and benefit liabilities. Each year, many states fail to meet their required pension contribution while others consistently meet or exceed their required amount. This study seeks to identify the factors that shape actual pension contributions across the states. Results suggest that states with smaller long-term funding gaps are more likely to fund required contributions. Legislative professionalism and constitutional collective bargaining privileges reduce annual funding. The effect of partisan and institutional traits was sensitive to methodology. Revenue changes and balanced budget requirements had no significant effect on pension contributions. These results suggest a number of reform avenues, including constitutional, institutional, and programmatic changes of varying political feasibility.

Fade to Black? Exploring Policy Enactment and Termination Through the Rise and Fall of State Tax Incentives for the Motion Picture Industry

Policy termination has received less scholarly attention than policy diffusion, and empirical state-level studies that examine the rise and fall of the same policy are mostly absent from the literature. This study assesses the factors that led more than 45 states to enact and some to later repeal Motion Picture Incentive programs, a collection of tax incentives aimed at facilitating job creation and economic diversification. We find program enactments were driven by rising unemployment and national but not bordering state imitation. Falling unemployment and national trends drove subsequent terminations, but in many states, their impact was overwhelmed by the influence of incentive spending, which greatly reduced termination likelihood. These results not only shed light on policy enactments and terminations in general, but also inform scholarship on state tax incentives and the role of competitive factors in their creation and repeal—or lack thereof.

Local Government Sick-Leave Practices An Exploratory Study

The purpose of this study was to examine paid sick leave (PSL) practices among large municipal governments in the United States. Results of a national survey suggest that over 90% of these governments offer PSL. Few reported making any post-recession changes, and in fact, most governments continue to allow employees to rollover unused sick leave from year to year, cash out unused sick leave upon termination, and/or include unused sick leave in pension calculations despite the sometimes significant cost of such policies. Documentation is required in 70% of governments, but formal auditing of PSL occurs in less than one third of responding governments. Type of government, employee classification (e.g., public safety vs. general staff), collective bargaining, and whether the government requires public hearings for public employee benefit changes were significant factors in determining certain PSL practices.

I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Been Asked This Question Before: Bringing “Why Government?” and “Which Government?” to the Classroom

Abstract The question “Why government?” is as central to political debate as it is to public affairs education. This article outlines an approach to teaching “Why government?” and a closely related question, “Which government?” in an introductory public administration course. I offer five components that instructors can use in whole or in part. These components can be scaled according to class level and are not limited to use within the United States. Informal student feedback suggests a high degree of satisfaction with the exercise, long-term reflection on the underlying questions, and some integration with other coursework.

Compensation Benchmarking Practices in Large U.S. Local Governments: Results of a National Survey

Growing competition over human capital has reiterated the importance of strategic practices to maintaining a high-quality public sector workforce. But how often does the public sector study pay and benefits among competitive peers? This study presents the findings of a national survey of human resource professionals regarding compensation benchmarking practices. Just over half of respondents indicated they conducted a benchmarking study within the last decade. A majority said their jurisdiction only compares compensation with other public employers, with a smaller number including both public and private competitors. Salaries were the most frequent topic of concern; fringe benefits and paid leave time were less often compared. Several jurisdictions conducted benchmarking studies for purposes other than compensation; about one quarter gathered data for purely informational purposes and 9% carried out a study in anticipation of labor negotiations. A series of best practices for benchmarking studies is offered in conclusion.

Volunteerism as co-production in public service management: application to public safety in California

ABSTRACT This study analyses volunteerism in public safety as a case of ‘participative coproduction’ that has the potential to improve administrative efficiency through substitution of labour but at the cost of administrative complexity. Coordination costs relate to the interdependent character of the public service relationship and the non-excludability of public safety benefits. The analysis considers the influence of fiscal and institutional factors on volunteerism through a two-stage empirical model where the first stage involves the presence of a volunteer programme, and the second stage the relative reliance on volunteer versus paid employees among such programmes. The findings demonstrate distinct differences across programme types in the factors associated with volunteerism in public safety. Volunteerism in policing appears more common in smaller cities with higher property crime rates and a more politically conservative population, while volunteerism in firefighting is associated with scale, fiscal capacity and organizational form.

A divided branch: Legislative chambers and the varied effects of party strength on policy outcomes in the American states

State legislatures have received considerable attention as drivers of policy outcomes, but research designs typically paint this branch of government with broad strokes. Studies that investigate the influence of party control or party strength on public policy often fail to conceptualize the upper and lower legislative chambers as unique bodies. But policy enactments at the state level depend on two chambers that are not carbon copies of one another. Using pension funding, health care and immigration reform as illustrations, this study demonstrates that altering models to include party measurements for both chambers can lead to substantively different conclusions about the effect of partisanship on policy outcomes. Further differences arise when binary measures of majority control are used instead of continuous measures of party strength. If accurate inferences are to be drawn from empirical models, these findings suggest scholars must conceptualize legislative measurement with due care.