Government Finance Review articles from February 1997

Government Finance Review archives from February 1997

Benchmarking to become best in class: guiding principles in Gresham, Oregon.
February 1, 1997... Benchmarks make cause-and-effect relationships visible by aligning goals with the external environment, employees with key objectives, and measurement activities with organizational goals. There is a perception that government is not working...

Meeting future challenges: business planning in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
February 1, 1997... The six-phase framework of its business plan enables the city to combine its strategic planning and budgeting processes. How can a small city which has experienced boom and bust cycles in the past maintain economic stability in the tumultuous...

Working together for understanding: a coalition discusses retirement issues in California.
February 1, 1997... A coalition of public agencies and state retirement system staff formed by the City of Long Beach, California, has improved the timeliness and quality of their communications and identified methods to minimize major rate fluctuations. Each...

Restructuring of the electric utilities industry: an overview for government finance officials.
February 1, 1997... The emergence of a competitive and less regulated electric power generation and delivery system will raise an array of finance issues for state and local governments. Three articles comprise this briefing on the fundamental changes occurring...

Business license reforms in Champaign, Illinois.
February 1, 1997... When city officials asked themselves "Is the city providing the right services to the right people for the right reasons?" the resulting overhaul of business license procedures produced benefits for the public, businesses, and the city....

Fair Labor Standards Act: 1996 salary basis test update. (includes related article on the Government Finance Officers Assn.'s activities related to the act)
February 1, 1997... To avoid violating FLSA overtime pay requirements, state and local governments should be aware of current salary basis test requirements and pending litigation. Since the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was extended to state and local...

The Consumer Price Index, the deficit, and politics. (includes related article on revising the CPI)
February 1, 1997... Editor's note: The following discussion of the consumer price index was published by The Urban Institute in its March 1995 issue of Policy Bites. The controversies surrounding the calculation and uses of the index remain the same two years later....

Using the Internet to assist in debt management.
February 1, 1997... In 1996, the Government Finance Officers Association and the MBIA Insurance Corporation released the results of a survey showing strong interest among state and local finance officers in the use of the Internet and other on-line technologies to...

The U.S.-Mexican Border region: binational solutions to environmental problems.
February 1, 1997... Editor's note: The following article is adapted from a July 1996 report of the U.S. General Accounting Office, International Environment: Environmental Infrastructure Needs in the U.S.-Mexican Border Region Remain Unmet (GAO/RCED-96-179). The...

IRS pursues state and local government FICA payments. (Federal Insurance Contributions Act)
February 1, 1997... The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has launched a nationwide communications and education initiative to remind employers of their obligations to withhold Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes, which include Social Security and Medicare...

Implementing pension simplification 1996.
February 1, 1997... On August 20, 1996, President Clinton signed H.R. 3448, the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-188), marking a historic moment for public pension simplification. Numerous provisions in that bill affect nearly every type of state...

RAPID success: Montgomery County reengineers costly procurement system. (Reengineered Automated Procurement Information Delivery)
February 1, 1997... When a local government must cut operating expenses, it often spells trouble for services, That was the problem the Montgomery County, Maryland, office of procurement faced when its administrative staff was eliminated to counter rising costs...

Financial forecast model: council members learn by doing.
February 1, 1997... Just over five miles long and two miles wide, Mercer Island, Washington, is an island community of about 21,000 people situated in Lake Washington, east of the City of Seattle and west of the City of Bellevue. Settlement on the island was slow in...

Mastering telecommunications: Milpitas develops a master plan. (California)(includes related article on the finance office's perspective of the plan)
February 1, 1997... On November 7, 1995, the city council of the City of Milpitas, California (population 62,000), adopted a long-range telecommunications master plan. It was the result of a year-long effort on the part of the city council, the city's...

The American City: What Works, What Doesn't.
February 1, 1997... Reviewed by Ben Hayllar, director of finance, City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Most of us in government are so weighted in detail, we are lucky if we can plan a week ahead. Alexander Garvin is different. He gets to think in epic sweeps of...

Team Effectiveness and Decision Making in Organizations.
February 1, 1997... Reviewed by Leslie A. Doak, budget director, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Nevada. Team Effectiveness and Decision Making in Organizations is the seventh publication in a series by the Society for Industrial and Organizational...

The Worst Tax? A History of the Property Tax in America.
February 1, 1997... Reviewed by Beth Walter Honadle, professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. The Worst Tax? is an impressive account of property taxation in the United States. Glenn W. Fisher, professor emeritus at Wichita State...