Managing the Fiscal Metropolis: The Financial Policies, Practices, and Health of Suburban Municipalities

321 Pages·2011·2.355 MB·English

by  Rebecca M. Hendrick

Managing the Fiscal Metropolis
Selected Titles in the American Governance and Public Policy Series
Series Editors: Gerard W. Boychuk, Karen Mossberger, and Mark C. Rom
Branching Out, Digging In: Environmental Advocacy and Agenda Setting
Sarah Pralle
City-County Consolidation: Promises Made, Promises Kept?
Suzanne M. Leland and Kurt Thurmaier, Editors
Collaborative Public Management: New Strategies for Local Governments
Robert Agranoff and Michael McGuire
The Congressional Budget Office: Honest Numbers, Power, and Policymaking
Philip G. Joyce
Controlling Technocracy: Citizen Rationality and the NIMBY Syndrome
Gregory E. McAvoy
Custodians of Place: Governing the Growth and Development of Cities
Paul G. Lewis and Max Neiman
The Education Mayor: Improving America’s Schools
Kenneth K. Wong, Francis X. Shen, Dorothea Anagnostopoulos, and Stacey Rutledge
From Revenue Sharing to Deficit Sharing: General Revenue Sharing and the Cities
Bruce A. Wallin
Healthy Voices, Unhealthy Silence: Advocacy and Health Policy for the Poor
Colleen M. Grogan and Michael K. Gusmano
Investing in the Disadvantaged: Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Social Policies
David L. Weimer and Aidan R. Vining, Editors
Lessons of Disaster: Policy Change after Catastrophic Events
Thomas Birkland
Medical Governance: Values, Expertise, and Interests in Organ Transplantation
David L. Weimer
Metropolitan Governance: Conflict, Competition, and Cooperation
Richard C. Feiock, Editor
National Health Insurance in the United States and Canada: Race, Territory, and the Roots of Difference
Gerard W. Boychuk
Out and Running: Gay and Lesbian Candidates, Elections, and Policy Representation
Donald P. Haider-Markel
The Politics of Ideas and the Spread of Enterprise Zones
Karen Mossberger
The Politics of Unfunded Mandates: Whither Federalism?
Paul L. Posner
Scandalous Politics: Child Welfare Policy in the States
Juliet F. Gainsborough
Ten Thousand Democracies: Politics and Public Opinion in America’s School Districts
Michael B. Berkman and Eric Plutzer
Terra Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban Strategies
Ann O’M. Bowman and Michael A. Pagano
Managing the Fiscal Metropolis
The Financial Policies, Practices, and Health
of Suburban Municipalities
Rebecca M. Hendrick
Georgetown University Press/Washington, DC
Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C. www.press.georgetown.edu
© 2011 by Georgetown University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this
book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hendrick, Rebecca Martin.
Managing the fiscal metropolis : the financial policies, practices, and health of
suburban municipalities / Rebecca M. Hendrick.
p. cm.—(American governance and public policy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58901-776-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Local finance—Illinois—Chicago Metropolitan Area—Case studies. 2. Local
government—Economic aspects. 3. County services—Economic aspects.
4. Municipal services—Economic aspects. I. Title.
HJ9227.H46 2011
352.4(cid:2)2169097731—dc22 2011006194
(cid:2)(cid:3) This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements
of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed
Library Materials.
15 14 13 12 11 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
First printing
Printed in the United States of America
To Martin and local government officials everywhere
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xiii
List of Acronyms xvii
1 Introduction 1
2 Local Government Financial Condition and Fiscal Stress 18
3 Financial Decision Making in Municipal Government 51
4 Suburban Fiscal Governance 81
5 Fiscal Threats and Opportunities: What Creates Fiscal Stress
and Munificence 112
6 Financial Problem Solving: Tools for Managing Threats
and Opportunities 155
7 Financial Problem Solving: Tools for Managing Financial Condition 185
8 Municipal Fiscal Health: Practice, Governance, and Policies 247
APPENDIX 1: Operationalization of Financial Condition Measures 261
and All Other Variables
APPENDIX 2: Sampling Methodology for Interviews
of Municipal Governments, 2003 266
APPENDIX 3: Interview Questions, 2003 270
APPENDIX 4: Interview Codes, 2003 271
APPENDIX 5: News Article Codes, 2001–6 273
APPENDIX 6: Interviewed Agencies, 2009–10 275
APPENDIX 7: Grouping of Municipalities and Their Features 276
Glossary 279
References 283
Index 297
▼ vii
This page intentionally left blank
Illustrations
Tables
1.1 Lowest, Median, and Highest Values of Key Contextual Factors for
264 Suburban Municipalities in the Chicago Metropolitan Region 7
2.1 Classification and Types of Financial Condition Measures 32
3.1 Municipal Population and Government Spending for Categories
of Financial Decision Structure 61
3.2 Categories of Financial Practices and Policies 64
3.3 Options for Handling Fiscal Stress 68
3.4 Near-Term Fiscal Stress in Interviewed Municipalities, 2003 74
3.5 Statements about Fiscal Stress Sources and Strategies: Number
and Percent of Interviewed Municipalities, 2003 76
3.6 Statements about Fiscal Problems and Strategies: Number and
Percent of Municipalities with News Reports, 2001–6 77
4.1 Structural Features of Municipal Governments in the Chicago Region 85
4.2 Institutional Features of Local Governments in Illinois 86
4.3 Partisanship and Structure of Municipal Governments
in the Chicago Regionm, 2003– 7 87
4.4 Statements about Politics and Governance in the News Reports,
2001–6 89
4.5 Form of Governance in Interviewed Municipalities, 2003 91
4.6 Financial Decision Structure of Municipal Governments in the
Chicago Region, 2003 and 2009 91
4.7 Fiscal Decentralization of State-Local Governing Relationships, 2007 100
4.8 Combined Indicators of Fragmentation and Fiscal Dispersion
in the Fifty Largest Metropolitan Regions, 2002 104
5.1 Development-Growth Issues in Small and Very Small,
High-Growth Municipalities 134
5.2 Development-Growth in Moderate to Very Large,
High-Growth Municipalities 137
5.3 Average Ratio Changes in Revenues for Municipalities in First
and Last Quintiles of Population Change 138
5.4 Regression Analysis Estimating the Effects of Different Factors
on Change in Budgetary Solvency (Fiscal Stress) 147
6.1 System of Equations for Responses to Fiscal Stress and Munificence 177