Cities

Gambling for Economic Development is High Risk

April 13, 2016 Cities

Gambling is intrinsically a zero-sum game. Though there may be locally, in the aggregate, there’s no economic multiplier. So it’s never made sense to me as a viable strategy for economic development. At best, it’s a break-even. And, the odds are that, it simply transfers money from one region to another, mostly from poor to […]

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Debt Markers for Selected Upstate NYS Cities

January 19, 2015 Budget

Continuing the discussion regarding the City of Albany, one of the participants was concerned about debt and the potential for taking on excess amounts. That’s always a legitimate concern. So I ran some comparisons. In the first, for selected cities in New York, you’ll see a really good indicator. That is debt service (principle and interest) as […]

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Well, What Do They Spend Their (& Your & My) Tax Dollars On?

January 17, 2015 Budget

 Triggered by some upstate mayors, there’s an interesting debate emerging locally in the City of Albany. And, it’s pertinent to many more cities than Albany. It started at a SCAA Forum on inequality (which was quite good, and to which I’ll return, but which is not the main subject of this post). Kathy Sheehan, Mayor of […]

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Clever Examples of an Indirect Measure

February 5, 2014 Analysis

Here are some terrific examples of measuring and visualizing without interfering with existing patterns or operations and without spending much time – and I suspect – without spending any money. Though I’m bicycle-biased, I’m not a transportation policy guy or an urban planner. Yet I’ve always admired those who figure out how to measure any […]

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Quick Count of New York’s Muni’s in Fiscal Distress

February 5, 2013 Cities

Based on the Governor’s tentative list, I just did a quick count of New York’s municipalities listed as being fiscally distressed and those not. Fiscally distressed: 437 Not fiscally distressed: 1,169 No data in the file (which I’ll check): 2 Total: 1,606 Percentage fiscally distressed: 27.2% Note, there are no school districts in this list. […]

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NY Counties Sharing Sales Tax Revenue With Cities & Towns

December 3, 2012 Cities

There’s a little Albany debate going on on Twitter right now about which counties share more of their sales tax revenue with local cities, towns and villages. It’s part of the lead in to what’s likely to be a contentious meeting of the Albany County Legislature. Simultaneously, a couple members of the City of Albany’s […]

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Friday Afternoon Rant Supplement

November 30, 2012 CAFR

At the risk of prolonging the agony – for myself and readers of my most recent Friday afternoon rant, here are a couple of extras to further the point that counties charging cities, towns and villages, for Community College tuition is a political dodge, but likely one that will lead to even higher taxes. The […]

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Throwing Good Money After Bad … Over and Over and Over

October 16, 2012 Bond Rating

Harrisburg, PA is flat broke and the problem is related to its being legally, financially tied to a public authority, the Harrisburg Authority Resource Recovery Facility, which financed and built a waste incinerator. But this is awful. Bond Girl (@munilass on Twitter) lays out the detail at “Self-Evident”. This is a longish piece, but at […]

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Taxes Are Not the Only Factor in Migration

May 8, 2012 Business

We hear a lot in New York about how taxes cause people to emigrate, either directly or indirectly because businesses leave. This is particularly a concern when younger people leave. So it’s interesting to see that New Hampshire, a notoriously low tax state (neither a sales nor an income tax), is also suffering from an […]

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The Tail of the Recession

April 6, 2012 Cities

Even though the most recent “Great Recession” is officially over and even though it appears we are slowly emerging from its aftermath, governmental finances have not escaped its gravitational pull. The recession was bad enough. Many communities, which were economically strapped to begin with, started with a small buffer and are just now running out […]

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