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Local Public Services (local + public_services)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	60%

Selected Abstracts

Public Education Financing Trends and the Gray Peril Hypothesis

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2009
DAYTON M. LAMBERT
ABSTRACT The effects of migrating seniors on the provision of local public services in rural communities is growing in importance because of the large number of retiring baby boomers and the increasing rate at which these retirees are locating outside traditional retirement destinations. Some communities are optimistic about attracting and retaining retirees as an economic development strategy, but others are concerned that inmigrating seniors may be reluctant to support local public services, such as education, bringing with them "Gray Peril." This article attempts to clarify questions regarding the Gray Peril hypothesis and local ability and willingness to fund education in Tennessee, an increasingly popular retirement destination. To this end, county per pupil education expenditure growth is explained by growth trends in local property tax assessment and sales tax revenue, and migration patterns of the retirement-aged population from 1962 to 2002. [source]

Effects of Outsourcing on Performance Measurement and Reporting: The Experience of Italian Local Governments

PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 1 2008
GIUSEPPE GROSSI
Much has changed over the past few years regarding the financial and nonfinancial information Italian Local Governments (LGs) publish even as a consequence of the process of externalization of local public services. This paper is aimed at describing the causes and the effects of the administrative reform process that interested Italian LGs and at identifying the possible different dimensions of LG performance. In particular, this paper distinguishes among performance achieved by LGs strictu sensu (general performance), performance attained by the municipal group (group performance), and performance achieved by all other producers of local public services (global performance). The group and global dimensions of performance are briefly discussed, as well as the tools used to measure them. [source]

Unconditional Intergovernmental Transfers to Finance Decentralization in Albania

PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 2 2007
LARRY SCHROEDER
The Government of Albania embarked on a comprehensive program to decentralize decision-making powers with the passage of the Law on Organization and Functioning of Local Governments in 2000. A centerpiece of the policies undertaken to implement that legislation was an unconditional transfer program which, using a formula-based allocation mechanism, transferred substantial financial resources to the local communes and municipalities beginning in 2002. This paper describes that system and its evolution. It illustrates how the transfer was designed to take into account the transition from a centralized system to a decentralized arrangement for provision of local public services and how the formula has undergone some "fine-tuning" while retaining its simplicity. Analysis of the outcomes reveals how it has achieved its mandated objective of equalizing resources across local governments; however, it does so while running the risk of substantially discouraging local governments from mobilizing resources of their own. [source]

Organization, Management and Delegation in the French Water Industry

ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2001
Jihad C. Elnaboulsi
The water industry is largely a natural monopoly. Water distribution and sewerage services are characterized by networks and its natural monopoly derives from the established local networks of drinking water and sewers: they are capital intensive with sunk costs and increasing returns to scale. In France, local communities have a local requirement of providing public services under optimum conditions in terms of techniques and cost-effectiveness, and subject to respect different kind of standards in terms of water quality and level of services. They are responsible for producing and distributing drinking water, and collecting and treating wastewater. Furthermore, the French water utilities are required to be financially self-sufficient. Rate-setting varies across regions and local territories due to a variety of organizational features of services and availability of water resources. The management of these local public services can be public or private: local governments have the right, by the constitution, to delegate water service management to private companies which operate under the oversight of local municipal authorities. Today, nearly 80 per cent of the French population receive private distributed water. Different reasons are responsible for the poor performance and low productivity of most French public water utilities: technical and operational, commercial and financial, human and institutional, and environmental. Thus, many water public utilities have looked for alternative ways to provide water and sanitation services more efficiently, to improve both operational and investment efficiency, and to attract private finance. The purpose of this paper is to present the French organizational system of providing drinking water services, and collecting and treating wastewater services: legal aspects, contracts of delegation, and competition. [source]