State & Local Government Law Prof Blog

Local Governments and the Global Environment

Professor Victor Flatt has an excellent new article, "Act Locally, Affect Globally:  How the Structure of Local Government Makes it the Best Arena for Engagement and Work with the Private Sector to Control Environmental Harms."  He argues that more attention needs to be given to the role of local governments in addressing large-scale environmental harms, not only because of substantial local activity relating to climate change, but also because of local governments' capacity to develop social norms that can be internalized by decision makers situated locally yet responsible for activities of private corporations that operate well beyond local boundaries.

Sovereigns and Servants: Yale Symposium

The Yale Law Journal has an excellent symposium that considers the interplay of local government law and the separation of powers.  Professor Heather Gerken's overview essay "Of Sovereigns and Servants" is available from SSRN or at 115 Yale L. J. 2633 (2006).  The essay highlights a common issue (correcting imbalance of power between government branches), through differing lenses.  At the national level in recent days scholars have often focused on how to tame the overly energetic national executive, while at the local level some have argued for stronger local executives as a means to strengthen weak cities. 

Other essays on particular interest that are included in the symposium include Richard Schragger's "Can Strong Mayors Empower Weak Cities?  On the Power of Local Executives in a Federal System," 115 Yale L.J. 2542 (2006) and David Barron's Why (and When) Cities Have a Stake in Enforcing the Constitution, 115 Yale L.J. 2218 (2006)

Kelo and More on Takings from Vermont Law School

The Vermont Journal of Environmental Law has a great new symposium on Kelo and Takings Jurisprudence, available from their website.  Richard Brooks' piece is particularly interesting since he knows New London and brings local knowledge to bear in thinking about Kelo and its implications.  Other thoughtful pieces are by John Echeverria ("The Triumph of Justice Stevens and the Principal of Generality"); Marc Mihaly ("public-private redevelopment partnerships post Kelo); and Kinvin Wroth ("Lingle and Kelo:  The Accidental Tourist in Canada and NAFTA-Land").

Empowerment Zones?

For those interested in different approaches to assisting economically distressed areas, a new University of Illinois student note is worth reading.  Jennifer Forbes, "Using Economic Development Programs as Tools for Urban Revitalization:  A Comparison of Empowerment Zones and New Markets Tax Credits," 2006 U. Ill. L. Rev. 177 (2006).  Here's the author's summary:

"This note examines the Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) and the New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) and their reliance on tax incentives to revitalize economically distressed, low-income areas.  After examining the history, purpose, program requirements, and projects resulting from the two market-based initiatives, the author concludes that the current tax incentives primarily benefit private interests.  While the goal of both programs is to reduce poverty in low-income areas through economic growth, the programs are built on two distinct theoretical frameworks.  The EZ/EC program is built on a "place-based people" policy that focuses on building the community as a method to help the local residents.  The NMTC program, in contrast, adopts a "pure place strategy."  This policy focuses on a specific geographical area rather than the economic needs of the area's residents.  Ultimately, these programs fall short of economic revitalization goals because they do not effectively promote sustainable social change.  Finally, the note proposes that the tax-incentive programs should shift their focus from place-based restrictions to the development of human capital within the inner-city residents.  This direct investment of resources, which would include training programs, counseling services, and more direct residential involvement on project advisory boards, would ultimately create solid social structures within economically depressed areas and support the goal of the economic initiatives in present and future years."

Ethics in State Government

Paula Franzese and Daniel O'Hern, Sr. have been serving as senior ethics counsel in New Jersey.  They've just published an article on ethics reform of state government there:  "Restoring the Public Trust:  An Agenda for Ethics Reform of State Government and a Proposed Model for New Jersey," 57 Rut. U. L. Rev. 1175 (2005).  Their recommendations include the following:

1.  Creation of a new, independent enforcement agency ("state ethics commission") that among other things would conduct ethics audits, perform ethics training, and coordinate with other agencies having responsibilities for fighting fraud, waste and ethical misconduct

2.  Enact a uniform ethics code applicable to all state employees, with provisions requiring public disclosure of personal financial interests of public offiials and prohibiting contingent fees for influencing legislation.

3.  Implement a plain language ethics guide.

4.  Implement a business ethics guide that is binding on third parties that do business with the state.

5.  Provide leadership form the top.

6.  Close the revolving door by adopting rigorous post-employment restrictions.

7.  Strengthen anti-nepotism laws.

8.  Impose ethics laws on administration transition teams.

9.  Ensure transparency and promote integrity in the procurement process.

10.  Adopt a zero-tolerance policy on gifts.

11.  Enact a strengthened local government ethics law.

12.  Enact a uniform law to ban pay to play at the county and municipal levels of government.

13.  Ban various forms of dual-office holding.

14.  Merge ethics committees.

15.  Cross-index campaign contribution records.

16.  Amend the debt limitation clause of the state constitution to limit authority debt.

17.  Limit opportunities for abuse of state pension system.

Congratulations to Professor Franzese of Seton Hall and Justice O'Hern for this impressive work. 

Other states should learn from New Jersey's experience.

School District Consolidation

On the theme of educational change... Nora Gordon and Brian Knight have a paper available from the National Bureau of Economic Research on "The Causes of Political Integration:  An Application to School Districts."  Their abstract reads:

"This paper examines the forces behind political integration through the lens of school district consolidations, which reduced the number of school districts in the United States from around 130,000 in 1930 to under 15,000 at present. Despite this large observed decline, many districts resisted consolidation before ultimately merging and others never merged, choosing to remain at enrollment levels that nearly any education cost function would deem inefficiently small. Why do some districts voluntarily integrate while others remain small, and how do those districts that do merge choose with which of their neighbors to do so? In addressing these questions, we empirically examine the role of potential economies and diseconomies of scale, heterogeneity between merger partners, and the role of state governments. We first develop a simulation-based estimator that is rooted in the economics of matching and thus accounts for three important features of typical merger protocol: two-sided decision making, multiple potential partners, and spatial interdependence. We then apply this methodology to a wave of school district mergers in the state of Iowa during the 1990s. Our results highlight the importance of economies of scale, diseconomies of scale, state financial incentives for consolidation, and a variety of heterogeneity measures."

Good resource on TIF

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has a good short article on Tax Increment Financing (TIF) by Richard Dye and David Merriam.  The conclude as follows:

"Tax increment financing is an alluring tool. TIF districts grow much faster than other areas in their host municipalities. TIF boosters or naive analysts might point to this as evidence of the success of tax increment financing, but they would be wrong. Observing high growth in an area targeted for development is unremarkable. The issues we have studied are (1) whether the targeting causes the growth or merely signals that growth is coming; and (2) whether the growth in the targeted area comes at the expense of other parts of the same municipality. We find evidence that the non-TIF areas of municipalities that use TIF grow no more rapidly, and perhaps more slowly, than similar municipalities that do not use TIF."

Interstate Effects of State Tax Incentives

With the Supreme Court argument in the Cuno case upcoming on March 1, it's very timely that a new paper by Kirk Stark and Daniel Wilson asks "What Do We Know About the Interstate Economic Effects of State Tax Incentives?"  It's available now through SSRN and will appear in Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 4, 2005.

The paper's abstract describes the the scope of its analysis as responding to Ohio litigation as well as that  "underway in other states. In reaction to these developments, legislation has been introduced in Congress to protect the right of states to provide tax incentives. To shed light on the issues involved in these ongoing controversies, we offer an introduction to existing research concerning the economic effects of state tax incentives. There is a voluminous literature concerning the efficacy of state business subsidies. Surprisingly, however, very few econometric studies have examined the multistate impact of tax credits for physical investment (for example, the investment tax credit) or research and development (R&D tax credits). This focus may be due in part to the fact that, up until now, the issue was primarily one for state and local policymakers. Yet the interstate economic effects have significance for the Commerce Clause analysis of state tax incentives. Our goal is to provide a general introduction to these issues and to shed some light on the complexities involved in evaluating interstate economic effects."

Definitely worth reading.

Cities, Development, Terrorism

I've recently had a chance to catch up on some reading.  Edward Ziegler has an interesting piece entitled "American Cities and Sustainable Development in the Age of Global Terrorism:  Some Thoughts on Fortress America and the Potential for Defensive Dispersal II" in a recent symposium, 30 Wm & Mary Envtl. L. & Pol'y Rev. 95 (2005).  Ziegler reviews the history of "defensive dispersal" away from cities in times of war or threat, and discusses efforts to "harden" cities as a means of protecting against terrorist threats.  Ultimately, he argues that urban sprawl coupled with failure to maintain key infrastructure is itself a risk, and that significant costs of security preparations are adversely affecting cities.  He urges use of "new urbanist" development strategies (characterized by higher density, mixed use, and more integrated pedestrian-friendly development) to increase the density of older suburbs and outlying areas.

If you're interested in these issues, you might want to take a look at Glaeser & Shapiro's 2001 paper, Cities and Warfare:  The Impact of Terrorism on Urban Form, available throught the National Bureau of Economic Research

Latest on St. Louis Charter Reform (Not!)

Here's a link to a a thoughtful article relating to the failed efforts to reform the St. Louis Charter.   The article, by Robert Cropf and Todd Swanstrom of St. Louis University, appeared in the National Civic Review's fall 2005 issue.  The article begins with with a depiction of the somewhat ugly political debate around these issues, including the effort of opponents to link Charter reforms to the Confederate flag by means of an active billboard campaign.

More insights on Ohio Municipal Residency Requirements

Former dean Steven Steinglass of Cleveland State has a good op-ed piece on Ohio municipal residency developments.   Here's the link to today's Cleveland Plain Dealer.  Here's the link to Ohio SB 82 (signed by the Governor Taft in late January).

Secession and Home Rule: LA and NYC

There's a good new article out in Urban Affairs Review (Vol. 41, No., 4, March 2006):  "Bringing the State (Government) Back In:  Home Rule and the Politics of Secession in Los Angeles and New York City" by Raphael Sonenshein and Tom Hogen-Esch.  Here's the abstract:

Theories of urban power have explored limitations on municipal governance by power elites, by global economic forces, and by economic competition. Less attention has been given to the impact of state government. This article explores the state role in recent secession conflicts in Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley) and New York City (Staten Island). Secession proponents expanded the scope of conflict to their state governments. Although both cities eventually survived secession battles, both were forced to accede to significant reforms. Though state interference with home rule is always a possibility because of the formidable role of the state in local government, it is not inevitable. The capacity of local political actors to form alliances at the state level and political incentives for state actors to get involved are crucial. Older debates about state limitations on urban home rule have much to offer in discussions of the twenty-first-century city.

Urban Affairs Review is published by Sage Publications:  http://uar.sagepub.com/