Tax Expenditures for Local Governments

Foregone revenues of state and local governments have been mostly unreported. This is still a neglected subject in governmental accounting. Such significant amounts can make a difference in the choice between direct and indirect spending, and more budget officers are expected to consider the tax expenditure report as a supplement to budget documents.     

Use of Capital Budgeting Techniques and an Analytic Approach to Capital Investment Decisions in Canadian Municipal Governments

Capital budgeting techniques are useful tools to municipal administrators in managing organizational resources. A survey of capital budgeting practices of Canadian municipal governments reveals that a minority used capital budgeting techniques; payback period dominates over discounted cash flow analysis in evaluating capital investments; and pitfalls are common in its application. More specifically, there is an emphasis of quantitative/financial items over qualitative/intangible factors. In this study, the analytic hierarchy process, a multi-attribute decision model that accounts for both tangibles and intangibles, is presented as a tool for capital budgeting decisions such that resource allocation becomes more effective in municipal governments.     

地方政府创新与治理变迁——中国地方政府创新案例的比较研究

经验表明,20世纪90年代以来,社会转型带来的权威危机和管理性危机对中国地方政府公共权力结构与功能等方面形成了严峻的挑战。面对危机情势,各级地方政府在公共管理的权力结构、制度与技术安排上进行了多项治理创新,通过对地方政府的治理创新的比较分析,笔者认为,中国地方政府的创新实践推动了地方治理变迁,地方治理正趋于取代地方管理。但是,这种可选择性替代路径仍然是地方政府主导型的,最终起作用的仍然是地方政府。地方政府的创新符合整体性改革的发展方向,并将有力地推动改革向纵深发展。     

Federal Reimbursement for Mandates on State and Local Governments

One of the remedies sought by state and local officials for the growing burden of federal mandates is a mandate reimbursement law. A major purpose of mandate reimbursement is to deter Congress from imposing excessive costs on state and local governments by making it fully accountable for its actions. The paper begins by extending the economic theory of grants to mandates and reimbursed mandates. It goes on to assess the benefits and costs of mandate reimbursement, and to distinguish mandates that should be reimbursed, should a reimbursement program prove desirable, from those that should not. Then, using the economic theory of grants and mandates, the paper compares reimbursed mandates with two alternatives for accomplishing the same objective, compensating grants and procedural rules. It concludes that the latter are more promising than mandate reimbursement.     

地方政府行政成本规模及其增长测度的指标设计

对一级政府行政成本状况进行考察时,必须从广义的角度、联系当地财政收支的特点和社会经济现状及其地域地貌和人口分布特点等进行研究,更要从其相对规模、专业结构和专业效益等角度去分析,而且绝对不能绕过对预算外行政成本的考察。而考察的目的,是希望寻找到切合现实情况的行政成本的“最适合”总量规模,“最恰当”的支出结构以及最大化的专业效益。     

以人为本:地方政府角色转换的使命

以人为本是人类得以发展的主流,以人为本是新时期我们党的政治宗旨在理念和体制上的回归,也是我们党对社会发展规律的深刻解读。地方政府角色转换必须以此为依托和出发点。中央适度集权下的地方政府自主空间确定与地方政府角色转换中的自律与他律,是实现体制改革由表及里转换的两大使命。     

Reinventing Local Governments and the E-Government Initiative

The Internet provides a powerful tool for reinventing local governments. It encourages transformation from the traditional bureaucratic paradigm, which emphasizes standardization, departmentalization, and operational cost-efficiency, to the "e-government" paradigm, which emphasizes coordinated network building, external collaboration, and customer services. Based on a content analysis of city Web sites and a survey of Web development officials, this article shows that many cities are already moving toward this new paradigm. These cities have adopted "onestop shopping" and customer-oriented principles in Web design, and they emphasize external collaboration and networking in the development process rather than technocracy. The article also analyzes the socioeconomic and organizational factors that are related to cities' progressiveness in Web development and highlights future challenges in reinventing government through Internet technology.     

Analyzing How Local Governments Establish Service Priorities

Resource limitations and increasing citizen expectations are causing decisionmakers to reexamine existing approaches to establishing priorities in the funding of governmental services. Using local governments as a contextual example, this article investigates the decision making processes used by Texas cities The research seeks to understand the role different budgetary frameworks, i.e., incremental, performance and community values, play in resource allocation. Factors such as the budget sequence, the participants and the reference sources are considered to better understand local budget deliberations. This research indicates that a mixed or hybrid framework (any combination of the incremental, performance and community values approaches) dominates decision making in Texas cities. That is, most cities attempt to incorporate the politicalness of incrementalism, the results orientation of the performance framework, and the utility maximization desired under the community values framework. Results from this research indicate that Texas cities are moving away from a single framework orientation as a rule and are incorporating more rational and participative aspects into their budget process. This refutes common wisdom on this topic and suggests a more complicated approach to decision making that emphasizes the injection of more objective performance-related data, as well as the subjective perceptions of non-traditionally dominant participant groups.     

地方政府如何入世?

中国加入世界贸易组织（WTO），地方政府如何面对，是摆在我国各级地方政府面前的一个重要课题。目前各地都在制定“应对之策”，出台“行动计划”，那么到底应当如何“应对”和“行动”才不失合理，更是值得认真研究的问题。１．从世贸组织的性质看，入世必然伴随着政府职能的压缩和精减，市场功能的扩展和强化。地方政府的首要任务是搞好自身改革。世界贸易组织是当今世界上专门处理国与国之间贸易规则的国际组织，其实质内容体现在《WTO协议》及相关的若干附件中。这些协议及附件是由世界上绝大多数国家通过多边谈判签署的，用以约束…     

中央与地方政府及地方政府间利益关系分析

利益关系是中央与地方政府及地方政府间关系的核心。而在转型时期,地方政府自身特性发生了巨大变化,其经济人、政治人属性日渐增长,由此决定了中央与地方政府利益博弈关系更加激烈;地区利益的本位主义更是成了地方政府利益关系的本质特征,并导致了地方政府行为异化的现象。而要解决这些问题,必须在市场机制调节的基础上,依靠制度变迁,通过中央及地方政府的共同努力,实现彼此利益关系的均衡。     

地方政府财政支出竞争与区域资本配置效率——区域制造业产业资本配置效率视角

阐述了内部要素市场发育滞后下地方政府财政支出竞争与区域资本配置效率的关系;借鉴JeffreyWurgler的研究思路并采用我国30个地区28个制造业的面板数据模型计算出2001年1月至2006年8月我国不同地区制造业的资本配置效率;用回归模型验证了财政支出竞争对区域资本配置效率的影响.得出:地方政府财政支出竞争所设置的要素流动壁垒、分割市场和重复建设的行为,创造资本性收入、干预地方国有商业银行的信贷行为,引资竞争、对外资税收减免和基础设施竞赛行为导致区域产业资本配置低效.减少地方政府财政支出竞争对区域资本配置负向影响的关键是:确定科学合理的政府目标函数维度,并保持目标函数维度之间的协调和均衡;加快内部要素市场开放,建立生产要素的合理定价机制,矫正扭曲的生产要素价格;治理"预算外"收支,限制政府行政管理费支出过快增长.     

Drivers of Policy Instrument Selection for Environmental Management by Local Governments

Local governments commonly pursue environmental objectives that exceed state and federal minimum requirements. Although research informs our understanding of factors that lead cities to adopt such policy goals, the underlying mechanisms employed to achieve them are not well understood. This article examines factors that drive the choice of policy instruments that cities use to pursue local environmental objectives. The literature links the structure of the local governing body, characteristics of the community and target populations, and the nature of the policy problem to instrument selection. Building on this, the authors model the dynamics shaping cities' use of regulations, financial incentives, or combination thereof, to pursue a variety of different environmental objectives. Results indicate that community racial composition and political leaning influence instrument choice when policy targets the public at large. Alternatively, when policy targets particular stakeholder groups, such as developers, the characteristics of the local governing body are of greater importance.     

Public Sector Land Banking: A Decision Model for Local Governments

Local governments frequently face land banking decisions concerning real properties that they may acquire now in open market transactions or later via their power of eminent domain. After construction of a practical local government land banking example, a theoretically correct cash flow and cost-benefit analysis is presented. Then a buy-now or buy-later decision model is developed explaining when to exercise the free American Call Option provided to governments through their power of eminent domain.     

优化地方行政级次推进地方政府管理体制创新

现今中国“金字塔”型行政级次使得地方政府职能定位不清,政府职能转变滞后;增加行政成本、降低行政效率、极大地影响地方政府机构改革的成效。而要顺利、有效地推进地方政府管理体制创新,行政区划体制的改革,尤其是行政级次的优化设计势在必行。减少中间层次,扩大管理幅度,构建扁平化地方行政级次是我国地方行政级次改革的根本方向。改革过程中必须坚持与其他改革措施协同配合,共同推进;要因地制宜,因时制宜;避免形式化。     

论地方政府经济行为的规范化

地方政府经济行为的重要性、特殊性、现实性要求必须规范其经济行为。地方政府经济行为必须是有限的、公开的、服务性的、效益性的以及法制化、科学化、程序化的行为。地方政府经济行为的重点在于微观经济规制。     

地方政府绩效评估的"南通模式":效应、瓶颈及努力方向

基于目标导向的地方政府绩效评估的“南通模式”具有十分明显的传递效应、导向效应和监督效应。同时,也存在着指标体系没有充分体现现代政府绩效评估的要求、政府绩效评估工作机制有待统一完善、政府绩效考核的方法和工具比较单一、政府绩效考核的结果运用不够全面等亟待消除的难点与瓶颈。完善基于目标导向的地方政府绩效评估模式的主要路径是：以科学发展观指导地方政府绩效评估、完善政府绩效评估工作机制、将政府绩效评估从技术方法提升到制度安排、深化地方政府绩效评估结果运用等。