The Impact of Capital Spending on Municipal Operating Budgets

What is the impact of capital spending for buildings, equipment, and other facilities on future operating expenditures of municipal governments? Because capital spending decisions are made independent of operating decisions in many larger municipalities, managers make long-term capital commitments without fully understanding the repercussions for operations. This implies the need for research that examines more closely the linkages between these budget cycles. This article develops a theory of the relationship between capital and operating expenditures, then uses data from the fortyeight largest U.S. cities to estimate both the magnitude of capital's impact and the time it takes for operating budgets to adjust. The study finds that five of six commonly provided municipal services were affected to varying degrees by past years' capital expenditures. Especially notable is the finding that the operating budgets of labor-intensive services, such as police and fire protection, are most sensitive to capital spending. For public managers, the findings point to the need for closer coordination between the capital and operating budget cycles, especially in those cases where capital outlays have clear, unambiguous positive implications for future operations.     

Unwelcomed? The Effects of Statelessness on Involuntary Refugee Repatriation in Bangladesh and Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Refugees are among the most vulnerable populations, often denied rights of residency, treated as hostile intruders, even forced into unsafe camps. This has been particularly true of the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group which has fled Myanmar by the hundreds of thousands since 2012. Having found little refuge in Bangladesh, the group faces growing fears of involuntary repatriation. This is not the first time that the group has faced forced repatriation. What explains the shortcomings of past repatriations and why does the cycle persist? This paper contends that statelessness is a contributing factor in the continual failure of repatriation processes. An examination of the 1992–1997 repatriation of Rohingya refugees reveals that the condition of statelessness can undermine safeguards often granted to refugees, decrease incentives for refugees to return, and impair opportunities for long-term solutions, while exacerbating state and human security issues. An illustrative case of successful refugee repatriation in Angola suggests that the absence of statelessness can improve prospects for successful repatriation.     

Special Masters in Institutional Litigation

Litigation concerning conditions in institutions such as prisons or mental hospitals does not stop at the issuance of a remedial decree. Steps must be taken to assure implementation. Increasingly, the courts are resorting to special masters to assist them in implementing such institutional reform. While the use of masters by courts is a firmly established tradition, the role assigned to masters in the institutional context is often an extraordinarily broad and intrusive one. As a result, serious questions have arisen about this new extra-traditional master role and about the applicability, the sufficiency, of the traditional rationales and restraints. This article is among the first in a small but developing body of literature that begins to examine the new master role and the questions concerning it.