Extremely informative article this week in calpension.com:   As economy recovers, CalPERS may lift rate lid CalPERS last week gave some 1,575 local governments a small increase in their annual … more

Looks like the hope of passing a sales tax increase for safety has convinced the City of Awater to hold off filing for bankruptcy—for now. Click here to read more. more

Very detailed article at Reuters.com about the latest California municipal bankruptcy. Click here to read. more

From California City News Blog: Local Revenue Measures: Most City Majority-Vote Tax Proposals Find Success Michael Coleman from CalifornaiCityFinance.com has once again put together his invaluable … more

The recent suspension of payments to CalPERS by San Bernardino and Compton may force the courts to answer a longstanding question: can pension payments be suspended or modified in the face of … more

From California City News Blog: Cities have raised objections left and right to the messy and poorly executed winding down process for redevelopment while the state has tried to get its hands on as … more

Here is the latest from Calpensions.com: CalPERS filed court actions against two financially troubled cities, San Bernardino and Compton, after they stopped making legally required payments to the … more

From California City News Blog: The State Controller’s latest cash update reveals September’s total revenues were $162.5 million below (2.2 percent) projections contained in the 2012-13 State budget. … more

From California City News Blog: Moody's Investors Service announced this week that it will review 30 cities for possible credit downgrades for various types of bonds, which is notable because it … more

I guess we aren’t all that unique… There are 89,004 local governments in the United States, according to the Census Bureau. Read more about this piece of trivia by clicking here. more

From Publicceo.com: At a special council meeting held last night, a pointed conversation began between a Central Valley City, its residents, and its stakeholders. That debate could result in yet … more

Here’s an excerpt from the Sacramento Bee State Worker Blog: The lawsuit filed by a retirees' group sought a court order for the city to continue paying for their health benefits while Stockton's … more

Here is a post from Josh Stephens in the California Planning and Development Blog on the latest from the Capitol: Even the most irate objectors to Gov. Jerry Brown's dismantling of redevelopment … more

The above captioned title is from a post last week in a relatively new blog that focuses on municipal bankruptcy issues.  Here is the post from MuniBK blog: On September 12, 2012, CalPERS’ … more

This old post (click here) provides an excellent history of how our benefits have evolved over the past 25 years. In particular, it details the legislation that created the enhanced retirement … more

Above is the provocative title of an article at PublicCeo.com. The story provides an alternative view of the state’s budget picture: Despite trumpeting years of deep cuts to the state budget, … more

The phrase above is the title of an article this month’s Foreign Policy Magazine.  They are doing a special issue on cities. The article is written by Peter Calthorpe, who teamed with former … more

Over the past 40 years, the process to build things in California has become (without debate) the worst process in the entire country. This is largely due to the fact that process and not outcomes … more

From Governing Magazine: Is Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection a viable option to save municipalities from financial ruin? That was the question posed Tuesday to a panel of officials with firsthand … more

San Bernardino’s recent bankruptcy filing came as a complete to surprise to even the closest followers of the community’s finances and politics. One of the reason for surprise was the lack of any red … more

I read the following recently in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. While I realize this isn’t  Europe—although we are probably closer to Europe than just about any other U.S. city, it is sometimes … more

Here's a great blog post I found for those of us who love data. I think candidate number four is the one that we all need to consider when projecting how our economy and therefore our city budget … more

Over the next few months, you’ll be hearing a lot from the City of Davis about how we can continue to provide a high level of service in the community in a time of dwindling resources. Even before … more

Support for "defined benefit retirements" (i.e. CalPERS style) comes from an unlikely source -- heavily followed financial blogger Felix Salmon. In a recent post, he writes: More generally, as Teresa … more

I recently heard a presentation by Girard Miller, who is one of the more outspoken advocates for pension reform. However, he is actually more focused on that other meteor that is about to hit local … more

One of the biggest goals in today’s government is to find ways to maximize the skills of every employee to ensure that we are doing what can to do more with less. Here’s a great example from Phoenix: … more

I'm beginning to see a groundswell of discussion from legal experts who claim that government pensions aren't as untouchable as labor would like us to believe. One California firm in particular has … more

Citizens tell me all the time that neighborhoods aren't as safe as they used to be. While there are certainly specific neighborhoods that have seen an increase in crime, both locally and nationally, … more

Joel Kotkin is one of the more objective commentators in the country when it comes to the economy. He was way ahead of his time in predicting the tech bubble bursting and is quite disappointed that … more

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about the changing characteristics of union membership in the United States (click here for article). 2009 marked the first year that public sector … more

While diminishing government revenues are a somewhat new concept in California, many rust belt cities experienced this phenomenon several decades ago when many of their manufacturing concerns headed … more

From to time to time, I share other city manager's blog entries . Here's an excellent recent post from Rick Cole, who recently retired as City of Ventura. Fifty years ago, John F. Kennedy called upon … more

Out here in the foreclosure belt, many blame the securitization of real estate for the boom-bust cycle we are now enduring. Securitization of loans allowed for a huge influx of cash into mortgages … more

What is a City Manager?By Bill Garrett Executive Director of the California City Management Foundation Recent media scrutiny of city managers—or, more specifically, their compensation—has reached a … more

Urban Planning writer critic/Ventura City Councilman Bill Fulton has written the best piece to date on the situation in Bell. He posted this yesterday in the California Planning and Development blog. … more

While revenues have been dropping precipitously at the state level, it isn't due to big drops in our tax rates -- it is more a function of the recession and our progressive income tax system. In a … more

There is no better example of the absurdity that has been going in the financial industry than the "robo signing" scandal that is being litigated by the Attorney Generals in all 50 states. 60 minutes … more

The Washington Examiner has been doing a series of stories on public employee pensions. This article discusses the sticky legal issue of whether or not states can cut existing contractual pension … more

Above is the title of the headline story from a previous edition of "Economist" magazine.  This British publication has focused from time to time on the pension crisis in the United States. This … more

This article came up with some pretty amazing statistics about government employment in California. The story noted: In this time of crushing budget deficits and guaranteed public pension plans, one … more

Here's a great post from the dean of the City Manager bloggers - Rick Cole: Our country is engaged in a fierce debate about how much government we need -- and want. What may be emerging is a new … more

A citizen recently sent me some information on the Bureau of Labor statistics data on the most dangerous jobs in the United States. The top five included fisherman, loggers, aircraft pilots, farmers … more

Above is the title of an article in a recent issue of City Journal -- which always does a good job of summarizing nationwide trends in city government. Every City Council across the country is being … more

Here's a summary from the California City News Blog: CalPERS has released new legal analysis defending pension promises made to current and retired recipients by calling their benefits a “vested … more

Interesting opinion piece from the California Planning and Development Reporter Blog: Submitted by jstephens on 20 July 2011 - 11:53am Borders Books Josh Stephens To its minimal credit, Borders Books … more

Simon Johnson's entry in the New York Times "Economix" blog provides some reassurance that we aren't repeating the 1930s. Instead he see today's economic woes as more similar to the 19th century -- … more

From the Calculated Risk Blog: From Rachel Ensign at the WSJ: For Many Seniors, There May Be No Retirement Already battered nest eggs took another beating this month with the market's wild swings. … more

Monday, August 22, 2011 By Ed Mendel In a sign of the uncertain times, the CalPERS board last week approved a sharp increase in the cost of terminating pension plans, a rare action said to be taken … more

Recent data from the census bureau demonstrates the importance of local government employment in California. Cities, Schools, Counties and Special Districts are responsible for nearly 1.4 million … more