Strengthening & promoting cities as centers of opportunity, leadership, and governance

With input from many leadership groups and committees at NLC, the Advisory Council identified Public Finance as a priority trend in December 2003. 

During 2004, the Advisory Council identified several more preliminary topics as focus areas for further research and exploration including: Economic Vitality; Governance, Civic, Engagement and Trust; and Public Safety. 

The Advisory Council invites your input into the Trends and Changes affecting YOUR city or town.  A new brochure, CityFutures: Be a Part of It!, was distributed at the Congress of Cities Conference and Exposition in Indianapolis, Indiana describing the current topics in order to invite further comments by NLC members.  Contact Kim Turner (kturner@nlc.org) to share your comments with NLC on the topics described in the brochure.

This process is very new and more information will be provided as the process develops.

Public Finance

  • Increased mobility of business, capital, and people and resulting competition among jurisdictions for economic activity
  • Concentrations and movements of commercial/industrial and residential development throughout regions
  • Growth of tax-exempt properties
  • Increases in remote sales as a result of Internet/e-commerce
  • Federal and state preemption of local authority and/or unfunded mandates
  • Limits on federal and state support for cities
  • Changes in federal and/or state tax systems
  • Public and special interest pressures to limit taxation
  • Regional partnerships, cost-sharing and service consolidation
  • Technological and management improvements within city government

Economic Vitality

  • Loss of jobs
  • Shifts from manufacturing to service to an information economy
  • Aging and inadequate infrastructure
  • Lack of a properly trained workforce
  • Rising health care costs and lack of insurance
  • Growing disparities in wealth and income
  • Globalization, outsourcing and the export of jobs
  • Quality of education
  • Inter-city and intra-region competition

Governance, Civic Engagement, and Trust

  • Lack of civic engagement and the ?culture of apathy?
  • Distrust of government by citizens
  • Distrust of citizens by government officials
  • Eroding federal-state-local partnerships
  • New technologies changing public interactions with government
  • Devolution of government responsibilities
  • Anti-tax sentiment
  • Lack of diversity in government
  • The changing role of the media
  • Governance by initiative
  • Increasing numbers of alternative models of governance
  • Attracting good people to government
  • Regionalism on the rise
  • Dissatisfaction with elections and campaigning

Public Safety

New responsibilities for cities and towns:

  • Increased terrorism threats
  • Federal emphasis on homeland security
  • Overcrowded jails and municipal courts
  • Rise in drug-related crimes
  • Increases in cross-training
  • Rising costs of equipment and training
  • Effects of demographic changes
  • Armed forces deployments affecting local law enforcement
  • Idle youth
  • Interagency coordination
  • Sentencing issues
  • Reintegration after probation/release
  • Technology in public safety

For more general information on various trends affecting the nation's cities and towns, visit NLC's Trends web page. [hyperlink to Trends Page]

For more information on this particular process or these specific topics, please contact Melissa Assion Germanese at (202) 626-3026 or email assion@nlc.org.
 

National League of Cities

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