Handbook of Local Government Fiscal Health

Fiscal health of local governments and municipalities has remained an important issue since the crises of the 1970's in places like New York, Philadelphia and Cleveland. More recently, the bankruptcy of Orange County California raised the possibility of a different type of financial failure than earlier ones. The beginning of the 21st century has witnessed two major economic bubbles including the dotcom and housing bubbles. These economic cycles combined with increasing health care, pension and other structural costs continue to challenge the fiscal viability of many jurisdictions. In particular, the economic and financial crisis of 2007-2008 is likely to result in potentially serious fiscal challenges for local jurisdictions. Local Government Fiscal Health reinvigorates the debates around the monitoring, reporting, assessment and management of local government fiscal stress, bankruptcy, and state takeovers. The book provides both a solid conceptual basis for understanding the sources and causes behind local government fiscal stress and crisis, as well as tools for monitoring, reporting, and addressing such crises. Based on theoretical frameworks as well as empirical evidence and case studies, it also addresses such issues as the impact of GASB 34 and GASB 45 on the assessment of and policies to address fiscal stress and crisis.Ideal for students of Public Policy and Public Administration, the book seeks to both advance the state of the field in terms of research and frameworks around fiscal stress in local government as well as provide an assessment of the tools, monitoring practices and state and local policies that are used to address situations of fiscal stress.Key Features:1. Gathers current thinking and research on the topic for use by academics and students, and updates classic works on fiscal stress and fiscal distress by Terry Clark, Charles Levine, and others.2. Provides a desk reference for practitioners, especially now that fiscal health is again at the forefront of people's attention.3. Provides coverage of the full range of concerns and concepts relevant to defining and measuring fiscal health.4. Provides comprehensive coverage of the many environmental and organizational factors influencing fiscal health.5. Fill gaps/provide a complement to existing material such as the Honadle et al. Fiscal Health book and the ICMA Financial Trends Monitoring System book.

Chapter1 Introduction by Eric Scorsone, Helisse Levine, and Jonathan Justice
PartI Fiscal Health and Sustainability Concepts and Measures
Chapter2 Assessing the Financial Condition of Local Governments: What is Financial Condition and How is it Measured? By Benoy Jacob and Rebecca Hendrick
Chapter3 Local Government Fiscal Stress and its Measurement in Theory and Practice By Jonathan Justice and Eric Scorsone
PartII Financial Reporting and Modeling
Chapter4 The Development of External Financial Reporting and Its Relationship to the Assessment of Fiscal Health and Stress By Dean Michael Mead
Chapter5 Long-Term Forecasting By Kenneth A. Kriz
PartIII Pensions and Other Postemployment Benefits
Chapter6 Postemployment Benefits and Fiscal Analysis By Dean Michael Mead
Chapter7 Sustainable Approaches to Retiree Benefits: Options and Implementation for Program Design and Financing By Jun Peng
PartIV Revenue Elasticity and Adequacy
Chapter8 Public-Finance and Fiscal-Federalism Perspectives on Local Government Revenue Bases and Fiscal Sustainability By Donijo Robbins
Chapter9 Understanding and Measuring Revenue Elasticity, Volatility, and Implications for Local Government Fiscal Health By Deborah A. Carroll and Christopher B. Goodman
PartV Business Cycle, Bubbles, and Reserve Funds: Cutback Management
Chapter10 Fiscal Stress and Cutback Management amongst State and Local Governments: What Have We Learned and What Remains to Be Learned? By Christina Plerhoples and Eric Scorsone
Chapter11 A Framework for Deciphering and Managing the Fiscal Environment By Josephine M. LaPlante
Chapter12 Fiscal Slack, Reserves, and Rainy-Day Funds by Justin Marlowe
Chapter13 Managing Investments and Investment Risks By William Albrecht
PartVI Intergovernmental and Institutional Considerations
Chapter14 Local Government Fiscal Health: An Intergovernmental Perspective By Beth Walter Honadle
Chapter15 Monitoring the Fiscal Health of America's Cities By Lynne A. Weikart
Chapter16 Measuring the Impacts of TELs on Municipal Financial Conditions By Craig S. Maher and Steven C. Deller
Chapter17 The Defragmentation of Authority: A Consolidation Approach to Public Service Delivery by Helisse Levine
PartVII Debt Capacity, Management, and Policy
Chapter18 Measurin and Monitoring Debt Capacity and Affordability: Market and Nonmarket-Based Models By Kenneth A. Kriz and Qiushi Wang
Chapter19 State Fiscal Constraints on Local Government Borrowing: Effects on Scale and Cost By Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Jacob Fowles, Cleopatra Grizzle, and Gao Liu
Chapter20 Good Debt, Gone Bad: The 2008-2009 Crisis in Municipal Debt Markets By Gary R. Rassel and Robert S. Kravchuk