State and Local Government Review

Placemaking is a valuable place-based development and integration tool in rural communities. This study examines how placemaking processes and outputs are associated with residents’ bonds with local places through survey data collected in rural communities in Indiana. Results reveal that policy communication and localized public spaces design are critical for increasing residents’ place dependence and place identity. These findings help pinpoint how local governments utilize placemaking in rural communities to effectively strengthen residents’ ownership of public spaces while further providing implications for residents’ empowerment and community planning in local governance scholarship.

Local governments are turning to a set of practices designed to support a more inclusive workforce. Yet, less is known as to why localities opt to provide such services. Recognizing this gap, this paper examines the adoption of three inclusionary practices: offering cultural competency training, providing documents in multiple languages, and prioritizing language skills in hiring. To do so, this paper employs a dataset that combines International City/County Management’s (ICMA) Local Government and Immigrant Communities Survey with Census data and other measures. Results suggest that local needs and the presence of a professional administrator are associated with more inclusive practices.

This paper analyzes the determinants of legislation to increase state gasoline taxes from 1985 to 2013. It closely considers the motives of the political actors considering adoption, comparing the predictive power responsive government and excessive government theories. It finds strong evidence for responsive governments: traffic fatalities per-capita and the proportion of bridges deemed structurally deficient are among the strongest predictors of state gas tax increases. The conclusion of this paper is that gasoline tax increases in the American states represents a case of responsive taxation.

After decades of neglect, several U.S. states have increased support for regional development planning, creating new programs, organizations, and funding streams to support it. Analysis of programs in three states (New York, Michigan, and Indiana) shows similarities among them as well as contrasts with prior episodes of state-led regional planning. The new programs deliberately sidestep older regional planning organizations like COGs and RPCs in favor of new organizations with larger roles for the private sector and greater access to public funds. The resulting plans focus on individual projects within a pro-development agenda, but still have potential to coordinate action at a regional scale.

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have become an increasingly prevalent method for contemporary public management and economic revitalization. BIDs are private non-profit organizations established primarily in urban areas to deliver public services and improve economic conditions by imposing additional assessments on property owners. This dynamic allows improvement districts to serve as quasi-public entities inextricably intertwined with local policy measures and government officials, while concurrently operating as private organizations. This paper begins by providing an introduction outlining the role BIDs play in modern local governance, followed by a brief overview of the historical progression of improvement district implementation in cities. The contemporary state of debate surrounding the efficacy and implications of BIDs on local governance is then reviewed, while discussing the impact of recent research on the field of study. It concludes by reflecting on proliferation of improvement districts as an entity for modern public service delivery, as well as suggesting future directions for research pertaining to BIDs.

Environmental policy making and implementation in the United States occurs within a federal system. This system has served its purpose for nearly five decades but is now being challenged by four trends: political polarization in Congress; increasingly divergent state policies; an erosion in federal funding; and federal policy instability. Taking the place of the old, relatively cooperative federalism is an increasingly disruptive federalism. It is time to reexamine the foundations of environmental federalism and the effects of the four challenges on the effectiveness and capacities of the US system. Such efforts to evaluate environmental federalism should account for variations among programs and statutes as well as the effects on policy stability. A benefit of a federal system for environmental protection is its contribution to stability in an era of polarization and conflict.