Copyright (c) 2009 Center for Florida Local Government Excellence All rights reserved. http://dc.cflge.org Recent documents in Digital Commons @ CFLGE en-us Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:52:33 PST 3600 http://dc.cflge.org/ethics/1 http://dc.cflge.org/ethics/1 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:05:13 PST City and county managers have agreed to accept and conduct their lives and affairs by a written ICMA Code of Ethics. Public management holds "integrity" as a fundamental practice of the profession. The focus on ethical management is essential for the ICMA members themselves to maintain the public management profession, recruit the best and brightest, and preserve the form of government. This article analyzes ethics in public management, unethical behavior in business and academia, and ethical decision-making. Recommendations are provided as to how to promote and institutionalize ethics in organizations, as well as strategies to making ethical decisions in a fast-paced and complex political and management environment. Randall H. Reid http://dc.cflge.org/pub_finance/1 http://dc.cflge.org/pub_finance/1 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:59:33 PDT (1) This report examines the history and consequences of Florida's methods for planning, financing, and delivering public services and facilities, with special attention on state and local relations. Research for the report examined the evolution of the state's tax system in Florida's six constitutions (1838, 1861, 1865, 1868, 1885, and 1968); amendments to the 1968 Constitution since 1969; data compiled since 1978 by the Legislative Committee on Intergovernmental Relations (LCIR) on "mandates and measures affecting local government fiscal capacity"; and case studies of the impacts of unfunded mandates in seven municipalities and eight counties of varying sizes and demographic makeup. (2) A central feature of Florida's system of public finance is a division of revenue sources and service-delivery responsibilities between government at the state and local levels. Since 1940, the authority to levy ad valorem taxes on tangible property has been constitutionally restricted to local governments. All other forms of taxation are preempted to the state except as provided by general law. (3) Since at least the early 1970s, this division of resources between state and local government has become increasingly imbalanced. Many statutory and constitutional restrictions have been placed on local property taxes, while at the same time general purpose local governments have been assigned unfunded mandates in growth management, environmental protection, pensions, workers' compensation, and other policy areas. (4) Between 1969 and 2008, 113 amendments to the Florida Constitution have been approved by voters. Thirty-nine amendments affected the fiscal capacity of state or local government. Of these, 32, or 82 percent, originated in the Legislature. Most of the amendments proposed by the Legislature increased the fiscal capacity of the state government (85%) but decreased the fiscal capacity of local government (69%). (5) In the mid-1980s, Florida enacted growth management legislation that required general purpose local governments to keep roads and other capital facilities abreast of population growth. The Legislature's effort to fund this "concurrency" requirement with state revenues failed when political support for the so-called "services tax" faltered. Local governments were forced by the concurrency requirement on roads, drainage, parks, and schools to raise property taxes, supplement general revenues with other sources of income, accept lower levels of service for facilities not included in Florida's concurrency-management system, and rely on the state government to grant them authority to levy other (non-ad-valorem) types of taxes. Florida's System of Public Finance (6) In 1990, voters amended the Florida Constitution to exempt counties and cities from future unfunded mandates unless the legislation is approved by a two-thirds membership vote of each house, or it meets other special conditions. However, the unfunded mandates amendment had little lasting effect on the frequency with which unfunded mandates were enacted. Although the number of mandates declined significantly in the years surrounding the passage of the unfunded mandates amendment, the number soon rose above previous highs and remained there in most years up to the present. (7) The unfunded mandates amendment also had only a modest impact on the costs that unfunded mandates were imposing on local governments. Since 1990, annual costs of unfunded mandates, adjusted for inflation, have never reached the 1980 level of $100 million, but in most years they have been at least $25 million, and in several years they have been in excess of $50 million. (8) The costs of most mandates are modest, or are at least judged so in the analyses of legislative staff. Since 1978, the Legislature has enacted 1,950 unfunded mandates. Of these, 88 percent were either judged to have no costs, or the costs were not determined. The costs of another 5 percent were estimated to be greater than zero but less than $10 million each. Only 1 percent of all unfunded mandates since 1978 have cost local governments more than $10 million. (9) The large number of mandates with moderate costs for local government in the year of enactment obscures the cumulative costs of mandates as they are layered on top of one another year after year. The costs of unfunded mandates enacted in Year One are also imposed in Year Two and each subsequent year. Figure ES-1 shows the cumulative amount that unfunded mandates have cost Florida's local governments each year since 1978. Amounts are in 2007 dollars. The rolling total reached $11 billion by 1990 when the unfunded mandates amendment was adopted. Since then it has risen above $15 billion. [See Figure ES-1: Cumulative Costs (in 2007 dollars) of Unfunded Mandates, 1978-2007] (10) This cumulative cost of unfunded mandates does not reflect the additional costs shifted to the local level in recent years under the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP). During the decade from 1996 to 2006, the percentage of FEFP Florida's System of Public Finance derived from the Required Local Effort has increased 7 points, rising from 42 percent in the beginning of the period to 49 percent at the end. This has added almost $1.6 billion dollars to county ad valorem tax bills. (11) Case studies of cities and counties were developed by administering a written survey questionnaire to appropriate officials in a sample of cities and counties. The respondents reported that the state shared revenues of sales tax, fuel (gas) tax, and general revenues were stagnant, with either minor increases or decreases during the 2003 -2007 period, forcing most local governments to become more dependent on ad valorem revenue to pay for major increases in service costs. The most notable unfunded mandates reported included Courts, Juvenile Justice, Medicaid payments, Baker Act Transportation, and Pensions. Funding Constitutional Offices was also considered a mandate that took precedent over all other governmental services. The most notable expenses (other than state unfunded mandates) reported to be driving expenses rapidly upward included health insurance, property insurance, fuel, utilities, communications, and chemical supplies. Union contracts were also cited. (12) Over the period covered in the study, reporting counties incurred cost increases for court functions that averaged nearly 115%; their cost increases for Juvenile Justice represented the highest percentage increase at over 252%. These counties also incurred average operating expense increases in this timeframe for utilities (59%) and fuel (111%). During the study period, the reporting counties absorbed these cost increases while they experienced significant growth in their population, ranging from 6.5% (Seminole County) to 28.3% (St. Lucie County). The average population growth in the counties was over 56,700 new residents. During this period, county General Fund ad valorem tax revenue grew by an average of only $108 per capita. (13) The cities in the study incurred average operating expense increases, as well. Their average operating costs increased for fuel (180%) and property insurance (141%). During this time, cities also experienced revenue losses in Telecommunications Taxes (-12.6%) and Local Option Gas Taxes (-14.7%). Average population growth in the reporting cities was not as strong as that of the counties. In part this is due to a population decrease in two cities. The population growth in cities, ranged from -2.7% (Archer) to 21.6% (Palm Bay). The cities population grew an average of over 7,750 new residents. During this period, the General Fund ad valorem tax revenue of the cities grew by an average of $278 per capita. Lance deHaven-Smith