Municipal Enterprise

The Center for State and Local Government Excellence assists municipal governments become better employers, allowing them to attract and retain better individuals in public service jobs. Connecting state and local leaders with respected researchers, the Center works to identify and promote best practices for a variety of issues, including how to address the expanding costs of public employee pensions and retiree health care benefits.

Good Jobs First is a national advocacy organization that tracks corporate accountability legislation, including job quality standards (i.e., requirements that economic development subsidies lead to higher paying jobs), disclosure rules (i.e., requirements that the amount of the subsidies that each company receives be displayed in a form that is accessible to the public), and monitoring (i.e., requirements that part of the subsidy money be returned to the government if job employment and job quality commitments are not met). The website includes model legislation, as well as links to descriptions of state disclosure legislation.

This web site, hosted by the Institute for Local Self Reliance, focuses on the efforts to preserve independently owned retail establishments and resist the proliferation of “big box” retailers. On this site, you will find both articles on local disputes, as well as a number of economic impact studies that document the greater local economic multiplier effect of locally owned retail establishments.

MuniNet Guide is an online guide and directory to municipal-related content on the Internet. Its emphasis on municipal bonds, state and local government, and public finance serves people in a number of fields, including government administration, municipal investment, municipal research, and urban affairs.

This website provides a comprehensive data source for state government policies and budgetary information. The main Rockefeller website has additional available publications on state and local government and community economic development issues.

This website, home to the Public Strategies Group consulting practice, also contains resources on how to “reinvent” government, with a focus on the state and local level. One of their staff members is David Osborne, coauthor of Reinventing Government in 1992 and, more recently, author of The Price of Government, which focuses on need-based budgeting, in 2004.

This web site provides documents and resources regarding the EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program, which supports local efforts to generate electricity from methane, a practice that can generate revenue for localities while supporting environmental and economic development objectives.