Public Policies for Distressed Communities Revisited
Public Policies for Distressed Communities Revisited

Author: F. Stevens Redburn

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13:

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Public Policies for Distressed Communities Revisited marks the return of scholars F. Stevens Redburn and Terry Buss to the topic of national policy toward economically distressed areas. Redburn and Buss first addressed these issues a generation ago and in this new book they explore how the intervening years have redefined the problems affecting distressed communities. In a series of focused, analytical essays the book examines the innovative approaches being developed to tackle the traditional problem--including the new roles currently played by federal and state governments--of connecting impoverished areas and their residents to jobs and opportunity. This book offers valuable new insight and information to public policy professionals, urban planners, and academics specializing in economic and community development.

Should Place-based Jobs Policies be Used to Help Distressed Communities?
Should Place-based Jobs Policies be Used to Help Distressed Communities?

Author: Timothy J. Bartik

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 59

ISBN-13:

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Should policymakers seek to increase jobs in particular local labor markets? Yes, but only if these policies are well targeted and designed. Encouraging job growth in distressed places can cause persistent gains in employment-to-population ratios. But our current place-based jobs policies, under which state and local governments provide long-term tax incentives to megacorporations, are poorly targeted and designed. Such incentives are as large in nondistressed areas as in distressed areas, and they are excessively costly. What reforms are needed? First, job growth policies should target distressed areas. Second, tax incentives should be focused on high-multiplier businesses, such as high-tech firms. Third, officials can more effectively promote local job creation by relying less on tax incentives and more on public services. These include customized business services, infrastructure, land development policies, local education, and job training. The federal government can use taxes and intergovernmental grants to discourage city or state officials from giving excessive state and local incentives to the largest firms. The federal government can also provide block grants to state and local governments to provide services that promote job growth in distressed places.

Federal Policymaking and the Poor
Federal Policymaking and the Poor

Author: Michael J. Rich

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-07-14

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 1400863589

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Do federal, state, and local governments differ in their responsiveness to the needs of the poorest citizens? Are policy outcomes different when federal officials have greater influence regarding the use of federal program funds? To answer such questions, Michael Rich examines to what extent benefits of federal programs actually reach needy people, focusing on the relationship between federal decision-making systems and the distributional impacts of public policies. His extensive analysis of the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), the principal federal program for aiding cities, reveals that the crucial divisions in domestic policy are not among the levels of government, but between constellations of participants in the different governmental arenas. Rich traces the flow of funds under the CDBG from program enactment through three tiers of targeting--to needy places, to needy neighborhoods, and to needy people--and offers a comparative study of eight CDBG entitlement communities in the Chicago area. He demonstrates that while national program parameters are important for setting the conditions under which local programs operate, the redistributive power of federal programs ultimately depends upon choices made by local officials. These officials, he argues, must in turn be pressed by benefits coalitions at the community level in order to increase the likelihood that federal funds will reach their targets. Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Distressed Communities
Distressed Communities

Author: U S Government Accountability Office (G

Publisher: BiblioGov

Published: 2013-06

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9781289088118

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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information about the condition of basic public services in poorer communities in New Jersey. GAO found that: (1) local governments provided the vast majority of public service programs; (2) federal aid to localities declined between 1978 and 1986; (3) New Jersey has made substantial economic progress over the past decade, but not all of the state's communities have shared in the prosperity, and the large fiscal gap between wealthier and poorer communities has grown; (4) municipalities play a key role in the delivery of public services in New Jersey; (5) New Jersey fiscal policies restrict local government revenue sources; (6) state aid to New Jersey municipalities is substantial, but the state could reduce the disparities between wealthier and poorer communities through increased targeting; (7) general revenue sharing (GRS) did not represent a large share of revenues in either of the communities that GAO studied, but local officials regarded those funds as very important; (8) the two communities have high service needs but few resources; (9) the two communities improved their administration and program operations to maintain services with fewer revenues; (10) the two communities used management improvements and tax increases to cope with fiscal distress and the loss of GRS; (11) although state aid favors wealthier communities, New Jersey has taken measures to help its poorest communities; and (12) through the development of new public assistance programs, 1990 state aid to the two communities is significantly greater than their 1986 GRS allocation.