"Weird" Is Good, Right?

So what makes city a successful city? Well according the CEOs for Cities it takes a combination of talent, innovation, connection, and a distinctive nature. A recent presentation at the CEOs for Cities conference in Miami attempted to measure the top 50 metropolitan areas based on these for dimensions. Here is a review of the indexes included for each dimension.

The TALENTED City: a)College attainment, b)Creative Professionals, c)Young & Restless residents, d)Traded sector talent, and e)International talent.

The INNOVATIVE City: a)Patents, b)Venture Capital, c)Self-employment, and d)Small businesses

The CONNECTED City: a)Voting, b)Community Involvement, c)Economic integration, d)Transit use, e)International students, f)Foreign travel, and g)Internet connectivity

The DISTINCTIVE City: a)Weirdness index, b)Culture, c)Restaurant Variety, and d)Movie variety.

So where does Salt Lake Rank?

• 1st -- community involvement (Minneapolis 2nd)
• 2nd -- 'weirdness index' (San Francisco 1st)
• 1st -- 'movie variety' (New Orleans 2nd)

Check here for more information: City Vitals Presentation...let me know what you think.

Making Better Communities (ULCT Focus Groups)

This is a recent focus group video regarding 'making better communities.' The video is a collection of comments from four focus groups across the state of Utah regarding the quality of life in our neighborhoods and polices that are important to maintaining/improving this ideal. Groups were moderated by Dan Jones & Associates, commissioned by ULCT. The video is around 14 minutes long, but just takes a minute or two to download.

Sad Day...Milton Friedman Passes Away

Milton Friedman died today, at 94 years of age.
The New York Times described Friedman as "the grandmaster of conservative economic theory in the postwar era and a prime force in the movement of nations toward lesser government and greater reliance on free markets and individual responsibility."

Hoover Institute press release
New York Times article

I'm including a great video of Friedman's interview with Richard Heffner on The Open Mind, December 7, 1975. The video is around 30 minutes and takes a minute to download, but trust me it is worth it. Great interview. Check here.

Is Greenspan to Blame for Housing Bubble?

What should be the role of the Federal Reserve? Should the Reserve be more transparent to the general public? Will there be a policy shift from Alan Greenspan to Benjamin Bernanke? And is Greenspan to blame for the latest housing bubbles that seem to be emerging nationwide?

I found this recent article in Reason extremely interesting, exploring these questions and more. Reason asked five key Fed watchers to assess these Federal Reserve issues.

• Milton Friedman is a Nobel Prize–winning economist.
• Rep. Ron Paul is a libertarian Republican representing the 14th District of Texas.
• James Grant is a columnist for Forbes.
• Bryan Caplan, an associate professor of economics at George Mason University, was a student of Bernanke's at Princeton.
• Jeff Saut is chief investment strategist for the investment firm Raymond James Financial. He fears that Greenspan's seemingly excellent record built hazards into the economy of which investors need to be wary.

Check here for the full article: Can We Bank on the Federal Reserve?

Restrictive Public Finance Initiatives Fail

While attorneys, candidates, pundits, etc. count votes in Montana and Virginia the real policy analysts have already started to look at the results of key initiatives and referendums from around the nation. Americans indicated significant frustration with federal government incumbents, but seemed unwilling to restrict local and state government spending and taxing authority.

According to NCSL election analyst Jennie Drage Bowser, “They (Americans) were reluctant to approve measures to reduce government power but receptive to conservative-leaning measures. Liberal-leaning measures received mixed results.” For example:

• Major tax cuts, along with tax and spending limits in six states all failed. Voters in Maine, Nebraska and Oregon rejected tax and spending limits and while voters in Oregon, South Dakota and Washington decided against significant tax reductions.

For more detail of these initiatives access the NCSL review.

What is the Public Perception of Taxes?

It is interesting that citizens do not know more about their local government taxes. Citizens are using local government services daily (water, sewer, garbage, libraries, roads, parks) yet, they have no idea how these services are funded. And a better question is, do citizens change their tax preferences with increased knowledge? This graph illustrates data from our Dan Jones conducted Tax Survey that indicates, that yes tax preferences do change with increased knowledge.

This is the issue Brian Roberts and I explore in our paper Citizen's Blank Check. We presented the findings of our study last week at the APPAM (Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management) conference in Madison. The response to the data and paper was excellent. Our session titled, Understanding Taxes and Tax Incentives, was attended by 20 to 25 academics and bureaucrats. The session included a panel of three papers, with each presenter taking 15 minutes to present, then discussion and Q & A. There was significant interest in the ULCT tax knowledge and perception data. It is surprising to most that public perception isn't greater regarding local taxes. I guess the idea that we know what is closer more is not consistent when it comes to local taxes.

One interesting suggestion was to explore whether new homeowners have better property tax knowledge than "seasoned" homeowners. The logic is individuals who have made a recent home purchase have looked closely at their property tax bill for the new property. I'm not sure what the results would be, I'm inclined to say that it wouldn't matter. Maybe it will be something we'll look to explore more. In the meantime (if you are very inquisitive or love taxes) you can read our paper here.

A couple of other interesting conference sessions...

• Obesity and Public Policy (here)
• Married and Poor (here)
• Neighborhood Economic Development (here)

Remember to Vote

300 Million Americans -- 2.42 Million Utahns

America reached a milestone at the end of October, 300 million Americans. TIME magazine provided a recent breakdown of America "by the numbers." Their data provided some interesting descriptions on who we are today as Americans. For example FOR EVERY 1000 AMERICANS...

• 568 live in the state they were born
  
• 455 are employed
  
• 341 drive to work alone
• 173 speak a language other than English at home
• 126 live in poverty
  
• 122 are 65 and older
  
• 1 are in kindergarten
  

But what about here in Utah? FOR EVERY 1000 UTAHNS...

• 900 are white
• 630 were born in Utah
• 140 speak a language other than English at home
• 100 live in poverty
  
• 80 are over the age of 65
• 2 are in kindergarten