New Blog

My office spring cleaning is beginning by changing my blog. I've had this blog for a 7 or 8 months and I'm tired of the title and the format...so I'm turning over a new leaf and turning to word press. The name of the new blog is The City Cafe. What does that mean? I'm not really sure...but it allowed me to incorporate a photo I really like into the header. So The City Cafe will remain a blog that discusses all things related to cities, with a focus to local government fiscal policy. I look forward to your comments.

Tis' The Season--Budget Season

For local governments May is budget season. A number of cities are presenting their budgets for the 2007-08 fiscal year (Mayor Billings' presents Provo's budget on a bus tour of the city). I'm sure you'll see a lot more news stories about city budgets as they are debated and finalized.

Today on KCPW's Midday Metro show Bill Anderson (South Salt Lake City Councilmember), Gary Hill (Park City budget officer), and myself discussed the state of local government finance with KCPW host Bryann Schott. If you are interested in the 20 minute podcast check here: KCPW discussion May 14th 2007.

So city council meetings aren't so bad, after all

Excellent column in the The Spectrum this weekend written by Steve Kiggins, Cedar City Bureau Chief. I keep telling people that local government finance really is an interesting issue that people should pay more attention to...sounds like Steve agrees. One quote from his column, "In the past 21 months, I've learned more about the world around me than I did in all my years as a sports reporter. That's because I've covered city council meetings, interviewed state, county and city leaders, studied subjects such as health care, taxes and education, opened my eyes to the issues and challenges around me....If you don't pay attention to city government, I urge you to start."

You can read the full column here.

On another note...how about those Jazz? Western Conference Finals here we come (am I jumping the gun?).