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The Municipal Financial Crisis

A Framework for Understanding and Fixing Government Budgeting

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Mark Moses

    1. California, USA

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  • Provides an insider account of the world of municipal finance
  • Addresses how city government should rethink what it takes on
  • Offers an improved framework to assess alternative courses of action for city governments

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 1-5

  3. Cities in Crisis

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 7-26

  4. Inside the Crisis of Municipal Budgeting

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 27-52

  5. Conventional Budgeting Solutions

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 53-62

  6. The Ritual of Financial Analysis and Its Failure

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 63-85

  7. Bankrupt Financial Remedies

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 87-107

  8. Discovering the Value of City Government

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 109-121

  9. Municipal Decision-Making Understood

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 123-134

  10. Budgeting for Scope

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 135-153

  11. Municipal Government After the Crisis

    • Mark Moses
    Pages 155-162

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 163-169
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Keywords

About this book

City governments are going bankrupt. Even the ones that aren’t are often stuck in financial chaos. It is easy to blame pensions, poor leadership, or a bad economy. But the problems go much deeper. With decades of experience in local government, author Mark Moses showcases the inside world of the city decision-making process that has spawned these crises. It becomes clear: City governments are maxing out their budgets because they are trying to maximize services. This book, likely the most ambitious attempt by someone who has worked in government to radically examine the delivery of municipal services since 'Reinventing Government' was published more than 25 years ago, explores why city governments pursue an open-ended mission and why bailouts and trendy budgeting processes will be, at best, only temporary solutions. Of interest to current and future city council members, regional and state government officials, those covering city government, financial analysts, city management, and individuals and organizations interested in influencing city policy, this book argues that cities won’t thrive until city hall is disrupted.

Authors and Affiliations

  • California, USA

    Mark Moses

About the author

Mark Moses has provided finance-related management and consulting services to local government agencies since 2011 after spending two decades working directly for municipal agencies in senior-level finance and administrative management positions. His areas of expertise include finance department process review, debt management and analysis, banking, investments, budget policy, long-term planning, internal controls, risk management and financial software. He has spoken at regional government conferences on improving the operational and organizational effectiveness of city finance departments. Mark’s perspective on local government has been informed and influenced by his earlier career in small business consulting and banking and his interest in applied economics and philosophy.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Golden Gate University, San Francisco.  He is a former member of the Government Finance Officers Association and has been an active member of the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers for more than twenty-five years.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Municipal Financial Crisis

  • Book Subtitle: A Framework for Understanding and Fixing Government Budgeting

  • Authors: Mark Moses

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87836-8

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-87835-1Published: 07 January 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-87836-8Published: 06 January 2022

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 169

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Public Finance, Governance and Government, Public Policy

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