Funk's Front Porch

Review of Urban Institute’s New Report on Safety Net for Low Income Families

The Urban Institute published a report of A New Safety Net for Low-Income Families. The report echoes some of the discussions happened in Mayor’s New Tools Symposium on July 21st.

The report presents the current status of low-income families:

• They have not progressed much compared to where they were a decade ago.
• Although four in five of these families work, many don’t bring home enough to cover the everyday costs of living.
• Child poverty rate has increased.

The report recommends that the nation need new policies that make work pay in today’s economy:

Work should pay enough to cover the basic costs of everyday family living. When hard work fails to cover the costs of housing, medical care, and child care, these expenses should be subsidized in ways that also promote greater work effort.

Young children in low-income working families require quality day care, and their parents must be able to combine a job with parenting so their children develop fully.

Parents need access to training to move up the career ladder and access to specialized supports when their underdeveloped or outdated skills, their health problems, or other factors put even the first rung of the ladder out of reach.
Families that work hard should be able to bridge employment gaps through unemployment insurance and accumulated savings.

The report points out that this is a difficult moment to suggest new initiatives requiring additional federal and state expenditures and compelling employers to play a stronger role in supporting low-income families through broader health insurance coverage, retirement savings, and some paid sick leave. Yet, postponing additional investments in low-income working families will cost even more. Further, increasing the number of families on a solid economic footing will strengthen the nation’s competitive advantage in the global economy

The report suggests ways to make these initiatives affordable, such as using phase-in provisions and co-pays, and redirect current spending in tax expenditures for the mortgage interest deduction and employer-provide health insurance.

You can read the full report here: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411738_new_safety_net.pdf

Setting Priorities

"Getting Your Priorities Straight" is a good article in the June issue of PM magazine by ICMA (International City/County Management Association). The article reiterates what the Mayor and the Council have already known: That it's important to set priorities to address government's fiscal problems.

The true crisis governments are facing today is not fiscal, but a lack of focus on priorities and objectives that ensure the success of our communities. The article describes three steps of setting priorities – identifying objectives, defining objectives, and valuing programs according to each program’s influence to the objectives.

The article can be accessed here: http://www.icma.org/pm/9005

-JP

Transportation Cost Analysis

Policy analyst Joan Pu conducted an analysis of costs associated with transportation. She found that while a half-cent sales tax would cost the average $200 per year, a reduction in driving by 10 percent would save over $700 annually.

Read the entire memo:

Download transportation_cost_analysis.pdf

Kansas City's Market Share of Metro Area

Policy analyst Joan Pu has done research into Kansas City's market share of the metropolitan area economy. She has found that it declining. Read the full text of her report by clicking the link below.

Download kc_market_share.doc

Price of Government

Over the past several weeks, as the Mayor and City Council have deliberated about the budget, the Mayor has referred on several occasions to the "price of government approach" or "performance-based budgeting." These ideas are based in part on the work of David Osborne and Peter Hutchinson, who wrote The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

http://www.governingmagazine.com/books/price.htm

9-1-1 and KCPD's "Blueprint"

At the Finance and Audit Committee meeting today (1/30), councilmember Johnson asked about audits of the police department 9-1-1 call taking. As I heard the discussion, I was reminded of the KCPD's "Blueprint" which includes an analysis of call taking.

The Blueprint (369 page PDF document) is available at:

http://www.kcpd.org/kcpd2004/berkshire/Final-Berkshire-l-2.pdf

The analysis of call taking workload and staffing is on pages 296 and 297 of the PDF. The consultants found too few staff to ensure a high level of service.

The Blueprint includes lots of analysis, numerous recommendations for improving police service, and a survey of police employees (the survey begins on page 353 of the PDF).

- ME

Small Business Survey

There was a lot of discussion of small business during the Economic Development and Incentive Task Force meetings. The Federal Reserve Board surveys small businesses across the nation. An article summarizing the survey is at:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2006/smallbusiness/smallbusiness.pdf

Here is a summary:

The Survey of Small Business Finances (SSBF) collects information on small businesses (fewer than 500 employees) in the United States. Owner characteristics, firm size, use of financial services, and the income and balance sheets of the firm are just some examples of the types of information collected.

The 2003 Survey of Small Business Finances, the fourth in a series sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board, provides detailed information on the characteristics of small businesses and on the types and sources of credit and other financial services they use.

- ME

More good info from the Federal Reserve Bank, this time of St Louis. This article explores how neighborhoods can preserve progress when foreclosed and problem properties start showing up.

- ME

Ten Magazine

Ten is a magazine released quarterly by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. It offers highly readable reports on the often complicated economic research that goes on at that institution. It's also a must-read of the Policy Analysis team.

We're currently working our way through the winter issue. It contains a very interesting article about forums the Kansas City Fed has held here, at the Kauffman Foundation, about home foreclosure issues.

- ME

Violent Crime in America: A Tale of Two Cities

Last week, the Police Executive Research forum released a report on recent trends in violent crime rates entitled Violent Crime in America: A Tale of Two Cities.

A desrciption of the report from PERF's website:

This report is the third in a series on the increases in violent crime levels that began in 2005, following a decade of falling crime rates across the nation. Violent Crime in America: A Tale of Two Cities suggests that new programs and policies undertaken by local police to reverse unfavorable crime trends may be having an impact. For the first time in three years, PERF’s survey of 56 jurisdictions showed indications of decreases in homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, and aggravated assault with a firearm during the first six months of 2007, when compared to the same period in 2006.

However, the report also shows that the improvements are far from universal. The devastating increases in violent crime of 2005 and 2006, when many cities saw homicides increase 20 percent or more, are continuing in many jurisdictions.

Thus the “Tale of Two Cities”: Crime is continuing its upward trend in many jurisdictions, while in other communities there are signs that police and the residents they serve are working together and are making a difference.

Kansas City's Police Department participated in the national summit that led to thiss report.