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In Massachusetts, Mobilizing Private Investment for Public Good
A homeless woman sits surrounded by her belongings on a bench in Boston’s Copley Plaza. (Getty) It was an ill-considered cocktail that put Adam Petrullo on the streets. He was living in a drug halfway house in Boston’s South End, undergoing methadone treatment for heroin addiction. Methadone makes heroin unappealing to addicts, but there are […]
In California, a State and Local War Over Revenue and Responsibilities
Its name is a pun. Dive Bar may sit along Sacramento’s struggling K Street pedestrian mall, but far from sheltering scruffy boozers, the bar caters to the trendy young. Especially those who like to socialize in sight of a large tank of water containing a young woman swimming around as a mermaid. Early this year, […]
Unlikely Duo of Daniels and Cuomo Crusades to Shrink Local Government
One is a Republican, the other a Democrat. The first speaks with a cadenced, pleasant Hoosier accent, his counterpart with the emphatic, not-quite-brusque manner of a New Yorker making a point. They enjoy enough prestige within their parties that they could some day wind up on opposite sides in the Senate or even opposing each […]
As States Cut Aid, Localities Learn to Do Less With Less
You can get accustomed to hard times, and over the last few years Ohio’s towns and cities learned to scrape by. Faced with the long-term decay of Rust Belt manufacturing and the financial travails of homeowners, banks and businesses of all sorts, they watched their tax revenues shrink and did their best to adjust. They […]
In New Hampshire, a Budget Gap That Never Goes Away
Photo by Jim Cole, the Associated Press Marjorie Smith, House Finance Committee chairman, listens as legislators try to fix the budget in N.H. “I hope no one leaves this room happy, because there’s nothing to be happy about,” Smith told lawmakers. As the New Hampshire legislature wound up a one-day special session earlier this month […]