Home » Article index

MuniNet Medley: 12/20/11 - Harrisburg Receiver’s Website, Less Transparency in NJ, “Giving and Getting” in NY, TX Weather

Harrisburg’s state-appointed receiver, David Unkovic, is committed to keeping the public in the loop regarding the City’s recovery plan.  In addition to public town hall meetings, the Receiver’s Office has launched a website that provides relevant documents, a timeline of events, and a comment form through which the public can submit comments .... 

... While the trend in state and local government has been to increase levels of transparency, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has decided that there is such a thing as too much transparency - especially if it puts state law enforcement officials at risk, according to a NJ.com article.  Hence, the YourMoneyNJ website  (an awesome website, by the way) will be removing certain state payroll information, particularly for state law enforcement officials.  Apparently, the data was never supposed to have been on the website in the first place, but was included in error.  In addition to payroll information, annual evaluations and background checks for state troopers will also be removed ... 

... In a new report entitled, Giving and Getting, the Rockefeller Institute of Government examines the regional differences between revenues and expenditures in New York.  The study finds that downstate New York contributes more to the state in taxes and revenues than it gets back in expenditures for services, while the reverse is true for upstate regions.  New York City chipped in over 45 percent of the state’s total taxes and revenues, and received roughly 40 percent of state dollars for expenditures, according to the report.  

... Milwaukee County will be spending over $52 million to purchase 132 new low-emission buses - about one third of its Transit System’s fleet - over the next two years, says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  Public transit spending has been hotly debated by the city and county since a 1991 Congressional appropriation of $289 million for a Milwaukee area transit project.  The decision to buy the new busses ends the first chapter the 20-year-long dispute, according to the article.... 

...Texas was the state hardest hit by extreme weather in 2011, according to Climate Central, which has released its list of the ten states most impacted by severe weather over the past year.  Texans were dealt several weather blows over the past year, from an intense drought to wildfires, heat wave, and tornados.  Other states rounding out the top five states impacted by extreme weather in 2011 were Alabama, Missouri, North Carolina and Oklahoma ...