Managing the Fiscal Metropolis ─ The Financial Policies, Practices, and Health of Suburban Municipalities

For scholars and practitioners in local governments, Hendrick (public administration, U. of Illinois at Chicago) analyzes the financial condition, management, and policy making of local governments in a metropolitan region. Drawing on interviews with officials and news reports, she examines 264 Chicago suburban municipalities from the late 1990s to 2010 and identifies the factors and events that affected their financial decisions and conditions, including fiscal capacity, governing institutions, administrative approaches, and fiscal threats like recessions. She considers strategies the local governments use to manage them and solve financial problems through policies on tax rates or debt levels and practices for budgeting or cash management, and the impact of contextual factors and stresses on decisions and overall financial conditions. She also looks at how the role and incentives of government officials and their approaches to governance affect financial policies and practices, as well as influential state policies and metropolitan features. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Rebecca M. Hendrick is an associate professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago.