local governments

The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that an Urbana hospital doesn't provide enough charitable services to qualify for a property tax exemption, a decision hospitals in Illinois worry could lead local governments to try to overturn other exemptions in a hunt for badly needed cash.

Local governments and public entities, already reeling from the recession, face another fiscal crisis: billions of dollars in fees owed to Wall

(National Academy of Sciences) Zoning restrictions on fast-food restaurants near schools and playgrounds, community policing to improve safety around public recreational sites, requirements that publicly run after-school programs limit video game and TV time, and taxes on high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and drinks are some of the strategies local government officials can use to tackle the childhood obesity epidemic in their communities, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council.

Private investors buy tax liens from local governments and charge double-digit interest rates and thousands of dollars in service fees.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Data Transfer Solutions, LLC, which provides professional GIS (geographic information systems), asset management, software engineering and web development services to government agencies, has launched a new online service to help local governments and their agencies qualify for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding.

Local officials in city and county governments across the country are scrambling to maintain services in the face of a sharp drop in revenues.

By John W. Schoen.

ELKHART, Ind. - After a long winter, this is high season for road repair, and the Elkhart County Highway Department has a busy schedule.

But deep budget cuts have forced changes in that schedule to try to get the same work done with less money.

Homeowners in the U.S. are challenging their property tax bills in droves as the value of their homes drop, threatening local governments with another big drain on their budgets.

Though consultants who show local governments how to raise more money turn up again and again in places where bond deals have turned sour, they are virtually unregulated.