The Hidden Wealth of Cities: Policy and Productivity Methods for American Local Governments.

• Author: Zorn, Paul

Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, Inc., 1989. (290 pp)

Reviewed by Paul Zorn, consultant, Government Finance Research Center, Government Finance Officers Association, Washington, DC.

During the past decade, state and local governments have been forced to do more with less, as shrinking federal aid and voter disapproval of tax increases have severely limited governmental resources. During the same period, state and local governments have been given more responsibility for meeting the growing demand for public services, including education, public assistance and safety.

The challenge of doing more with less has nurtured a movement to improve the productivity of state and local governments. Out of this movement has come a wide variety of techniques with an even wider variety of names. The resulting complexity makes it difficult to understand or evaluate the methods proposed to improve productivity. The Hidden Wealth of Cities presents a concise and readable introduction to many of the techniques public officials might use to mine the productivity treasures buried within their management methods and labor force.

The first three chapters provide background into the history of federal grants-in-aid and discuss the problems arising from their growth during the third quarter of the century and their decline over the past decade.

The second part of the book presents descriptions of specific techniques for improving governmental productivity, including program ranking, alternative budgeting, contracting public services to private vendors, value analysis, target based budgeting and work measurement. In addition, one chapter in this section describes the development of a comprehensive productivity program that incorporates the concept of productivity "investment" into financial performance management.

The third part discusses the general steps that public officials might take toward the development of a "self-financed" city, i.e., a city that relies mostly on its own economic resources to provide local services. These steps generally involve 1) the development of an...