Paper looks at how localities are reinventing themselves.

• Position: News & Numbers - Brief article

The premise behind Coping with Crisis: How are Local Governments Reinventing Themselves in the Wake of the Great Recession ? is that America's cities, towns, and counties are in the process of reinventing themselves now that the easy measures for cutting costs and improving efficiency have been adopted.

This paper, prepared for the International City/County Management Association by the Governmental Affairs and Policy Committee, examines the scope of strategies considered by local governments, using keywords from daily ICMA News Briefings from April 15, 2009, to April 15, 2011. According to the results of the research:

* The majority of proposals were aimed at cutting expenditures rather than raising revenue.

* Elected...