Howard Frank

Florida International University | FIU · Department of Public Administration

A number of Public Administration (PA) scholars have raised concerns regarding the discipline’s neglect of macroeconomic challenges. Our article focuses on the link between macroeconomic trends and PA. We submit that PA needs to address changing economic structure, shrinking workforce, growing financial leverage, and rising wealth inequity to maint...

Cities across the United States are facing a severe infrastructure deficit. The challenge of financing infrastructure capital assets has emerged as one of the most urgent issues of the country. Using a panel data consisting of 100 American central cities from 1988 to 2012, this research reveals that city governments are responsive to sociodemograph...

As states move toward offering defined contribution retirement plans as an alternative or addition to traditional defined benefit pensions, they need to consider the preferences and long-term consequences for different groups of employees. This study looks at which plan employees choose when given the option of either a defined contribution or defi...

Policymakers face significant liabilities with traditional defined benefit (DB) plans in the government. Unlike defined contribution (DC) plans, the fiscal risks under DB plans are borne by the plan sponsors, that is, state and local governments, and ultimately taxpayers. The Great Recession heightened pension solvency concerns in many jurisdiction...

The Florida electorate passed Amendment One on January 29th, 2008. The portability provision of this Amendment allows homestead owners to transfer the difference between assessed value and estimated market value of their current homestead property to their new property. Since passage, there has been limited and declining utilization of the portabil...

The "pension tension" in the public sector is couched as a "trillion dollar deficit" or generally speaking, a question of affordability or intergenerational equity. We argue that the inevitable switch out of the defined benefit (DB) model to a defined contribution (DC) model is more than just a "fiscal sustainability" issue; it is a paradigm shift...

Unfunded liabilities of pension plans sponsored by state and local governments have drastically increased in the past few years. This article examines the potential challenges faced by states and municipalities in meeting their pension obligations and explores the cost and benefits of a switch from traditional defined benefit (DB) plans to defined...

Unfunded liabilities of pension plans sponsored by state and local governments have drastically increased in the past few years. This article examines the potential challenges faced by states and municipalities in meeting their pension obligations and explores the cost and benefits of a switch from traditional defined benefit (DB) plans to defined...

Results from a national survey of local government finance directors suggest that five years after implementation, the post-Statement 34 accrual-based accounting model has done little to stimulate the development of operating cost data (such as activity-based costing) or performance measurement, and provides decision makers with little information...

This article analyzes the content of 584 articles published in the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting, and Financial Management and Public Budgeting and Finance with principal focus on how the public financial management knowledge base is generated. We find remarkable diversity of authorship and academic domicile. However, we note an absence o...

Survey findings from Florida reveal that larger, higher risk communities perceive greater budgetary trade-offs, a view that supports in part the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s recently implemented strategy in distributing its grants. Per expectations, city managers with graduate education saw higher levels of readiness and lower threat risk...

Two decades of research on municipal forecasting practice suggest that it is less advanced than other sectors. Moreover, local forecasters have a greater error tolerance than peers. Survey results of Florida’s finance directors provide evidence of why this is the case. Unlike other levels of government, local finance officials receive limited polit...

In light of the increasing convergence between public and private sector accounting models, should local governments be required to adopt requirements similar to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)? Survey results from 42.2% of municipal finance officers from Ohio and Florida suggest they embrace in concept the enhanced accountability resulting from adopt...

Comparative performance measurement (CPM) is a tool that is increasingly advocated by both academics and practitioners yet its systematic implementation via consortium participation is rare. Using logistic regression and content analysis of survey results from Florida’s 297 city managers, the authors found support for performance measurement but li...

In this article, we assess the impact of the Adker consent decree, a federal desegregation agreement implemented since 1999. It requires that Miami- Dade County public-housing offers be initially made on the basis of race and that half of the eligible turnover of Section 8 vouchers be given to former or current Black public-housing residents. Altho...

This study examines the perceived impacts of electronic government or e-government adoption on U.S. cities. This research conducted a survey of Texas and Florida city managers in the fall of 2005 to find out their opinions on the impact of e-government on their city government. The results indicated that e-government is having a positive impact on...

Will implementation of GASB Statement 34 induce the adoption of cost-accounting models in local governments? The authors address that question based on the findings of a national survey of local and county finance officers. Findings suggest that while finance officials recognize that GASB 34 will prompt greater accuracy and transparency in financia...

This article examines homeland security administration and finance in Texas county governments in the United States. A survey was conducted in the spring of 2006 to determine the extent of funding sources for homeland security and the perception by county officials on the effectiveness of financing homeland security. First, the results of this stud...

Certain of GASB Statement 34’s requirements might on their face induce an upgrading of local sector forecasting capacity as well as a reduction of tolerated forecast error. Results from our national survey of local and county finance officers suggest that respondents with graduate degrees who work in offices with forecasting software may respond to...

The heightened interest in performance measurement (PM) in government holds tremendous promise for both academicians and practitioners. Indeed, under a best-case scenario, PM is a subject in which public administration researchers provide relevant information that informs practice and bolsters citizen views of government. However, as the authors co...

Performance measurement is a hot topic among practitioners and academics. This article describes a pedagogical approach that requires students to learn the state of the art in performance measurement for a particular municipal service and compare those findings with facts on the ground in two communities. Students are also required to interview ele...

This article explores the possible impact on cash flows and balance sheets of Florida’s 67 counties if asset depletion were recorded in a manner analogous to that of private entities. Findings highlight the difficulty that may be encountered with changing emphasis of government accounting from focus on cash flows to that of actual resources utilize...

This article presents a study of revenue forecasting in a Florida municipal government. Seven techniques, including the budget officers' judgmental approach, time series models, a deterministic model, and an optimized model, are employed with franchise and utility receipts in the Town of Davie. The authors found that simple time series models outpe...

This article proposes new directions for a reoriented public financial management in the 1990s. Substantively, it calls for less research and pedagogy devoted to budget theory and format work and greater attention to "nuts-and-bolts" topics such as cash management, forecasting, and budget execution, as well as broader social issues related to Ameri...

Findings from a nationwide survey of Government Finance Officers Association members confirm previous research that indicates an over reliance on judgmental as opposed to quantitative forecast methods, for both revenue and expenditures. While incumbents in larger cities, and with advanced degrees, evidence greater forecast training than their small...

The use of time series forecasting models can improve forecasting accuracy, allow decision makers to budget closer to their true revenue constraints, and yield considerable cost savings. These techniques can be implemented incrementally and at little cost, will complement existing budgetary procedures, and will enhance the effectiveness of the reve...

The public sector's use of financial incentives, such as pay for performance, gainsharing, performance bonuses, suggestion bonuses, and piecework plans, is very limited, even at a time when the use of such approaches is gaining increased acceptance in the private sector. The view that public workers are more intrinsically motivated than their priva...

Forecasts of revenue from major sources in eight Florida cities suggest that simple time-series models such as the moving average and exponential smoothing may be appropriate for revising revenue forecasts within the fiscal year, a practice that has been shown to help local governments budget closer to the ever-tighter budget restraints they face....