The Emerging Roles of County Governments in Rural America: Findings from a Recent National Survey
Abstract
County governments are the fastest growing level of local government in the United States. Based on a recent survey of counties in 45 states, this paper analyzes the size of county governments relative to other local governments, the scope of county government services, and fiscal stress faced by county governments.
... However, this does not account for other factors that influence relocation decision making, such as disaster impacts on infrastructure and community services [49]. Finally, a quick comparison between the portion of rural versus urban governance structures which do have adaptation and land-use planning sections (31% versus 71%) shows that rural settings are usually overlooked in adaptation research [50]. At the same time, they are often even more vulnerable to climate impacts due to factors such as demography, occupations, earnings, literacy, poverty incidence, and dependency on government funds [51]. ...
... where RD W,n is the relative deviation from baseline of stochastic iteration n under flood weight of W, Pop t,y,n,W is the population of stochastic iteration n in tract t and year y under flood weight of W, Y is the number of years simulated (50), and T is the total number of census tracts (430). ...
Human migration triggered by flooding will create sociodemographic, economic, and cultural challenges in coastal communities, and adaptation to these challenges will primarily occur at the municipal level. However, existing migration models at larger spatial scales do not necessarily capture relevant social responses to flooding at the local and municipal levels. Furthermore, projecting migration dynamics into the future becomes difficult due to uncertainties in human–environment interactions, particularly when historic observations are used for model calibration. This study proposes a stochastic agent-based model (ABM) designed for the long-term projection of municipal-scale migration due to repeated flood events. A baseline model is demonstrated initially, capable of using stochastic bottom-up decision rules to replicate county-level population. This approach is then combined with physical flood-exposure data to simulate how population projections diverge under different flooding assumptions. The methodology is applied to a study area comprising 16 counties in coastal Virginia and Maryland, U.S., and include rural areas which are often overlooked in adaptation research. The results show that incorporating flood impacts results in divergent population growth patterns in both urban and rural locations, demonstrating potential municipal-level migration response to coastal flooding.
In the absence of significant federal economic development resources, local officials face complex choices about both the level and the orientations of their policy efforts. A national study of local economic development officials indicates that cities in this post federal period are characterized by increased local economic development activities even when relying on own-source revenues, by risk-taking rather than risk-aversive approaches, and by more diverse policy orientations emphasizing indigenous growth and job creation strategies. Cities using more entrepreneurial tools that demand active city roles appear to be more likely to have higher average job and firm growth rates than cities never using these tools.
This article focuses on the role of county governments in local economic development. It examines whether counties are fulfilling their potential as regional coordinating bodies in economic development and explicitly tests the hypothesis that counties are more likely to engage in demand-side economic development incentives because of this role. Using the International City/County Management Association Economic Development data set, the author compared economic development practices in cities and counties. The findings are somewhat mixed but indicate that counties are, at least to some extent, fulfilling a coordinating role and are more likely to practice certain types of demand-side incentives than cities.
This study assesses the explanatory power of macrolevel political economy theory for redistribution across local areas. We focus on contentions about the role of industrial structure and institutional arrangements in income growth and inequality in two periods, 1970 and 1990. Specific hypotheses are derived from the Social Structures of Accumulation approach. These include (1) that redistribution processes have shifted, with manufacturing employment and institutional arrangements between capital-labor and state-citizens less able to generate local growth and reduce income inequality than in the past, and (2) that effects of manufacturing employment on inequality are partly contingent on local institutional context. These hypotheses are tested for U.S. counties using regression models that conceptualize geographic processes through spatial diffusion effects and nesting of counties within states. Results support most baseline, 1970 relationships suggested by theory. Other findings run counter to political economy claims. They do not support assumptions that progressive institutional arrangements and leading manufacturing industries worked in tandem to reduce inequality. Relationships between inequality and manufacturing employment remain similar in 1970 and 1990, but there is some evidence that the role of institutional arrangements in redistribution may be shifting. On balance, however, local patterns of inequality and their social determinants have changed little despite two decades of Fordist restructuring. The results provide local-level evidence challenging widely held assumptions about a profound break in redistribution relationships relative to the past. They indicate the need to investigate inertia as a social process.
Rising fiscal pressure on local governments in rural areas of the United States is documented in this study. The level of fiscal burden on taxpayers to support local governments in nonmetropolitan areas is found to be higher than that in metropolitan areas between 1977 and 1987. Using a model from the urban fiscal literature, the level of fiscal burden in nonmetropolitan areas is found to be influenced by a combination of demographic, socioeconomic, intergovernmental, and historical factors. Intergovernmental revenue transfers from the state and federal government play a critical role in determining the level of fiscal burden rural taxpayers bear. These findings have implications for rural economic development and for understanding how rural areas are influenced by the larger society.
Our own analysis and brief review of other work suggests that the impact of the WRA in rural areas will in many respects be as large as, or even larger than, in urban areas. In terms of the three questions posed earlier, we conclude that certain rural areas will be disproportionately affected by the reform, that smaller rural counties with high rates of unemployment will have difficulty absorbing new workers, and that nonmetropolitan counties that are adjacent to metropolitan areas are more sensitive to the business cycle than are nonadjacent counties in terms of unemployment rate changes. Wage earnings already tend to be lower in rural than in urban areas, whereas excess labor levels are higher in rural areas, as revealed both by reported unemployment rates and by estimates of disguised unemployment. Consequently, the work requirements of the WRA will likely exert considerable downward pressure on rural wages as effective labor supplies increase, thus impacting those already working at wages near the legal minimum. The "working poor" will thus bear a disproportionate share of the adjustment cost of welfare reform. Furthermore, the impact of cutbacks in different welfare programs will vary significantly across the states, and many California counties will be affected by the abolition of AFDC; many Kentucky counties will be affected by the tightening of SSI eligibility rules; and both Kentucky and Texas counties will be affected by changes in FSP regulations. States that have succeeded the most to date in moving former welfare recipients into the workforce will almost certainly face greater problems in the future in continuing to meet the requirements of the WRA (see also Zedlewski and Giannarelli). The reason for this is, given a distribution of employable skills, (dis-) utility of working, and lengths of prior unemployment spells that affect work qualifications, these states will increasingly be dealing with the more difficult-to-employ welfare recipients. This is important in part because state authorities face strict time lines for moving specific percentages of their welfare populations into the workforce. In addition, federal funding for the transition program will become a smaller share of the total budget, just as training costs increase. Although the average share of personal income comprised of all welfare payments combined is relatively small, the share averages close to 6% in the decile of top transfers-dependent counties. Clearly, some counties will be affected considerably more than others by reductions in welfare payments, and many of these are in rural areas. In particular, the 25% of nonmetropolitan counties with high rates of unemployment, dependency on transfer payments, and unskilled workers are affected the most. Historically, outmigration to urban areas has been the only long-term option for residents of rural areas with persistently high unemployment. With recent changes in the economy, questions must be raised as to whether the migrants have the skills needed to obtain work in urban areas and whether urban labor markets can absorb a large number of rural workers. This in turn raises the possibility that history, in the form of a new "war on poverty," may soon repeat itself.
Ongoing concern over welfare dependency has stimulated the US Government to enact welfare reform legislation that features work requirements. Under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, millions of able-bodied welfare recipients will now be expected to find work within two years. We analyze data from the March 1994 Current Population Survey to address the neglected question of whether a sufficient number of jobs will be available for those looking for work. Using two methods to estimate job availability, and a variety of assumptions about which welfare recipients will be required to work, we estimate that as few as 18 and as many as 54 welfare recipients and other unemployed individuals would be competing for each available job. Separate analyses by residence provided equivocal evidence on whether metropolitan or nonmetropolitan welfare recipients will have the more difficult time finding gainful employment.
This paper explores the normative implications of competition among ‘local’ jurisdictions to attract new industry and income. Within a neoclassical framework, we examine how local officials set two policy variables, a tax (or subsidy) rate on mobile capital and a standard for local environmental quality, to induce more capital to enter the jurisdiction in order to raise wages. The analysis suggests that, for jurisdictions homogeneous in workers, local choices under simple-majority rule will be socially optimal; such jurisdictions select a zero tax rate on capital and set a standard for local environmental quality such that marginal willingness-to-pay equals the marginal social costs of a cleaner environment. However, in cases where jurisdictions are not homogeneous or where, for various reasons, they set a positive tax rate on capital, distortions arise not only in local fiscal decisions, but also in local environmental choices.