B&G REPORT.

As readers of this website know, we’re always on the lookout for exciting new programs and policies in state and local government. There are plenty of them out there. Not only do they provide fodder for this space, but we’re always pleased to share them with our friends, many of whom have come to believe that nothing good is happening in government today. But here’s our problem. After some time passes and we want to refer again to our original discovery, it’s often the case t

There was a long sad stretch during which nearly everything we wrote had some kind of COVID angle in it. The pandemic had so thoroughly thrown all state and local government functions into the unknown that whether we were writing about budgeting, human resources or performance management, COVID was part of the story. Now, in recent months, it’s dawned on us that even though COVID is no longer front-page news, it has altered state and local government management in dramatic wa

“Open your eyes. This horrible mess is your life. There is no sense in waiting for it to get better. Stop putting it off and live it,” wrote Robin Hopp in “The Mad Ship”, a book that was published in late 2003. Though the wording is kind of extreme, we think that a somewhat similar sentiment applies to city, county and state government. As good ideas wend their way to fruition, they’re going to encounter the unexpected, like it or not. If leaders expect a neat predictable una

Any day of the week, in hundreds of states, cities and counties. there are staffers engaged in brainstorming efforts. Often, they’ve been brought together from different programs or divisions to provide a cross-section of opinions. The idea is that brainstorming will be satisfying – a positive experience that will lead to innovation and solutions to outstanding problems. But brainstorming isn’t just a matter of bringing a bunch of people together in a room and hoping that ma

Over the course of the last few years, we’ve found ourselves writing increasingly about the challenges and accomplishments of towns, small cities and counties. In the past, it’s been a real temptation to focus on the work of large cities, as they tend to wind up in the news – and are more inclined than smaller places to publicize their accomplishments. But about one out of three incorporated communities in the United States has a population of under 50,000. We were inspired t