April 2005  

The EconData.Net Monthly Newsletter

SITE OF THE MONTH:  GRADING THE STATES, 2005

Governing Magazine's Latest Rankings of State Policies and Management
Want to get a thorough and objective comparison of the current standing of each of the fifty states in nuts and bolts issues like financial management, human resources, information technology and infrastructure?  There's no better place to turn than Governing Magazine, which in February released their 2005 report card for each of the key functions of state government.  The Government Performance Project, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, has developed its methodology over the last four years, and provides its assessment of state government management in each of four areas, with specific details in each area.  The project is a collaboration between a number of academic experts and journalists from Governing Magazine.

FINANCE-Long-term Outlook, Budget Process, Structural Balance, Contracting, Controls
HUMAN RESOURCES -Planning, Hiring, Retention, Training, Managing Employee Performance
INFORMATION-Strategy, Performance Budgeting, Performance Measures, Evaluation, E-Government
INFRASTRUCTURE-Capital Planning, Project Monitoring, Maintenance, Coordination

The website offers an innovative and flexible tool for comparing one selected state against others.  You can create a "simple" comparison, a narrative comparison (which extracts narrative summary information for selected states) and a comparison against better performing states.

Too often, the ratings game is just about amassing some data and creating a weighting formula, and the results often obscure more than they clarify.  Unlike many rankings, the Government Comparison Project doesn't simply offer up scads of un-explained data, but provides its own narrative analysis and insight on the state government accomplishments and challenges.  In addition to comparative data and rankings, you'll find state-by-state reports that assess and explain the story behind the grades.  A good model for how to undertake rankings--you'll want to see this one.
http://results.gpponline.org/

Mean Streets:  A Pedestrian Danger Index

If you don't like the way I drive, stay of the sidewalk
One of the primary objectives of new urbanists has been to make our nation's neighborhoods for attractive for walking.  A new study from the Surface Transportation Policy Project rates each of the nation's largest metropolitan areas in pedestrian safety.  They've tracked trends in pedestrian safety over the past decade and computed a "Pedestrian Danger Index."  The index is a measure of the average yearly pedestrian fatalities per capita, adjusted for the number of walkers in each metropolitan area. Four Florida cities--Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach and Miami--top the list of most dangerous, while Northeastern and Midwestern cities tend to rank lowest, with Boston being the safest place to walk. The ranking list appears on page 19.
http://www.transact.org/library/reports_html/ms2004/pdf/Final_Mean_Streets_2004_4.pdf 

Bankruptcy Statistics

American Bankruptcy Institute Provides Insights on Economic Hardship
Within the past week, the U.S. Senate has been debating some major changes to statutes governing personal bankruptcies.  As usual, we at EconData.Net take a strong interest in the geography of these economic phenomena.  The American Bankruptcy Institute, a trade organization of self-described busy insolvency professionals, gathers data from the US Courts and the Census Bureau, to compute bankruptcy rates by state.  They rank each of the 50 states by the number of households per personal bankruptcy.  Nationally, through March 31 of last year, about one in 71 households had filed for bankruptcy; Utah ranked highest (1 bankruptcy per 37 households) and Alaska lowest (1 bankruptcy per 171 households).
http://www.abiworld.org/statcharts/HouseRank.htm 

Newsletter of the Month:  Job-Watch List

Tracking Employment Trends by State
The Economic Policy Institute offers a monthly newsletter that follows the US employment situation.  Their  JobWatch newsletter tracks current trends in the U.S. labor market and offers up-to-date readings on its status.  Results are summarized in a graphic map comparing employment growth to projections.  You can subscribe at:
http://jobwatch.org/states/ 

NEW LINKS

Mineral Resources
Let's rock!  April's new links feature a series of reports and data on the geographic distribution of the nation's mineral resources.  

•  U.S. Geological Survey
  Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data:  Spatial display of mineral data.
  http://mrdata.usgs.gov/
  

• Mineral Industry Surveys
  http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/mis.html
  

• Mineral Commodity Summaries
  Annual report on approximately 90 commodities, includes text and maps regarding location of mining and processing activities.
  http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/
  

• Mineral Resources Program
  Access to data on mineral resources.
  http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/textlink