UW-Extension has been a leader in working with local units of government across Wisconsin on issues related to intergovernmental cooperation. An important element in this educational programming is "best practices" associated with the merging of city and village services. Nine examples have been carefully documented and are available online at:
http://lgc.uwex.edu/Intergovt/index.html

Mary Newsom / Jun 25 2009

For Release Thursday, June 25, 2009
Citiwire.net
Maybe somewhere in Obama-land, stimulus money is protecting public school classrooms. But here in the red clay of North Carolina, there’s a teacher layoff bloodbath going on.
 

Throughout Wisconsin, counties, local units of government and other partners are working together to deliver valuable services with fewer resources. Cooperative service initiatives, regionalization of services and other innovative approaches are helping governments do more with less. In 2003, the Wisconsin Good Government Award program was established to recognize the best of these efforts. 
 

As a follow-up to Terry Ludeman's presentation, we wanted to look more closely at worker productivity trends for Wisconsin.  What we found was not very encouraging.  See the table and chart of our findings.
 

The Local Government Institute of Wisconsin and the Office of Energy Independence have developed a survey to gauge awareness of energy planning among local units of government.  All local governmental units in Wisconsin have been invited to complete the survey by June 24, 2009.  Results of the survey will be presented at the quarterly meeting of the Energy Independent Communities to be held in Stevens Point on June 29th.  Survey results will also be posted on this website after presentation at the June 29th meeting.
 

All local units of government are invited to attend the second quarterly meeting of the energy independent communities pilot planning program at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Stevens Point on June 29th from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
 
The pilot communities who are preparing energy independence plans under a grant from the Wisconsn Office of Energy Independence will discuss their progress, challenges and successes in data collection and analysis and setting priorities for achieving their energy independence goals.  The results of a local government survey on readiness to plan for energy independence will also be discussed.
 
There will also be experts speaking about the production and use of bio-fuels in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Way hosted a conference on April 27, 2009 titled "A Closer Look at, and Assessment of, The Blueprint for Change Economic Development Initiatives." The conference was held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Madison. The Wisconsin Way is a partnership of statewide organizations with the goal of finding a new way to fund public services.
 
Wisconsin Eye videotaped the conference in three parts.  Those can be accessed from Wisconsin Eye through these links:
 
Part 1

The Local Government Institute of Wisconsin has issued a request for research proposals to investigate balancing tax responsibilities and modernizing local government revenue sources through appropriate and sustainable changes in state and local revenue policy. 
 

Terry Ludeman, retired chief labor economist for the Department of Workforce Development, addressed the LGI Board at its May meeting.  Ludeman discussed Wisconsin's status relative to the "New Economy" and how this affects local government in our state. 
 
Combining some key statistics about Wisconsin with characteristics about the current economy, Ludeman paints a somewhat troubling picture for Wisconsin's future, unless we are able to successfully tackle a few key issues.  Ludeman puts these issues in the context of economic development goals.
 
Key statistics:
1. Wisconsin is a low wage state, ranking 31st.

EfficientGov is a system of local governments that meets the needs of citizens in a way that is cost-effective and cooperative. EfficientGovNow is what the 16-county region of Northeast Ohio needs to compete in the global economy.
 
http://efficientgovnow.org/