Government waste remains an enduring problem--paper pushers,nine-to-five attitudes, patronage jobs, unneeded bureaucracy,overlapping agencies, backward technologies, earmarks and all therest. No doubt about it spending is out of hand.
One of the most overlooked places of government waste is not atthe federal or state level. It's at the local level where in manyplaces we have myriad forms of county, town/city/villagegovernments with separate balkanized school districts all operatingwith various layers of officials doing the same jobs. And we allwonder why property taxes are so high in so many places.
Let's look at public schools. Within some counties there may bescores of separate school districts, each with their own high paidsuperintendent and staffs replicating policy, handling purchasing,managing HR, hiring various consultants, doing their own thingwithout any buying power or efficiencies gained from consolidatingoperations. Parents want to avoid losing control and influence inthe schools where they send their kids, and school qualityunderlies property values in many places. But school taxes are outof sight partly because of all this bloated administration.
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Jonathan D. Miller
A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.
