Problems, Attractions, and Chief Executive Priorities in Small Towns

Small Cities, Professionalism, and Tax Increment Financing: The Florida Experience

“…Finally, the scale of smaller cities tends to foster a 'Traditional-Individualistic" political culture value system which believes that local government should maintain and encourage traditional leadership patterns as well as perform only the basic municipal services so that individuals can pursue their private interests with limited government interference (Elazar 1970, 260-268). Knowledge of these above constraints (limited economic base, lack of professionalism, and the "Traditional-Individualistic" political culture) appears to be the key ingredient for understanding the SMALL CITIES 123 policy choices of small city officials (Mattson and Burke 1989;Kanervo 1990).…”

“…Unlike Mayor-Council, Council-Manager is less concerned with the development of poli tical consensus for gaining political support and more concerned with developing an economic plan required for revitalization. With fewer political cleavages and administrative veto points, we expect council manager (reform) cities to be more likely participants in an innovative program such as TIF (Gabris and Reed 1979;Perry and Kraemer 1980;SMALL CITIES 137 Garnberg 1966;Buck and Rath 1970;Stillrnan 1977;Kanervo 1990;Exoo 1984).…”