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Governing.com: 13th Floor

Welcome to the 13th Floor, a blog on state and local government by the writers and editors of Governing Magazine. Our view from Suite 1300 is all right: top floor, but for sure no penthouse. Crane your neck, you might just see the White House. The party animals here in D.C. can do their thing. We're talking about what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls.

NYC's Swanky New Marriage BureauToday

posted by Zach Patton

We wrote last year about New York City's plan to spruce up its marriage bureau in an effort to attract more matrimony-minded couples (and more matri-money, too). NYC is currently second to Las Vegas in the number of marriage licenses it issues, and the Big Apple wants a bigger piece of the pie.

The $12 million renovation, which opens next week, replaces the old marriage bureau -- a cramped, 70's-era warren of bland, unsightly offices -- with a soft-lit marble showplace with expansive dressing rooms for brides-to-be.

And there's a city-run store, too, according to the New York Times:

Forget the wedding band? No problem. The new bureau offers an elastic faux-diamond band for $9. No flowers? They are available as well — $4 to $7 for a single stem and $25 to $50 for a bridal bouquet. There is also hairspray ($4), disposable digital cameras ($16.25) and tissues, at $1.75 a pack, for the weepy types.

The Times also has a video tour of the new space.

Toll Trap: Why a Fee for E-ZPass is NOT a Good IdeaJanuary 6

posted by Ellen Perlman

Maryland is thinking about charging a fee for E-ZPass users, whether they use the pass or not, according to a Baltimore Sun story. Not a good idea.

Number one, because I use an E-ZPass,  and it would cost me $1.50 a month to keep it -- even though I use it rarely. Number two, because I use an E-ZPass and I likely will cancel it. It makes little sense to me to pay for nothing.

I'm guessing I'm not alone. It won't feel right to occasional users to, say, rack up $9 over six months, and then use the pass to zip through, a $2 toll near Baltimore or a 50 cent toll in Virginia.That becomes an $11 or $9.50 toll, in effect.

So what will be the result?

Longer lines at toll booths and perhaps a commensurate need to hire more toll booth staff. Less incentive for drivers to consider getting an E-ZPass. More paperwork for the state, from people who cancel their passes. And, perhaps, game the system by ordering another one if they have frequent trips on toll roads coming up.

This may sound silly but I know someone who wouldn't buy an RFID-enabled SmarTrip card for DC's Metro system because he didn't want to give $5 to "the system."

Maybe Maryland has taken this into consideration and assumes that most people use their E-ZPass (compatible with Smart Tags and other state zip-through-tollbooth cards) enough that the fee won't dete

City Life = Brain Damage?January 6

posted by John Buntin

The evidence is surprisingly strong, some neuroscientists say.

Attention and self-control are particularly harmed by urban life. The best antidote seems to be a big dose of nature. In particular, humans respond well to the the rich variety of places like New York's Central Park.

In contrast, researchers say, the denuded savanna of, say, the national Mall in downtown Washington does little to soothe the mind or promote sanity.

Could this explain the occasional madness of Congress? If the incoming Obama administration wants to bring sanity to Washington, DC perhaps it should plant some trees as part of that stimulus package...

Start-Up GovernmentJanuary 5

posted by Will Wilson

Today's Washington Post has a nice story on DC chief technology officer Vivek Kundra. The opening of the article especially underscores how Kundra not only uses technology in aid of public policy, but how he finds creative ways to invest in technology:

In October, he launched a contest called "Apps for Democracy" to encourage developers to create applications for the Web and cellphones to give District residents access to city data such as crime reports and pothole repair schedules.

"I expected to get maybe 10 entries, but we got 47 apps in 30 days," Kundra said. He said he spent $50,000 for the contest and prize money, and estimates he saved $2.6 million over what it would have cost to hire contract developers.

The article also quotes Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra. Chopra developed a similar "Venture Governmentalist" approach (which I wrote about in July), with the twist that Chopra solicits grant proposals from government employees and offices themselves.

Both Kundra and Chopra advise Barack Obama on tech issues -- which may itself provide a good hint as to what the president-elect might be looking for in his promised tech czar position.

And i

Big-Budget MoviesDecember 31 2008

posted by Alan Greenblatt

It would be easy to conclude that New Mexico's program of tax incentives for film and TV producers has been a big success. The state is hosting roughly 10 times as much film production as it did a decade ago. Albuquerque is now home to some of the largest soundstages in the world, and Sony Pictures Imageworks plans to move its special-effects operations to a new location there.

But a look at the numbers suggests that all this new activity has come at considerable cost. During the past fiscal year, according to a recent study, New Mexico granted $38.2 million in tax rebates for TV and movie production, but in return saw only enough increase in economic activity to generate $5.5 million in public revenue. "For every one dollar in rebate," the study concluded, "the state only received 14.44 cents in return."

Over the past five years, all but 10 states and some cities have created film-incentive programs. This has spread production around, but no one has come up with a formula that can be shown to provide a net economic benefit for the state or locality itself.

Some places are still seeking a method that can work. The goal, says Ivan Schwarz, of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, should not be to land a few movies but to persuade