Residents can plug in their home's value, see how taxes are spent by category with property tax tool A piece of MuniNet Guide's mission is to mine the web for relevant information on municipal finance, infrastructure, public policy, and numerous other issues, seeking...
Citizen Participation
‘Cities Challenge’ Offers Grants Large and Small for Innovative Community Builders
Knight Cities Challenge Accepting Applicants in Cities Across America Between October 10 and November 3, 2016, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications for their annual Knight Cities Challenge. A $5 million pool has been set aside in grants...
Fort Collins Colorado Earns Top Pick Status
Fort Collins' Website Gets Residents Where They Want To Go Quickly and Easily MuniNet brings back Top Pick features when it sees a website that is truly noteworthy. The city of Fort Collins deserves recognition for their exemplary city government website. Fort Collins...
Effective Civic Engagement Means Utilizing Modern Technology
Social Media, Mobile Tech, and Live Streaming Can Bring Engagement to Citizens The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has many great resources for public officials, students and scholars, and interested citizens. Mark Mack of the GFOA has put together...
Conference Focus: Participatory Budgeting Project 2016
Participatory budgeting injects direct democracy into the public budgeting process. Part of a government's budget is set aside, and its use it to solely be decided by public vote. Citizens nominate prospective projects, and vote on which projects are funded. The...
The Democracy Experiment: Will the Controversial New California Law Loosen the Voter Registration Process?
By Jeffrey L Garceau California’s New Motor Voter Act, passed into law last October, makes it the second state to implement an opt-out system for voter registration. In March 2015, Oregon became the first state to pass such a law. All other states require specific...
Are Public Libraries Still Relevant in American Communities?
by Mardee Handler Founded in 1833, the Peterborough Town Library in Peterborough, New Hampshire is the oldest tax-revenue supported library in the nation. If you visit its website, you’ll be greeted by an offer to follow the library on Facebook, attend a workshop to...
4 Ways to Become a More Informed Voter in Your State’s Gubernatorial Election
By Mardee Handler This November, voters in 36 states will cast their votes for a new (or re-elected) governor. Not unlike during other election seasons, TV screens across the nation are already ablaze with political ads that attack the opponent and distort the facts....