The world’s municipalities face deeply troubling fiscal challenges, from infrastructure gaps—such as the estimated $3.6 trillion shortfall in the United States—or precarious financial instruments like China’s $3.3 trillion underfunded municipal debt. In addition to the difficulties of meeting existing infrastructure needs, rising urban populations and a changing climate require local governments to make additional, preemptive investments for the future of their communities in order to plan and prepare for growth and sustainability. As cities contend with historic needs, large-scale municipal bankruptcies, such as the crisis in Puerto Rico, have highlighted assorted and ongoing problems, including chronically meager or diminishing city revenues, increasing costs of providing public goods and services, mounting historical obligations, and expanding responsibilities to both higher-level governments and local citizens.

Recognizing these factors, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy launched the Municipal Fiscal Health Campaign in 2015 to help equip policymakers and local government officials with the tools to address their communities’ fiscal challenges. Our activities have included mobilizing transnational research, providing training, sharing policy ideas, and fostering regional and international dialogue. The campaign has engaged global audiences, including members of Congress, leaders within the Federal Reserve Bank, and state and local government officials.

A seminal event in the campaign’s trajectory, this conference convenes leading experts, scholars, and practitioners for an international dialogue to further elevate municipal fiscal health as an issue of global importance.  

Conference Goals:

• Convene academics, practitioners, government officials, and regulators to discuss the state of research and practice on municipal fiscal health;
• Elevate the global importance of municipal fiscal health and create a meaningful opportunity for the productive exchange of ideas among expert stakeholders;
• Raise awareness of the importance of land policy in promoting sound municipal fiscal health; and,
• Enable the sharing of experiences, solutions, best practices, and ideas in municipal fiscal health among scholars and practitioners from different countries.

View all conference materials, including speaker presentations, here.

Conference Sponsors 

*If you are attending the conference and require a hotel room, the Lincoln Institute and its event planner, Drew Company, have acquired a room block at the Westin Book Cadillac. You can indicate your need for a hotel room during the online registration process, and the event planners will book a room for you. The room rate is $199 per night plus applicable taxes and service fees. You will be responsible for the cost of your hotel accommodations upon check out. Hotel reservation cancellations made by Friday, April 27, 2018 will not be charged, cancellations received after this date may incur a one-night charge.

Events in Detroit, Stockton, Flint, and Puerto Rico highlight the severe challenges related to fiscal systems that support public services and the continued stress they face given local governments’ shrinking revenue streams.

Whether you want to better understand public-private partnerships, new approaches to debt and municipal securities, or leading land-based finance strategies to finance infrastructure projects, this Professional Certificate in Municipal Finance will give you the skills and insights you need as you advance your career in urban planning, real estate, treasury, or economic development.

Overview

Created by Harris Public Policy’s Center for Municipal Finance and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, this three day program provides a thorough foundation in municipal finance with a focus on urban planning and economic development. It will be led by Michael Belsky, Executive Director, of the Center for Municipal Finance and Lourdes German, Director of International and Institute-wide Initiatives at the Lincoln Institute.

This course will include modules on the following topics:

• Urban Economics and Growth
• Intergovernmental Fiscal Frameworks, Revenues, Budgeting
• Capital Budgeting/Accounting and Infrastructure Maintenance
• Debt/Municipal Securities
• Land-Based Finance/Land Value Capture
• Public-Private Partnerships
• Cost Benefit Analysis – Across Public Finance Instruments
• Fiscal Impact Analysis

Participants will learn how to effectively apply tools of financial analysis to make strategic decisions and gain an improved understanding about the interplay among finance, urban economics and public policy as it relates to urban planning and economic development.

Upon completion of the program, participants will receive a Certificate in Municipal Finance.

Who Should Attend

Those with the following experience will be given preference for admission:

• New to senior-level urban planners who work in both the private and public sectors as well as individuals in the treasury, economic development, and land development industry at large. Relevant job titles include:
  • Urban Planners
  • Community and Economic Development staff
  • Developers and real estate professionals
  • Real Estate Attorneys
  • Treasury and Finance professionals