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The purpose of this paper is to assess the resilience of tourism businesses in a coastal city in the USA to coastal hazards and severe weather events. The researchers developed a framework for assessing the resilience of coastal tourism businesses and demonstrated the applicability of the framework using the case study of Virginia Beach.

Researchers conducted structured, face-to-face interviews with tourism business owners and managers, using an instrument based on an assessment framework with five components: vulnerability, business planning and operations, preparation and recovery planning, communications and workforce. In total, 32 participants representing 42 businesses in the accommodations, restaurants, retail and activities sectors at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront were interviewed.

Many participants did not feel highly vulnerable due to structural mitigation efforts taken by the city. Larger businesses undertook more strategic planning, preparedness and recovery planning. All businesses had effective ways of communicating with staff and customers, and through membership in local organizations, had access to resources. While not all businesses prioritized training for employees, they recognized the importance of providing support for staff during severe weather events.

As one of the few studies on tourism resilience in the USA, this study highlights the variability of resilience among tourism businesses within a destination.

The purpose of this paper is to examine drivers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) tolls using data from a survey of drivers in the Hampton Roads region of Southeastern Virginia. The theory of planned behavior is applied to understand the different factors contributing to WTP tolls. The study measures different dimensions of WTP, offers a two-stage approach that aligns correlates of WTP tolls in logical sequence, and assesses the role of price information (toll rates) as an anchor heuristic in WTP.

Three WTP measures are elicited via contingent valuation method using three survey questions that incorporate different price information. The study tests the role of price information as an anchor heuristic. WTP is analyzed using a two-stage decision process. Drivers first decide whether, in-principle, to support tolls, followed by the amount they are willing to pay (maximum and peak amounts). Three regression models are run to test the impact of ability to pay on amount WTP, impact of in-principle WTP on maximum WTP, and impact of maximum WTP on peak WTP given an anchor toll rate.

Attitudes supportive of tolls and the ability to pay are predictors of in-principle WTP, while in-principle WTP predicts amount (maximum and peak) WTP. Price information, as an anchor heuristic, reduces variability in amount WTP and conditions the amounts WTP.

The value and originality of this study lie in the application of the theory of planned behavior to study WTP tolls, the use of contingent valuation, and the effect of anchor heuristics.

Public agencies contract out to pursue a variety of goals. But, these goals cannot be realized if the performance of contractors is not assessed and monitored. This study examines the state of performance measurement and contract monitoring in the U.S. transit agencies. We focus on three research questions: (1) What monitoring capacity exists within transit agencies? (2) What monitoring methods are used by transit agencies? (3) What performance measures are tracked by transit agencies? We find monitoring units are common in a third of agencies in the study. Service and customer complaints are the most common performance measures, while penalties and liquidated damages are the most frequent form of penalties. Finally, we find that transit agencies utilize a variety of output and outcome measures to monitor contractors.

This article highlights key aspects of capital management, including capital planning, capital budgeting, capital financing, decision making and capital spending outcomes. We provide a background discussion of public sector capital management, followed by a summary of the articles that comprise this symposium. Combined, these articles illustrate the complexity of and challenges to capital management at the state and local government levels. We discuss common themes that emerge from reading these articles as a collective symposium, including: (1) modest progress in applying and empirically testing theoretical frameworks; (2) the variety of actors and institutions; and (3) the deteriorating condition and poor performance of public infrastructure. We use the articles to illustrate gaps in the research and offer suggestions for future research on capital management theory and practice.

GASB Statement No. 45 addresses how governmental units account for employees' other post-employment benefits (OPEB), requiring government employers to replace OPEB reporting on a pay-as-you-go basis with an accounting of the cost of current and future benefits. This requirement and the resulting OPEB liability may prompt government employers to reconsider key questions regarding their OPEB provision. The size of the OPEB liability depends on both the benefit promises made to employees and the assets to fund these promises. We propose a typology that defines four approaches for governments to respond to GASB 45 and their OPEB liabilities. These approaches represent different combinations of strategies involving OPEB promises and assets. We illustrate these strategies and responses using selected counties and nine mid-Atlantic cities.

This paper focuses on the American states and the sources of the expanding structural imbalance between their highway-related revenues on the one hand and expenditures for transportation infrastructure needs on the other. The paper describes the roots of the funding problem over recent decades, looks at some of the responses taken at the state and federal level, and discusses their inherent limitations as solutions to this funding crisis. The paper also presents several policy recommendations for increasing revenues. We demonstrate that a variable rate gas tax indexed to the construction cost index and improvements in automobile fuel efficiency and a tax on large commercial trucks based on equivalent standard axle loads (an esal-mile tax) would more effectively fund the state highway system and reduce the need for more spending on maintenance and new facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to compare public preferences for investment and spending on non-automobile infrastructures (mass transit and bicycling) to preferences for new roads and the repair of current highways. The study explores the factors that explain preferences for non-automobile infrastructure using a three-factor model including self-interest (personal transportation benefits), concern for community-wide benefits (political beliefs), and concern for the economic impact. The study uses a case study of the urban context of the Hampton Roads region of Southeastern Virginia (USA).

The analysis uses data from a 2013 telephone survey of urban residents in the Hampton Roads area. Survey respondents were asked to identify their two investment priorities from four options: repairing existing roads, bridges, and tunnels; constructing new or expanding roads, bridges, and tunnels; expanding mass transit; and expanding bicycle routes and improving bike safety.

Repairing existing highway infrastructure is the most popular spending priority (66 percent of residents). There is as much support (46 percent) for investing in non-automobile infrastructure as for investing in new roads, bridges, and tunnels. Significant predictors of support for non-automobile infrastructure, using the three-factor model, are: length of commute time, self-identification as liberal, use of light rail, and a belief that light rail contributes to economic development.

The study examines public preferences for both non-traditional and traditional transportation infrastructure investments. It highlights the factors that contribute to public support for different transportation spending options.

The International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) was established to reduce the complexities of reporting, allocating, and collecting diesel fuel taxes from interstate commercial carriers operating in multiple jurisdictions. This paper examines IFTA’s effectiveness as a multistate tax administration model from the perspective of the states. We identify three criteria of effectiveness and use a survey of IFTA officials in the member states and provinces as well as additional data provided by IFTA, Inc to assess IFTA’s effectiveness. We conclude that (1) IFTA promotes inter-jurisdictional cooperation and revenue transfers; (2) carriers do not locate disproportionately in low tax jurisdictions; and (3) IFTA’s audit system, which relies on carrier record-keeping, may not be effectively preventing tax evasion.

This paper analyzes the impact of economic downturns on the revenue and expense sides of city financing for the period 2003 to 2009 using a convenience sample of the audited end of year financial reports for thirty midsized US cities. The analysis focuses on whether and how quickly and how extensively revenue and spending directions from past years are altered by recessions. A seven year series of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) data serves to explore whether citiesʼ revenues and spending, especially the traditional property tax and core functions such as public safety and infrastructure withstood the brief 2001 and the persistent 2007 recessions? The findings point to consumption (spending) over stability (revenue minus expense) for the recession of 2007, particularly in 2008 and 2009.