Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Theses/Dissertations

2011

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Using Pen Source Data Inputs To Map Food Insecurity In Cumberland County, Maine, Daniel Wallace Dec 2011

Using Pen Source Data Inputs To Map Food Insecurity In Cumberland County, Maine, Daniel Wallace

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

In 2010, Mapping Food Insecurity’s Project Director (PD) participated in “The Campaign to Promote Food Security in Cumberland County, Maine.” The Campaign drew together a 60 member coalition to address rapidly increasing food insecurity challenges in the county. It produced a report with a series of recommendations grouped under six strategic community goals. One of the recommendations called for the use of ‘mapping and connectivity software to determine location of vulnerable populations and services in order to plan best future delivery and use of food access services in Cumberland County

Go to article

Stakeholder Participation In Large Scale Complex Systems Modeling: Lessons From An Urbansim Users Community, Sandra H. Goff Dec 2011

Stakeholder Participation In Large Scale Complex Systems Modeling: Lessons From An Urbansim Users Community, Sandra H. Goff

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Complex systems models for urban and regional simulation are increasingly being used as tools within decision-making processes underscoring the need to involve stakeholders in the modeling process. Stakeholder participation can serve both learning and community-building purposes, improving model legitimacy, saliency and accuracy and resolving conflicts over competing interests. However, the complex and highly technical nature of modeling activities has the potential to serve as an important barrier to stakeholder engagement. Members of an online UrbanSim user community were contacted in order to examine stakeholder participation in the development and implementation of UrbanSim models. For analysis purposes, a participation hierarchy was …

Go to article

Municipal Stormwater Management In Northern New England: A Comparative Study Of Leading Programs, Doug Roncarati, Keisha Payson, Rod Melanson, Fred Dillon Nov 2011

Municipal Stormwater Management In Northern New England: A Comparative Study Of Leading Programs, Doug Roncarati, Keisha Payson, Rod Melanson, Fred Dillon

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

To gain a better understanding of how regulated municipalities in northern New England are addressing current stormwater rules and anticipating future stormwater rules, detailed questionnaires were administered through interviews to eleven MS4 communities in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont during the winter of 2010 – 2011.

Go to article

Trends In Maine Revenue, Jamie Brennan Oct 2011

Trends In Maine Revenue, Jamie Brennan

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

The State of Maine faces a troubling financial situation. Per capita personal income levels have lagged behind the national average for years.1 It is no secret that Maine residents have been over burdened by the state’s revenue system for some time. Taxes regularly claim a larger portion of individual income than in other states around the nation. Since 1993, tax burden in Maine has ranked among the top ten in the nation in every year but one.2 Despite the heavy burden of the revenue system on Maine residents, the state faces regular budget shortfalls.

Go to article

Financing Maine's State Employees And Teachers Retirement System: Comparative Trends And Progress, 1982 - 2010, Moargan Beschle, Eric Davis, Tim Feeley Sep 2011

Financing Maine's State Employees And Teachers Retirement System: Comparative Trends And Progress, 1982 - 2010, Moargan Beschle, Eric Davis, Tim Feeley

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Among the many tough choices states must make is how to address funding shortfalls in public employee pension systems. In public sector employment, pensions have long been a key component of the compensation system and an integral way to attract and retain talent in public service positions. The pension is considered a form of deferred compensation, which means that workers receive a salary lower than the going rate for their education, skills and job requirements in exchange for an enhanced retirement package (Bender & Heywood, 2010). State employees incur an opportunity cost by taking a lower-salaried state job over a …

Go to article

Reinventing Maine's Corrections System: A Survey Of Budget Smart Alternatives To Unsustainable Spending, Griffin Jones Aug 2011

Reinventing Maine's Corrections System: A Survey Of Budget Smart Alternatives To Unsustainable Spending, Griffin Jones

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

After the recent Great Recession of 2008, state budgets are facing increased scrutiny in every area of spending. States are increasingly turning to corrections spending, as one such area, to look for efficiencies and innovations that will help relieve fiscal stress, while also maintaining the strict judicial and safety standards expected by the public. However, state corrections systems are coming out of an imprisonment “binge” during what was often referred to as the “Tough on Crime” nineties, and without intervention in the form of smarter, more effective strategies, further uncontrolled growth in the corrections system will prove untenable to the …

Go to article

Public Debt Management In The State Of Maine 1993 Through 2010, John B. Greenwood Jun 2011

Public Debt Management In The State Of Maine 1993 Through 2010, John B. Greenwood

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

An analysis of Maine's public debt position was undertaken in order to: 1) review the history of Maine's public debt position; 2) compare Maine's public debt position against the U.S. average; 3) determine whether Maine's public debt position has been doing progressively better, worse, or about the same; and 4) if possible, make immediate-future hypotheses about Maine's public debt position.

Go to article

A Comparative Fiscal Analysis Of Scarborough, Maine, Maxwell K. Chikuta Jan 2011

A Comparative Fiscal Analysis Of Scarborough, Maine, Maxwell K. Chikuta

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

This study seeks to assess Scarborough’s fiscal and budgetary position within a comparative framework, in an effort to assist the town in identifying fiscal trends, opportunities and potential policy pitfalls. This scope and content of the analysis requires the author to make sense of a complex set of community fiscal indicators and budget data.

Go to article