Posts by Zest SMS
Monroe County Puts Community Climate Ideas into Action
A new county matching grant program is helping local governments turn climate plans into projects residents can see in their neighborhoods. A walking trail, a neighborhood tree nursery, a more…
Read MoreLocal Employer Payroll Data and County Budget Forecasting
County-level employer payroll data shows how pay is distributed across local industries and how that activity has changed. Budget offices can use it to examine economic exposure, then compare the…
Read MoreCounty Emergency Response Technology Lessons From the Field
County emergency response technology can help field teams report property damage and track evacuation contacts. Mobile assessment tools and live maps give supervisors information they can use to coordinate response…
Read MoreErie County Home Rule Charter in Pennsylvania
The Erie County home rule charter in Pennsylvania was approved by voters in 1976 and took effect on January 1, 1978. It replaced the commissioner system with an elected County…
Read MoreCounty Public Health Programs That Win National Awards
Howard County, Maryland has earned 391 NACo Achievement Awards since December 2018. In 2026 alone it took 113, a Maryland record, spanning 16 of the 18 national award categories. What…
Read MoreSmall County Economic Data: Why Size Doesn’t Limit Value
County Business Patterns covers every county in the United States. All of them. A county of 4,000 residents appears in the same federal dataset as Los Angeles, updated on the…
Read MoreSalt Lake County Government Transition to Mayor-Council
For nearly 150 years, a three-member board ran Salt Lake County. Territorial Utah called them selectmen, sitting alongside an appointed probate judge. Statehood in 1896 turned them into county commissioners.…
Read MoreKing County Home Rule Charter: A 1969 Government Overhaul
In 1952, King County voters rejected a plan to modernize their government by nearly two to one. Sixteen years later, voters approved a strikingly similar reform, and the county has…
Read MoreCounty Manufacturing Employment Data: A Practical Guide
Manufacturing pays more per worker than almost any other private sector, which makes county manufacturing employment data one of the most useful numbers a county leader can track. A single…
Read MoreCounty Digital Inclusion Programs: Cook County’s Model
Cook County collected more than 35,000 pounds of used government equipment and turned it into refurbished computers for residents who needed them. That single effort captures what strong county digital…
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