Perceptions, Realities, and Euphemisms: Community Choices of In-House Service Provision or Alternative Service Delivery

Increased expectations for municipalities to provide services, a push for updating and maintaining the services already provided, and simultaneous dealing with strained budgets and less federal funding opportunities have led some communities to adopt alternative service for delivery of public works systems. This research project creates a new data set of localities and investigates what characteristics increase the likelihood a political subdivision will choose an alternative service delivery system for what was a traditionally in-house public service. Testing three hypotheses, findings indicate need for expertise does not play a role in service delivery choices