BY Dr. Alan R. Shark

It’s that time of the year when many of dust off our digital crystal balls and develop one’s predictions for the year ahead. Having spent a good deal of time scanning the collective wisdom of others, I offer my annual take on what trends will be most prevalent in cities and counties across the nation. We begin the new year with continued worries about inflation, fear of a recession and political insecurity. Public managers and tech leaders are beginning to hunker down for a year of uncertainty and insecurity. Not all will be gloomy in 2023 as we will see tech once again shine in both applications, services and leadership.

1. Cyber insecurity remains the No. 1 concern for years to come. PTI’s 2022 Local Government Cybersecurity National Survey has had cybersecurity at the top of the list for more than 10 years straight. The reason for cyber insecurity is year-to-year dramatic increase in cyber crimes coupled with a lack of qualified and trained staff, and all too often—inadequate budget resources. Congress passed an historic four-year $1 billion Federal Cyber Grant Program in late 2021 as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. The program calls for 80 percent to go to local governments and of that, 25 percent is to go to rural localities. But now that we have all studied the rules—no one expects much to happen in 2023. Why? Because the requirements are extremely cumbersome and demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the needs of local governments and how they operate. This means local governments will have to continue on their own and not count on federal support, at least for now.
2. Cyber insurance is becoming more difficult to apply for and afford. Insurance applications have become far lengthier and more difficult to fill out, and many local governments lack the expertise to complete them let alone afford the insurance. Premiums have more than doubled in the last year and coverage has actually decreased. This will cause some local governments to be outpriced, leaving them to fend for themselves and if they are fortunate put money aside for self-insurance.
3. Tech staffing insecurity continues to get worse in 2023 unless elected leaders and public managers get serious about changing employment rules that go back a hundred years. Every tech manager I have spoken with laments how difficult it is to attract new staff, let alone keep their most qualified. Those who leave government are realizing salary increases between 35 percent and 50 percent on average. To make matters worse, a growing number of local governments are now insisting that workers return to their physical offices at least three days a week, while some insist on the full five. Tech staffing insecurity leads to greater cyber insecurity too. The problem of burn-out among the existing staff will become unstainable unless staff innovation takes hold. This translates into more competitive benefits, workplace flexibility, and the ability to work from home and other out-of-state locations.
4. Managed Service Provider (MSP) insecurity is quickly becoming a serious dilemma for local government forced to turn to MSPs to augment stretched thinned staff. Supply chain attacks are on the rise and local governments are facing a crisis of trust; after all, they have turned to MSPs for expertise they cannot provide alone. Many local government managers are asking if not demanding MSPs provide better cyber protection and they want such assurances in writing. And there is no standard for which MSPs must abide by way of best practices. The bright spot here is the emergence of StateRamp and CompTIA’s Trustmark Plus programs that aim to certify cyber readiness that map security to CIS standards.
5. Zero trust, I.D. management insecurity continues to become essential in order to trust in our nation’s digital infrastructure systems. Many need to be reminded that the internet was first conceived as a near complete trusted environment among known participants. Two-factor authentication (2FA) coupled with I.D. management, and enhanced access rights governance will make systems far more secure. Local governments will continue to move toward greater zero-trust architecture.
6. Customer-facing technologies, which became essential during the pandemic, will continue to proliferate and improve. While the pandemic is somewhat winding down (the full extent remains to be seen) residents have come to appreciate online services as they do in the private sector. In the longer run, online automated systems save time and money for both citizens as well as government workers. As more systems move toward cloud-based services, the trend towards offering more online services will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Governments at levels will be pushing out new apps in the ever-growing mobile environment where government can be reached 24/7 from anywhere.
7. Augmented artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are becoming more human-friendly and have become great tools in areas such as customer service. Chatbots have proven to be an effective means of supplementing staff in answering routine question either through text or voice. Offices are installing robotic receptionists and HR systems are providing interactive voice systems for their benefits policies. AI is being deployed in public safety, transportation, public works and data analysis to name just a few. Repetitive Process Automation (RPA) is finding new applications that enable public managers to achieve greater productivity and making it possible to deploy staff to perform jobs that are less monotonous and instead place them in more challenging positions.
8. Blockchain for trust might be viewed as more aspirational than a new year trend, yet blockchain technologies are taking hold albeit slowly, where blockchain continues to be promoted as a means of providing near alter-proof records and providing greater trust from the public. Some have argued that blockchain technologies might be a great way to track and record election data that may help satisfy a distrustful public.
9. Broadband access continues to grow. Last year Consumer Reports produced the “Survey on Broadband Affordability, Accessibility, and Quality of Service in the United States,” showing three-quarters of U.S. residents now view home internet as a basic necessity with a similar share of respondents voicing support for public networks built out by local governments. Three out of four Americans feel that municipal/community broadband should be allowed because it would ensure that broadband access is treated like other vital infrastructure such as highways, bridges, water systems and electrical grids, with equal access for all Americans to have equal access to it. Accelerated by the pandemic broadband insecurity has been met with the federal government stepping in and funding meaningful broadband protects throughout the nation. While the ambitious federal funding continues, much more needs to be done. The current build-out is certainly moving in the right direction, but required completion dates will need to be extended.
10. Data analytics will explode. Smart cities and counties depend on reliable data from which to operate systems, provide the narrative for smart planning and improved data-based decision making. The tech community will continue to rally behind data innovation and new forms of data curation. Data innovation focuses on how we can do things both differently and better. Smart public managers will insist on better data from all sources, and better data from which to make decisions goes a long way in addressing insecurity.

Dr. Alan R. Shark is the vice president public sector engagement and executive director of the CompTIA Public Technology Institute (PTI) in Washington, D.C., since 2004. He is a fellow of the National Academy for Public Administration and co-chair of the Standing Panel on Technology Leadership, and associate professor for the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. He is also the host of the popular bi-monthly podcast, Comptia Sharkbytes. Dr. Shark’s thought leadership activities include keynote speaking, blogging and as the author or co-author of more than 12 books, including the nationally recognized textbook Technology and Public Management(now in its second edition), and CIO Leadership for Cities and Counties.

READ MORE:

https://www.americancityandcounty.com/2022/12/14/2023-ten-predictions-for-a-year-of-increased-insecurity-and-opportunity/

READ FROM TOP.

Before the election, right-wing leadership in both the House and Senate declared their intentions to hold the debt ceiling hostage to demand cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits. 

This would be a disaster. Failure to increase the debt ceiling would wreck the global economy, producing a recession or even depression, and would weaken America’s standing in the world. 

Failure to increase the debt ceiling would not do anything to limit future spending, it would simply force the United States Treasury to default on its existing bonds.

Why is the new right-wing House majority making this threat? Because they have spent nearly a century resenting that Social Security works. It is a model of a simple, universal, and overwhelmingly popular government program. Our Social Security system puts the lie to Wall Street's insistence that private corporations are more efficient than what we can do together.

Social Security and Medicare are overwhelmingly popular. So while Wall Street has wanted for decades to cut, privatize, or otherwise destroy them, they have never been able to overcome the significant popular backlash to those cuts. That’s why they’ve hidden behind fast-tracked commissions, committees, and processes like the one Mitt Romney proposed in his TRUST Act. They want to cut Social Security behind closed doors, without their fingerprints.

President Obama attempted to negotiate with Republicans in order to raise the debt ceiling in 2011. Those negotiations yielded an agreement that prolonged the Great Recession, led to the downgrading of the United States’s credit rating, and nearly resulted in cuts to Social Security and Medicare. America is a democracy―we should not allow government-by-hostage-crisis to become routine. 

President Biden must make it clear: Raising the debt ceiling is the basic minimum that we expect from Congress. There can be no negotiation over a necessity.

Tell President Biden: Demand a clean debt ceiling increase!

READ MORE:

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/tell-president-biden-demand-a-clean-debt-ceiling-increase?

READ FROM TOP.

IF ONE READS THE ARTICLE AT TOP, ONE COULD BELIEVE THAT THE "DEMOCRATS" WERE WAITING FOR THE REPUBLICANS TO TAKE THE HOUSE, IN ORDER TO BLAME THEM FOR THE "DEMOCRATS" FAILURE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICAL BENEFITS.... YOU WOULD NOT BE WRONG. JOE BIDEN'S ADMINISTRATION HATES THE POOR WHILE FINANCING  RIDICULOUS WAR EFFORTS THAT WILL END UP IN THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF "UKRAINE". SILLY!!! NEGOTIATE NOW, FROM WHATEVER POSITION KIEV FINDS ITSELF, BECAUSE KIEV'S VICTORY IS A LONG WAY OFF, LIKE IN THE NEVERNEVERLAND.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

BY STEPHEN SEMLER

Last [YEAR], the US House approved a more than $80 billion increase in military spending by a whopping 350 to 80 margin. The Senate is expected to consider the legislation — the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — this week.

Out of the $858 billion the bill authorizes for the Pentagon, private companies should expect a staggering $450 billion. After all, the lifeblood of the US arms industry is the annual military budget (though it also makes a killing off of foreign sales). The largest weapons firms are especially dependent on Pentagon largesse. In 2020, 74 percent of Lockheed Martin’s revenue came from congressionally approved funding. For Northrop Grumman, another industry giant, that number was 84 percent.

With so much money at stake, it’s little wonder that military contractors sent the House trucks full of cash before the NDAA went to the floor. The 430 members who cast votes on the bill received $14.5 million in campaign and PAC contributions from the arms industry from 2021 through October 2022, according to data from OpenSecrets.

Do these political contributions influence, or at least correspond to, vote outcomes? Top congressional recipients bluster that they aren’t swayed by the checks poking out of their pockets. But after comparing the average amount a House member received to how they voted on the NDAA, I found that lawmakers who supported the $80 billion military spending hike accepted seven times more cash from military contractors than members who opposed it.

This dynamic is readily apparent in both parties, but more glaring among Democrats: yes votes took 8.7 times more industry cash than opposing ones, while House Republicans who backed the funding boost picked up 5.5 times more than their caucus peers.

The overwhelming disparity between yes and no votes — 81 and 19 percent, respectively — doesn’t reflect the view of the public. If it did, the outcome would have gone the other way, or at least been much closer.

According to a recent survey, 36 percent of Americans think Congress should cut military spending and 46 percent say it should remain flat. So even though fewer than 20 percent of the public wants a bigger Pentagon budget, more than 80 percent of US representatives just supported swelling it by $80 billion. And while Democratic members strayed farther from the views of their base than Republicans, both were out of step with ordinary people.

The distortionary effect of the weapons industry goes far beyond one roll call vote. Arms industry contributions systematically fuel a hypermilitarized, destructive foreign policy. They help drive up Pentagon spending for arms races and endless wars and reward particularly hawkish lawmakers. Survey after survey shows that the public is ready for more sensible, pro-worker approaches to foreign policy. But arms industry cash — among other factors — ensures that Congress is not.

READ MORE:

https://jacobin.com/2022/12/military-industrial-complex-budget-congress-arms-industry-war

READ FROM TOP.

SEE ALSO: 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....