Michael Pagano, Interim Dean, CUPPA and Professor
Ph.D., Government (1980)
University of Texas at Austin

Public Administration (M/C 278)
115 CUPPA Hall
phone: 312-355-4681
fax: 312-996-8804
mapagano@uic.edu

Curriculum Vitae

The focus of Professor Michael Pagano’s work is on the life blood of municipalities, which is their finances, and its relationship to the intergovernmental system. He is co-editor of Urban Affairs Review. He recently coauthored a book with Ann O’M. Bowman, Terrra Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban Policy (2004) published by Georgetown University Press about the use and re-use of vacant land in cities.  A co-edited book with Robert Leonardi, The Dynamics of Federalism in National and Supranational Political Systems is an edited collection of papers that deal with federal polities in the 21st century and will be published by Palgrave in 2007. The Silver Anniversary issue of Public Budgeting and Finance (2005) featured his co-authored article with Daniel Mullins, “Local Budgeting and Finance: 25 Years of Developments.”  He currently contributes a monthly commentary to State Tax Notes, a weekly publication, called “The Third Rail.” His section focuses on local government finances. And he is currently engaged in a multi-year assessment of cities’ fiscal conditions in collaboration with the Pew Center on the States and National League of Cities, and funded by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. This is a national study of cities’ revenue structures and their underlying economic bases.

The Pew Center on the States is funding a fourth round of the Government Performance Project, for which Professor Pagano is the Principal Investigator on state infrastructure management. The purpose of “Grading the States” is to grade states on their infrastructure management practices. The assessment of the states is based on surveys, documents, and interviews. The findings from this study have been published in Governing magazine (February 2005) and presented at conferences. The project continues through 2008.