The Report of the President’s Task Force on Model Cities, U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1970.

Edward C. Banfield chaired this task force, which included James Q. Wilson (a former student of his), Richard Lugar (then Mayor of Indianapolis), Professor James Buchanan, and others.

Excerpt:

Although federal support of the cities has increased sharply in recent years, it has not had the results that were hoped for in those parts of the cities where conditions are worst. This is partly because the biggest federal outlays have been in the suburban fringes and in rural areas. It is also because the federal government has tied too many strings to the aid it has given. Over-regulation has led to waste and frustration.

With about 400 grant-in-aid programs involving roughly $10 billion a year, federal aid to cities is now on such a scale that the federal bureaucracy is incapable of administering it. In the view of the Task Force, most city governments can be trusted to use federal funds in the manner Congress intends, but whether one trusts them or not it is necessary to allow them much more latitude because the alternative is waste and frustration and/or their replacement by a vastly expanded federal-state bureaucracy.

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