## Notes from 13 March 2026 [[2026-03-12|← Previous note]] ┃ [[2026-03-14|Next note →]] I discovered Florida’s **[Water Management Districts](https://www.sfwmd.gov/who-we-are)** while reading another excellent post at [Governance Cybernetics](https://www.governance.fyi/p/california-and-the-rest-of-america) by [[Dave Deek]] . They feel structurally similar to what [[2025-05-06|Texas MUDs]] do in housing, but applied to water management. Florida’s modern WMD system dates to the **Florida Water Resources Act (Chapter 373) of 1972**, which created five districts with watershed-based responsibilities. The feature that matters most, though, is fiscal: Florida’s framework authorizes WMDs to levy **ad valorem (property) taxes** for water management purposes, with constitutional millage limits and statutory guardrails. That means they don’t have to compete each year for ordinary legislative appropriations in the same way many agencies do. This gives them a dedicated revenue stream that supports long planning horizons and sustained capital programs. --- The World Bank's _[Public Workforce Performance and Prosperity](https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/public-workforce-performance-and-prosperity)_ — lead-authored by [[Zahid Hasnain]] and the [[World Bank Bureaucracy Lab|Bureaucracy Lab]] team — was published two weeks ago, and I've only had time to go through the executive summary. Want to come back to this carefully. From what I've read so far, the report draws on what is probably the largest cross-national dataset ever assembled on public sector employment, covering 400 million public workers across 151 countries. The core diagnostic is stark: low- and middle-income countries are simultaneously understaffed and poorly skilled, in large part because recruitment lacks merit and transparency. - Public sector wages are on average 9% higher than the formal private sector, but pay structures are so compressed and badly designed that they generate weak performance incentives — the premium is largest for low-skilled workers, which means the system attracts and retains the wrong profile. - I found the exam-based recruitment data is striking: Brazil sits at the high end globally, with 75–90% of public servants hired through competitive exams depending on the unit — well above most development peers. - Performance evaluations are widespread in name but rarely done well or linked to consequences. - Training is shockingly scarce - Digital investment has been substantial, but governments systematically underuse these tools for actual workforce planning and evidence-based decisions. The report's framing of management as a choice between __accountability__ (monitoring, results) and __empowerment__ (trust, discretion, community engagement) is useful — and the evidence leans toward empowerment being more effective for the harder problems, including integrity and anti-corruption, where surveillance-based approaches have mixed results at best.