In response to chronic fiscal constraints, local governments are considering management tools used in the private sector, such as activity-based costing, activity-based management, total quality management, benchmarking, process reengineering, and the balanced scorecard. A survey was conducted to understand the use of contemporary management techniques by municipal governments, their effectiveness, and future expectations. The most popular tool was benchmarking followed by process reengineering. Attitudes toward future use parallel those toward enthusiasm: 97% of UK administrators expect more future involvement with benchmarking, whereas many US and Canadian administrators expect no change in future use.