This applied study examines the effects of local taxes and government spending on the employment growth of 17,172 Maine establishments that were in operation in 1996 and 1999. Empirical results indicate that taxes have a negative effect on an establishment’s three-year employment growth...

This article examines the popular notion that elected officials, particularly at the local level, can not be trusted with broad powers of taxation; that they are likely to use and perhaps abuse all of the powers of taxation they possess. The study looks at the use of tax powers, made over a 30...

Many state legislatures grant local governments the authority to enact sales taxes on retail sales transactions that occur within local jurisdictions. Local government reliance on these local option sales tax (LOST) revenues is increasing. In many states, including Oklahoma, municipal...

Pareto welfare criterion based only on people’s willingness to pay for the project’s output is regarded by many as being a narrow interpretation of an improvement in social well-being. A broader opinion is that even though poorer individuals may be less able to pay for a particular...

Since the success of Serrano v. Priest in California, at least 43 states have experienced legal challenges to their education financing formulas and in 19 states court rulings have forced changes in these formulas. A result of this litigation is a transfer of resources from districts with higher...

State governments increasingly use financial incentives to target and attract firms. The li-terature on state supported development reports mixed results at best as to whether there are net economic benefits to the state economy. Little has been done, however, to investigate the benefits that...

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal program that provides assistance to low- and no-income people in the United States. Its aim is to increase individuals’ food-purchasing power and improve the nutritional content of their diet. We employed recent advances in...

The fiscal behavior of county governments in Pennsylvania is constrained by state law. Counties can adopt a home rule charter, allowing the county government to set tax rates higher than the statutory limits. Opponents argue that home rule leads to higher taxes and an expansion of county...

State-assisted venture capital programs are a popular strategy to stimulate entrepreneurship and small business development. This study estimated the number of job-years created from 1988 to 2000 by the publicly- assisted program Kansas Venture Capital, Inc. (KVCI). The impact of KVCI in...

Tax and expenditure limitations (TEL) on state and local governments have been passed with the presumption they will limit the growth of government, raise government efficiency, and increase direct democracy by requiring voter approval of tax increases. Both the popular press and the academic...