Municipalities in fiscal distress may seek to adjust debts under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code either because they are truly destitute or because they lack the political will to adopt affordable tax increases. Local officials of municipalities that enter bankruptcy proceedings nevertheless...

Courts in municipal bankruptcy cases have confronted the inherent vagueness in the statutory tests for municipal “insolvency” by embracing a test of “service delivery insolvency.” That test is typically evaluated in terms of a significant reduction in the availability of city services....

Recent state legislative enactments that preempt local legislation also include novel provisions that impose significant penalties on municipalities or individuals who challenge the state's action. These penalties include loss of funding or loss of office for localities or officials who assert a...

Cover -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- 1 The Scope of Local Competence -- 2 Why Does Local Autonomy Matter? -- 3 The Meaning and Scope of Local Redistribution -- 4 Why Do Local Governments Redistribute? -- 5 Local Political Markets and State Constitutional Constraints -- 6 Proxies for Distinguishing...

The dramatic rise of remote work threatens the traditional source of urban growth – the unique ability of dense cities to provide a setting in which firms and employees share productive resources, match needs with skills, and transmit knowledge at low cost. These “agglomeration benefits”...

States have traditionally offered support to their fiscally distressed municipalities. When less intrusive forms of assistance fail to bring stability, some states employ supervisory institutions that exercise approval authority over local budgets or, more intrusively, that displace locally...

Few still believe that Puerto Rico is capable of meeting all of its financial obligations and continuing to provide basic services. The territory is already in default, and conditions are rapidly deteriorating. Is there a way forward? We think there is. In this short article, we outline a...