This paper develops new measures of environmental costs and local revenue capacity as the basis for a new municipal aid formula in Massachusetts. On the cost side, unlike previous studies, we quantify the effects on local non‐school spending of characteristics related to uncontrollable costs....

On January 1, 2013, the federal estate tax regime in effect from 2001 to 2012 is scheduled to revert to its pre-2001 structure. A 35% rate will soar to a 55% rate. A $5 million exemption will plummet to $1 million. Some deductions and credits enacted in 2001 will disappear while others repealed...

Economic segregation has increased over the past half century. The trend of rich localities getting richer while poor localities get poorer is particularly concerning because it limits upward mobility and perpetuates intergenerational income inequality. This Article makes the novel argument that...

This paper discusses the value of participatory democracy using Uganda's decentralization and local governance structures as a case study. Participatory democracy is a method of local or national political organization which enables people at the grassroots to contribute to decision making in...

This paper develops new measures of environmental costs and local revenue capacity (that is, the ability of local governments to raise revenue), in order to form the basis of a new general-purpose aid formula for Massachusetts cities and towns. On the cost side, unlike previous studies, our...

Adam S. Wallwork is an attorney in the public finance and tax departments of Ballard Spahr LLP in Washington, D.C. In this article, Wallwork shows how tax reform has affected the municipal bond market and why Republicans should care

This collection of papers by leading experts, emerging scholars, and policy makers in the field of municipal taxation and finance sets out the financial challenges facing municipalities in Canada today and examines various practical means of navigating these challenges

The residual view of the property tax assumes that local governments set their levy as the difference between budgeted expenditures and expected receipts from other revenues. If localities actually follow this approach then they would adjust the levy in the short run to compensate for economic...