The last few decades have presented a new set of challenges and opportunities for public finances. Demographic trends have put substantial pressure on non-discretionary public expenditures such as health care, while legal challenges have put pressure on education financing. The author illustrates how these national trends have also impacted state and local finances - some directly, others indirectly. The economic downturn further constrains state and local governments' options for dealing with national trends. Constituents' sentiment toward the size of government further exacerbates fiscal choices for state and local governments. In this broad and illuminating volume, experts on public finance discuss innovations in state and local tax policy implemented or considered over the course of the last three decades. The authors provide original work that analyzes whether state and local governments have 'gone outside the box' to deal with the strains of current public finances or have gotten along by adhering to the status quo. Well-known scholars in the area of state and local public finance consider actual practices and analyze potential policy changes for the future. Public policy and public finance scholars and students as well as policy makers will find much of interest in this impressive and original collection.
1 Introduction and overview by Sally Wallace 3
2 Major state- local policy challenges: outside-the-box solutions needed by Ronald C. Fisher 9
3 Genesis of state-local creativity by Rubert Tannenwald and Jennifer Weiner and Igor Popov 28
Discussant comments by Mary Mathewes Kassis 58
Discussant comments by Jason S. Seligman 60
4 Going without an income tax: how do states do it? by David L. Sjoquist 67
5 California's state and local revenue structure after Proposition 13: is denial the appropriate way to cope? by Robert W. Wassmer 98
Discussant comments by Don Bruce 125
6 An exploration of various corporate tax structures in Georgia: some effects of moving from three-factor apportionment of corporate income to a gross receipts tax by Jonathan Rork and Laura Wheeler 131
7 Can Georgia move from income tax to consumption tax? by Sally Wallace 156
Discussant comments by William J. Smith 173
8 Reaching and maintaining structural balance: leaders in the states by Katherine Willoughby 179
9 Fiscal limitations on local choice: the imposition and effects of local government lax and expenditure limitations by Daniel R. Mullins 201
Discussant comments by Kurt Thurrnaier 266
10 Out-of-the-box conference: an epilogue by Bert Waisanen 271
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