Local autonomy is a term that is frequently employed in both academic and popular discussions of local government, but it is rarely defined conceptually in a careful way or operationalized and subject to empirical research. In this paper we present a working definition of “local government...
The purpose of this report is to address three fundamental questions:
1. What factors determine and drive local economic growth and
development?
2. How do state and local tax and expenditure policies influence economic
growth and development?
3. Is there a balanced system of taxation that...
The purpose of this study is to assess the extent of variations in the revenue capacity and effort of local governments in six metropolitan areas – Baltimore, Las Vegas, Miami, Milwaukee, Richmond, and San Francisco. Our approach is to use the Representative Revenue System developed by the U.S....
The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first task is to develop a conceptual framework for thinking about local democratic governance. Once that framework is developed, specific indicators will be proposed to monitor the quality of key features or
characteristics of a process of local...
This report, produced by the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, focuses on the incidence of the property tax and its significance in funding state and local government services. The purpose of the study is to help policy makers, researchers, and others interested in local government...
Our recent report to the National Association of Realtors, State and Local Fiscal Trends and Future Threats, documents the fiscal challenges faced by state and local governments. With a fiscal system designed 70 or 80 years ago and important trends which are typically beyond the control of state...