Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Kim Rueben on State and Local Issues

Education is a key pathway out of poverty, yet schools that primarily serve minority students often fail to provide the educational opportunities available in predominantly white schools. A series of state court cases has addressed one cause of that disparity, the dramatic funding differences that result from reliance on local property taxes to fund schools. This paper examines the success of court-mandated solutions in equalizing spending per pupil across districts serving minority and white students. However, we show that there remains much disparity in other measures of educational quality and outcomes.

For the past 11 years, a growing number of states have held sales tax holidays, during which they exempt certain items from state - and often local - sales tax for a few days. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have scheduled 25 tax holidays in 2008, most of which occurred in August. Holidays most frequently exempt clothing and school supplies, but some exempt computers, energy-efficient appliances, or hurricane preparedness items..

State and local revenues have been relatively stable over the last 30 years, growing from 13.5 percent of GDP in 1972 to 16.3 percent in 2005. However, as shown in the table, the composition of revenues has changed, with property taxes declining from 25.6 percent of revenues to only 16.6 percent. Much of this decline occurred in the 1970s.

California's health care reform effort may have been one of the first casualties of the national economic downturn. Yet the conditions that gave rise to the initiative did not disappear when the plan failed, and other states are pushing ahead with proposals to expand health coverage. So it remains useful to reflect on the California experience. In particular, it will be helpful to understand the proposed funding sources, how they would have interacted with California's revenue system, and what alternative funding streams might have withstood the politics of reform. In this policy brief, we analyze the options for financing expanded health insurance coverage in California and offer our own preferred solution in light of the state's fiscal and political constraints.

This article summarizes a March 2007 TPC-Northwestern conference examining state and local finances. Reprinted from Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Land Lines October 2007 issue.

States and their local governments vary both in their needs to provide basic public services, and in their abilities to raise revenues to pay for those services. This study summarizes the Representative Revenue System (RRS) and the Representative Expenditure System (RES) frameworks and quantifies these disparities across states by comparing each state's revenue capacity, revenue effort, and necessary expenditures to the average capacity, effort, and need in states across the country.

States and their local governments vary both in their needs to provide basic public services, and in their abilities to raise revenues to pay for those services. This study uses the Representative Revenue System (RRS) and the Representative Expenditure System (RES) frameworks to quantify these disparities across states by comparing each state's revenue capacity, revenue effort, and necessary expenditures to the average capacity, effort, and need in states across the country.

States and their local governments vary both in their needs to provide basic public services, and in their abilities to raise revenues to pay for those services. A forthcoming joint study by the Tax Policy Center and the New England Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, uses the Representative Revenue System (RRS) and the Representative Expenditure System (RES) frameworks to quantify these disparities across states by comparing each state’s revenue capacity, revenue effort, and necessary expenditures to the average capacity, effort, and need in states across the country.

Sustained, rapid population growth and a variety of fiscal constraints have challenged the ability of California's state and local governments to provide and maintain adequate levels of civil infrastructure. The Governor has proposed a ten-year program to revitalize the state's infrastructure. We examine the current state of infrastructure spending and the extent to which new public and private sources can be mobilized to build for the future. With a focus on two main areas of public infrastructure needs - transportation and water resources - we point out the pitfalls of relying too heavily on additional bond financing or general-source revenues and focus on the potential for strategies that align the benefits of new infrastructure with the costs of provision. By aligning costs and benefits, California can help satisfy its current and future infrastructure needs while protecting the ability of future generations to make their own spending choices.

Sustained, rapid population growth and a variety of fiscal constraints have challenged the ability of California's state and local governments to provide and maintain adequate levels of civil infrastructure. We summarize current policies in place in California and offer some criteria and issues that should be considered before future projects are undertaken.