Abstract Use taxes are utilized by states to discourage taxpayers from engaging in sales tax avoidance via shopping in lower tax states. Enforcement of this tax has long been difficult, as demonstrated in the case of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc . (2018). States have instead relied on different administration and tax structures to generate revenues. We contribute to the limited existing use tax literature by studying a panel of use tax revenues collected from 25 states, as well as use tax collection methods states implement for individual and business taxpayers. States are best at enforcing the use tax where they can rely on complementary administrative tax collection systems, such as in business‐to‐business transactions. They will likely struggle to realize improved use tax compliance for household consumption even in the wake of the Wayfair ruling.
{"title":"Use tax administration and revenue production in the states","authors":"John L. Mikesell, John D. Stavick, Justin M. Ross","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12350","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12350","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Use taxes are utilized by states to discourage taxpayers from engaging in sales tax avoidance via shopping in lower tax states. Enforcement of this tax has long been difficult, as demonstrated in the case of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc . (2018). States have instead relied on different administration and tax structures to generate revenues. We contribute to the limited existing use tax literature by studying a panel of use tax revenues collected from 25 states, as well as use tax collection methods states implement for individual and business taxpayers. States are best at enforcing the use tax where they can rely on complementary administrative tax collection systems, such as in business‐to‐business transactions. They will likely struggle to realize improved use tax compliance for household consumption even in the wake of the Wayfair ruling.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":"218 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136022714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Budget scholars have long theorized the impact of citizen engagement in the budget process. However, there is a void in the literature on modern types of engagement such as online budget simulations. Basic questions like what governments can do to increase the level of engagement and what effects such changes have on outcomes remain unanswered. Using a behavioral public budget and finance framework, we designed and tested an experiment with a local government budget simulation and varied the starting condition between balance, surplus, and deficit to assess the impact of starting condition on relevant outcomes of engagement and budgetary preferences. Results show that two measures of engagement and most budget preferences were influenced by the starting condition. Field‐in‐lab experiments like this one have the potential to further develop behavioral budget theory and be used to test online government platforms that are used by governments for engagement and many other purposes.
{"title":"Budget starting position matters: A “field‐in‐lab” experiment testing simulation engagement and budgetary preferences","authors":"Zach Mohr, Whitney Afonso","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12351","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12351","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Budget scholars have long theorized the impact of citizen engagement in the budget process. However, there is a void in the literature on modern types of engagement such as online budget simulations. Basic questions like what governments can do to increase the level of engagement and what effects such changes have on outcomes remain unanswered. Using a behavioral public budget and finance framework, we designed and tested an experiment with a local government budget simulation and varied the starting condition between balance, surplus, and deficit to assess the impact of starting condition on relevant outcomes of engagement and budgetary preferences. Results show that two measures of engagement and most budget preferences were influenced by the starting condition. Field‐in‐lab experiments like this one have the potential to further develop behavioral budget theory and be used to test online government platforms that are used by governments for engagement and many other purposes.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":"182 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136104566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christian Buerger, Vincent Reitano, Ciana Sorrentino
During the Great Recession and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, practitioners and scholars alike looked to fiscal reserves as a means to overcome fiscal pressure on state budgets. This study builds on the literature exploring the association between budget stabilization funds and unassigned and unreserved balances (UUBs) during economic booms and busts and under different institutional settings. We find that BSFs supplement UUBs during economic booms and substitute for them during economic busts. Institutional rules strongly influence the relationship between both saving instruments.
{"title":"State fiscal reserves: Supplementation and substitution over economic boom and bust years","authors":"Christian Buerger, Vincent Reitano, Ciana Sorrentino","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12311","url":null,"abstract":"During the Great Recession and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, practitioners and scholars alike looked to fiscal reserves as a means to overcome fiscal pressure on state budgets. This study builds on the literature exploring the association between budget stabilization funds and unassigned and unreserved balances (UUBs) during economic booms and busts and under different institutional settings. We find that BSFs supplement UUBs during economic booms and substitute for them during economic busts. Institutional rules strongly influence the relationship between both saving instruments.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44272809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conditional impacts of political and fiscal factors on state environmental budgets","authors":"Andrew R. Duggan, Douglas A. Carr, Wenli Yan","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12308","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41361634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
D. Mitchell, Sarah E. Larson, Terry Henley, Auria Spranger, Suzette Myser
{"title":"A reflection of changing priorities? The reallocative impact of priority‐based budgeting in US municipalities","authors":"D. Mitchell, Sarah E. Larson, Terry Henley, Auria Spranger, Suzette Myser","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12310","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47649466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
How does revenue diversification shape the budgetary solvency of city governments? Previous studies informed by the public choice/fiscal illusion perspective suggest that diversification leads to unsustainable government expansion and budgetary imbalance. In contrast, the organizational adaptation/modern portfolio theory suggests that diversification enables government to prepare for external fiscal shocks. We use different measures of revenue diversification and rely on audited financial information to develop general fund-based and government-wide budgetary solvency measures for more than 500 midsized and large cities in the U.S. from 2006 to 2012. Addressing omitted variable bias, the results of the econometric analyses indicate that the type of diversification matters. Specifically, diversifying to non-tax sources improves budgetary solvency as indicated by higher government-wide operating ratio and reserves, whereas diversifying within the tax structure produces the opposite effects. The contradictory results point to the need to rethink current theories of diversification, which do not recognize the different ways that revenue structures can be broadened, and how these produce distinct effects on fiscal performance. We lay out the critical first step in clarifying and further developing a more nuanced theory by proposing three causal mechanisms outlining the pathways through which the types of diversification can influence budget outcomes.
{"title":"Revisiting the theory of revenue diversification: Insights from an empirical analysis of municipal budgetary solvency","authors":"B. Jimenez, Whitney B. Afonso","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12309","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12309","url":null,"abstract":"How does revenue diversification shape the budgetary solvency of city governments? Previous studies informed by the public choice/fiscal illusion perspective suggest that diversification leads to unsustainable government expansion and budgetary imbalance. In contrast, the organizational adaptation/modern portfolio theory suggests that diversification enables government to prepare for external fiscal shocks. We use different measures of revenue diversification and rely on audited financial information to develop general fund-based and government-wide budgetary solvency measures for more than 500 midsized and large cities in the U.S. from 2006 to 2012. Addressing omitted variable bias, the results of the econometric analyses indicate that the type of diversification matters. Specifically, diversifying to non-tax sources improves budgetary solvency as indicated by higher government-wide operating ratio and reserves, whereas diversifying within the tax structure produces the opposite effects. The contradictory results point to the need to rethink current theories of diversification, which do not recognize the different ways that revenue structures can be broadened, and how these produce distinct effects on fiscal performance. We lay out the critical first step in clarifying and further developing a more nuanced theory by proposing three causal mechanisms outlining the pathways through which the types of diversification can influence budget outcomes.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47616825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michah W. Rothbart, David J. Schwegman, Iuliia Shybalkina
{"title":"The impact of pork‐barrel capital funding in schools: Evidence from participatory budgeting in NYC","authors":"Michah W. Rothbart, David J. Schwegman, Iuliia Shybalkina","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12307","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49025123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Financial statement timeliness and bond‐price dispersion in the municipal market","authors":"Yulianti Abbas","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12306","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44474020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alfonso Mendoza-Velázquez, Mónica Rubio‐García, L. D. Conde-Cortés
{"title":"Fiscal decentralization and regional economic growth: Evidence from Mexico since the 2000s","authors":"Alfonso Mendoza-Velázquez, Mónica Rubio‐García, L. D. Conde-Cortés","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12305","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12305","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45291027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}