Suchergebnisse

Abstract
With the end of National Prohibition in 1933, 30 states gave counties and municipalities the local option to continue alcohol restrictions. Currently, 10% of U.S. counties still maintain a ban on some or all alcohol. Since the Prohibition movement advanced on the association between alcohol use and criminal behavior, this research examines the impact of county-level alcohol restrictions on multiple types of crime across five U.S. states. Standard panel models show a positive relationship between local option policy changes to allow alcohol and crime. The novelty of this research involves comparing the impact of alcohol restrictions across crimes classified by the degree to which an offense is often committed under the influence of alcohol. Results highlight impacts across a number of crime categories with crimes commonly committed under the influence of alcohol as well as crimes involving drug use and even crimes associated with obtaining alcohol all increasing when counties allow the sale and consumption of alcohol.

ABSTRACTWe provide a direct test of the extent to which the stringency of a Tax and Expenditure Limit (TEL) influences the creation of special district governments by examining one of the strictest TELs in U.S. history, the Colorado Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). Through analysis of panel data from 1993 to 2004 of general purpose and special district governments, we test the relationship between TABOR and the creation of special districts. The novelty of our research involves the use of successful and failed attempts to override TABOR to measure variation in TEL restrictiveness at the county and municipal geography. Our results indicate that counties and municipalities unable to override TABOR's restrictions and therefore bound by the TEL have no greater use of special district governments than local jurisdictions experiencing similar demand for services but not bound by TABOR. These results are robust to failed override attempts specific to tax revenue as well as debt proceeds. Furthermore, results are unaffected by the use of multiyear lagged measures of override attempts and the inclusion of county debrucing initiatives that passed or failed by a small margin—i.e., less than 60 percent of votes. Contrary to anecdotal evidence, our results find no relationship between tax and expenditure limits and the formation of special districts.

An institution that has shown great promise in addressing the revitalization of declining central cities is Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). These private governments provide supplemental municipal services such as sanitation, security, and marketing to independent businesses in underserved commercial areas. By 1999, 44 U.S. states had legislation that enables and dictates the formation process and structure of BIDs. The surprising element of this legislation is the wide variation in approval needed to form a BID over a proposed geographical area. Some states require as little as 20 percent approval of proposed members and others as much as 75 percent approval to allow formation of a BID. This variation in state statutes likely influences the use of BIDs. Results highlight that relatively easier state enabled collective action positively impacts the creation of BIDs, the limited effects of tax expenditure limitations on the formation of BIDs and the positive impacts that new development has on the number of BIDs per state.