Suchergebnisse

In the current era of fiscal retrenchment local governments are seeking means to provide core services at lower costs. One approach getting increased attention is service consolidation. One of the challenges for policy makers considering alternative service delivery options such as consolidation is the limited number of empirical investigations of the costs and benefits associated with such a difficult endeavor. This study focuses on the identified local governments in Wisconsin that consolidated a service between 1987 and 2009. I found that for communities that consolidated services, overall expenditures increased in some circumstances and expenditure reductions were only associated with one service: capacity management. When I examined protective services, we found limited evidence to suggest that spending increased in those communities following the consolidation.

AbstractOne important aspect of public finance is understanding expenditure allocations among competing purposes. Applying the public choice paradigm and fiscal illusion framework, this study explores the interplay between current state expenditures and financial needs, and long‐term financial responsibility to pension funds. Using state finance and pension data during 2004–2018, we found actuarially determined employer contributions paid by a state are inversely related to budgetary fund balances, total reserve fund balances, and state expenditures. Especially when governments are fiscally stressed, state officials appear to delay pension contributions while prioritizing operational spending. Interestingly, more stringent TELs and technical BBRs are effective at promoting prudent pension fund management. The study contributes to the public finance literature by providing empirical evidence to advance the argument that government's financing choices can affect the level of public expenditure while demonstrating the mechanism of the relationship between fiscal illusion and government budgetary decisions.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious respiratory illness afflicting people to a degree not seen since the flu pandemic of 1968 when approximately one million lives were lost worldwide. What makes COVID-19 distinct is the rate at which it spread throughout the world, stress-testing health care systems and stymieing global economies. To confront this unprecedented crisis, nearly every country has been developing a wide range of policy responses, including fiscal measures. This study aims to discuss government fiscal responses to the pandemic from a financial management perspective. The core question is, "How does each country's financial management system support its fiscal responses to the crisis?" We are particularly interested in reexamining commonly accepted norms about fiscal federalism and the fiscal condition of national and local governments heading into this pandemic. This study takes a comparative approach to the question, focusing on South Korea and the United States. Our findings suggest that the ability to respond to this pandemic in a comprehensive and effective manner is challenged by each nation's financial management system that generates variation in policy coordination and responsiveness.

Following voter approval of California's Proposition 13, a body of research has attempted to explain referenda outcomes aimed at restricting public sector tax and spending authority. Evaluating the determinants of voter attitudes toward referenda to exceed spending/revenue limits, however, has received little attention. Using data for all Wisconsin school districts, we examine the outcomes of referenda to exceed revenue caps. A key finding of our research is that when voters support bonding for capital expenditures, they tend also to approve referenda to override revenue limits. This enables school districts to cover new operating costs often associated with new capital projects.

AbstractGovernment Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 34 has been in effect for a decade yet there is limited research examining government‐wide financial reporting data. This study builds on our ability to delve into the fiscal condition of Wisconsin counties during the Great Recession. The principal aims of the research are: (1) expand on works utilizing GASB 34 reporting requirements; (2) report on county administrators perceptions of fiscal condition; and (3) examine the relationship between subjective and objective measures of fiscal condition. We find little evidence that objective fiscal condition indices are related to subjective administrative assessments of fiscal condition.

In this applied research study we examine the changing fiscal relationship between state & local governments. Our research question is simple: Do local governments treat state aid during periods of stability & instability in a systematic manner? Using data on Wisconsin's unconditional shared revenues program from 1990 to 2000, we find evidence of a flypaper effect & that the relationship tends to be asymmetrical. The manner in which local governments treat intergovernmental aid is different between periods of increases & decreases in aid. Specifically, using a model that allows for the identification of structure shifts we find evidence of fiscal replacement. In addition, we find that changes in aid impact types of spending differently. When aid is reduced, policymakers appear to be less inclined to cut police & fire services than they are to cut services such as parks & recreation. Tables, Figures. Adapted from the source document.

Using data for Wisconsin cities and villages the effects of grants in aid from state government on 10 categories of municipal expenditures are examined. We build on the traditional grants in aid public finance literature by looking for evidence of the flypaper effect. By focusing on the Wisconsin state shared revenues program, a pure grant of considerable size for many Wisconsin municipalities, we offer a clean test of the flypaper effect. We find a positive flypaper effect on 8 of the 10 categorical expenditures. We also find the impact of unconditional grants on categorical expenditures is stronger on nonessential "luxury" goods (e.g., parks and recreation, culture, and educational services) than on essential "normal" municipal goods (e.g., police and fire protection).

AbstractThe rate of expansion and the breadth of COVID‐19 caught the world by surprise. From the perspective of nonprofit and public entities responsible for service provision, this pandemic is also unprecedented. The authors offer a RISE framework for navigating the fiscal effects of COVID‐19 and rely on recent surveys to assess the response strategies of local governments and nonprofit organizations. They find that many nonprofits were hit fastest and hardest by the pandemic and that local governments are, essentially, trying to figure out their financial condition moving into the next budget cycle.

Interlocal collaboration is considered an important tool for cost‐saving. States, therefore, have incentivized interlocal collaboration in different ways. To understand the budgetary consequences of interlocal collaboration and state incentives, we examine counties in Nebraska where the State uses two incentive mechanisms—resource restrictions and additional access to restricted revenues granted to counties with collaboration. This study finds that county expenditures are lower when they spend more through collaboration. While this lower spending is related to lower revenues in counties less constrained by state restrictions, the results for counties more constrained are unclear. State incentive structures may matter for such variations.