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The coal severance tax of Western states has become a major source of revenue in recent years. This tax depends primarily on the possibility of tax exportation to coal-consuming states. For this to be possible, state governments must have market power. Such taxes pay substantial parts of state expenses in Mont & Wyom, but large parts also go to meet special needs associated with coal production. Such taxes have substantial impact on the use of coal as a power source; this impact may, however, be welcomed by state residents to whom coal development is a source of ambivalence. 3 Tables, 1 Figure. W. H. Stoddard.

A number of bureaucratic decision-making models have appeared recently in the literature. Generally, these models have focused on identifying one argument in agency managers' utility functions, eg, agency size or budget, or wealth of managers. A generalized statement of these models is developed & is applied to the price of water by water resource agencies. The model is applied to the contemporary concern with environmental quality, & its implications for congressional decision making are traced. 4 Figures. Modified HA.

SUMMARYThis paper ties together two recent important contributions to the analysis of fiscal federalism, namely when public goods spillovers and tax exportation exist simultaneously. In a two‐region analysis, with resources immobile, the analysis demonstrates that it may be to the advantage of a net tax 'importing' region to remain in a federation whenever the net tax 'exporting' region increases its production of a mutually beneficial good or service. Relaxing the assumption of resource immobility, the paper investigates the conditions in which a tax 'importing' region may find itself 'better off' than in the no tax 'importation' case.This paper also investigates standard notions of tax efficiency and illustrates that with tax exportation, previous notions of tax efficiency must be qualified. Furthermore, it is shown that due to tax distortions, it is possible for all parties to be made 'better off' through some form of tax harmonization, but it is to the advantage of no single region to correct its tax distortions.

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Michigan's BioTrust for Health, a public health research biobank comprised of residual dried bloodspot (DBS) cards from newborn screening contains over 4 million samples collected without written consent. Participant-centric initiatives are IT tools that hold great promise to address the consent challenges in biobank research. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Working with Private Access™ Inc., a pioneer in patient-centric web solutions, we created and pilot tested a dynamic informed consent simulation, paired with an educational website, focusing on consent for research utilizing DBSs in Michigan's BioTrust for Health. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Out of 187 pilot testers recruited in 2 groups, 137 completed the consent simulation and exit survey. Over 50% indicated their willingness to set up an account if the simulation went live and to recommend it to others. Participants raised concerns about the process of identity verification and appeared to have little experience with sharing health information online. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Applying online, dynamic approaches to address the consent challenges raised by biobanks with legacy sample collections should be explored, given the positive reaction to our pilot test and the strong preference for active consent. Balancing security and privacy with accessibility and ease of use will continue to be a challenge.