دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی تاثیرات مالیات و محدودیت های هزینه ها بر دولت محلی از بدهی های مالیاتی ساپورت شده - Sage 2017

Abstract

This study seeks to broaden our understanding of the impact tax and expenditure limits (TELs) have had on local governments. We chose to focus on local government use of tax-supported debt as TELs are limits on the property tax base and related revenues, two essential components used to determine a government’s legal authority to issue tax-supported debt and its fiscal capacity to maintain long-term solvency. Using county-level data, our analysis finds TELs have a negative impact on local government use of tax-supported debt, especially if the government is subject to a limitation on assessed valuation or the property tax levy.

Conclusions

TELs, together with debt limits and voter approval requirements, have substantially changed how local governments use debt. Our study presents Kioko and Zhang 17 a review of the impact TELs have on local government use of tax-supported debt, with a specific focus on the technical framework of TELs. Our analysis finds that TELs did have a negative effect on local government use of debt. Those effects were largest for governments subject to assessment limits and property tax levy limits—that is limitations on the taxable base or property tax revenues. When facing TELs, public officials seem to prefer annual appropriations, nonguaranteed debt, or nonbonded debt so as to preserve their authority to use their taxing capacity within the TEL framework for operating purposes.

Our findings are substantively different from those in Bahl and Duncombe (1993) and Clingermayer and Wood (1995). First, while the debt service exemption is incorporated in all TELs—state and local—local governments are less opportunistic in their use of the exemption and were more likely to report a lower tax-supported debt burden following the adoption of TELs. Given the direct link between property tax revenues and tax-supported debt, this finding is not surprising. Moreover, the negative effect of TELs on taxing and spending authority of state governments has been shown to be limited at best. Since states are more likely to issue tax-supported debt backed by a wide variety of revenue streams, a number of which may not be subject to the TEL rule, the impact of TELs on these governments is limited. Our study provides empirical evidence that the link between TELs and the taxing authority of a local government has negatively impacted the localities ability or choice to utilize taxsupported debt. Our analysis also finds that effect is largely driven by the structure of the TELs.