Phoenix and neighboring municipalities, like many in the South and West, pursued a growth strategy based on annexation in the decades after World War II. This paper explores the link between annexation and competition for tax revenues. After discussing arguments for annexation, it traces the history of annexation in the Phoenix metropolitan area. A long-running series of "border wars" entailed litigation, pre-emptive annexations, and considerable intergovernmental conflict. The paper argues that tax revenues have been a key motivation for annexation, particularly since the 1970s. It then considers several related policy issues and argues that while opportunities for annexation are becoming more limited, competition for tax revenues (particularly sales tax revenues) continues to be fierce and to create dilemmas for municipalities in the region

(Paper revised July 2006.)

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Paper provided by Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst in its series Working Papers with number wp112_revised.

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Date of creation: 2006
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Handle: RePEc:uma:periwp:wp112_revised

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Keywords: annexation; municipal revenues; sales tax; Phoenix; urban growth; intergovernmental relations;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
N92 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
R51 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Finance in Urban and Rural Economies

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

• NEP-ALL-2006-11-25 (All new papers)
• NEP-HIS-2006-11-25 (Business, Economic & Financial History)
• NEP-PBE-2006-11-25 (Public Economics)
• NEP-URE-2006-11-25 (Urban & Real Estate Economics)

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