IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedbne/y1990ijanp56-74.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Taking charge: should New England increase its reliance on user charges?

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Tannenwald

Abstract

New England relies less on user charges for its state and local revenues than any other region of the country. As a result, some policymakers maintain that increases in user charges would correct an \"imbalance\" in the regions revenue mix. However, the national mix of state and local revenues is not necessarily the best mix for the states of New England. The degree to which a state should rely on u. ser charges depends on the priorities of its policymakers among competing principles of taxation, the conditions under which each principle favors user charges over taxes, and the extent to which these conditions exist within the state. Since each state has its own distinctive values and traits, the role of user charges in financing state and local government should vary across states. ; This article explores the conditions under which user charges compare favorably to taxes according to the principles of efficiency, equity, and exportability. The author finds that, given conditions peculiar to New England, the regions low dependence on user charges makes sense in terms of ~11 three principles. Moreover, in several instances where New England states do rely heavily on user charges to finance a particular public service, circumstances favor user charge financing.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Tannenwald, 1990. "Taking charge: should New England increase its reliance on user charges?," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Jan, pages 56-74.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbne:y:1990:i:jan:p:56-74
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bostonfed.org/economic/neer/neer1990/neer190d.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feldstein, Martin S & Metcalf, Gilbert E, 1987. "The Effect of Federal Tax Deductibility on State and Local Taxes and Spending," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(4), pages 710-736, August.
    2. Inman, Robert P., 1989. "The local decision to tax : Evidence from large U.S. Cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 455-491, August.
    3. Mieszkowski, Peter, 1972. "The property tax: An excise tax or a profits tax?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 73-96, April.
    4. Robert P. Inman, 1989. "The Local Decision to Tax: Evidence from Large U.S. Cities," NBER Working Papers 2921, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nick Turner, 2005. "Across the region: six-state review," Fiscal Facts, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Sum, pages 7-12.
    2. Wassmer, Robert W. & Fisher, Ronald C., 2002. "Interstate variation in the use of fees to fund K-12 public education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 87-100, February.
    3. E. Matthew Quigley & Nick Turner, 2005. "Do New England state and local governments have too many employees, and are they overpaid?," Fiscal Facts, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Sum, pages 1-6,12.
    4. Bernd Huber & Marco Runkel, 2009. "Tax competition, excludable public goods, and user charges," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 16(3), pages 321-336, June.
    5. Yolanda Kodrzycki, 1994. "Privatization of local public services: lessons for New England," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue May, pages 31-46.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haughwout, Andrew F. & Inman, Robert P., 2001. "Fiscal policies in open cities with firms and households," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2-3), pages 147-180, April.
    2. Chernick, Howard, 1998. "Fiscal Capacity in New York: The City Versus the Region," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(3), pages 531-540, September.
    3. Nechyba, Thomas, 1996. "A computable general equilibrium model of intergovernmental aid," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 363-397, November.
    4. Anderson, Nathan B., 2011. "No relief: Tax prices and property tax burdens," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 537-549.
    5. Inman, Robert P. & Rubinfeld, Daniel L., 1996. "Designing tax policy in federalist economies: An overview," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 307-334, June.
    6. Calabrese, Stephen & Epple, Dennis & Romano, Richard, 2015. "Majority choice of tax systems in single- and multi-jurisdictional economies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 58-70.
    7. Cutler, David M. & Elmendorf, Douglas W. & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1999. "Restraining the Leviathan: property tax limitation in Massachusetts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 313-334, March.
    8. Calabrese, Stephen & Epple, Dennis & Romano, Richard, 2023. "Majority choice of taxation and redistribution in a federation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    9. Bordignon, Massimo & Grembi, Veronica & Piazza, Santino, 2017. "Who do you blame in local finance? An analysis of municipal financing in Italy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 146-163.
    10. Frangois Vaillancourt, 1992. "Subnational Tax Harmonization, Canada and the United States: Intent, Results, and Consequences," NBER Chapters, in: Canada-U.S. Tax Comparisons, pages 323-358, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 1993. "Tax exporting, federal deductibility, and state tax structure," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(1), pages 109-126.
    12. Alberto Sole Olle, 1998. "The effects of tax deductibility on the mix of property taxes and use charges: an empirical analysis of the spanish case," Working Papers in Economics 41, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    13. Chernick, Howard, 1998. "Fiscal Capacity in New York: The City Versus the Region," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 3), pages 531-40, September.
    14. Ivo Bischoff & Stefan Krabel, 2017. "Local taxes and political influence: evidence from locally dominant firms in German municipalities," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(2), pages 313-337, April.
    15. Stine, William F., 1994. "Is Local Government Revenue Response to Federal Aid Symmetrical? Evidence From Pennsylvania County Governments in a Era of Retrenchment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(4), pages 799-816, December.
    16. Michael E. Bell & Philip M. Dearborn & Roland Hunter, 1993. "Financing the Post-apartheid City in South Africa," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 30(3), pages 581-591, April.
    17. Asatryan, Zareh & Baskaran, Thushyanthan & Heinemann, Friedrich, 2017. "The effect of direct democracy on the level and structure of local taxes," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 38-55.
    18. David L. Sjoquist & Mary Beth Walker & Sally Wallace, 2005. "Estimating Differential Responses to Local Fiscal Conditions: A Mixture Model Analysis," Public Finance Review, , vol. 33(1), pages 36-61, January.
    19. Carlsen, Fredrik & Langset, Bjorg & Rattso, Jorn, 2005. "The relationship between firm mobility and tax level: Empirical evidence of fiscal competition between local governments," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 273-288, September.
    20. Howard Chernick, 1992. "A Model of the Distributional Incidence of State and Local Taxes," Public Finance Review, , vol. 20(4), pages 572-585, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    New England; Taxation - New England;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedbne:y:1990:i:jan:p:56-74. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Spozio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbbous.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.