Kelly D. Edmiston

State And Local E-Government Prospects and Challenges

This article presents a self-contained yet comprehensive discussion of the prospects of state and local electronic government (e-government), the status of its development across the states and local communities, and the difficult challenges faced in making it a reality. In taking a very broad approach to e-government, the hope is that the analysis helps to bring perspective to the issue and to synthesize a literature that is increasingly becoming a series of disconnected case studies. Although the prospects at all levels of government for improving public services, reducing costs, and enhancing the democratic process are high, e-government has been penetrating state government much more rapidly than local government. The most salient obstacles to full penetration of e-government seem to be proper marketing, privacy issues, equity, and financing.

Tax Structures and FDI: The Deterrent Effects of Complexity and Uncertainty

In this study, we examine the connection between the varied experiences of the transition countries in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and their diverse experiences in transforming their tax structures to be consistent with a market economy. In particular, we study whether complexity and uncertainty in their tax laws have deterred FDI by increasing transaction costs, the compliance burden and the unpredictability of tax liabilities. Our results indicate that complexity and uncertainty, in the sense of multiple tax rates, indeterminate language in the tax law and inconsistent changes in the tax laws, have a significant negative effect on inward FDI.

Urban Malls, Tax Base Migration, and State Intergovernmental Aid

Decentralized systems of government finance give rise to fiscal disparities due to interjurisdictional variations in tax bases and expenditure needs. Intergovernmental aid is used to address such disparities. This article explores changes in local tax capacity and intergovernmental aid resulting from urban shopping malls that extract retail sales and sales tax revenue away from surrounding areas, especially rural counties. A model is developed and estimated to determine the impact of urban malls on local government sales tax bases, controlling for sales tax rate differentials and other factors. The results reveal a 15.9% decline in the sales tax base for counties in close proximity to two newmalls. The analysis is extended to examine impacts of changing local tax capacity on state education aid. Based on the programconsidered here, less than 20% of the loss in own-source revenue is recovered through increased aid.

INCENTIVE TARGETING, INFLUENCE PEDDLING, AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT *

We expand the traditional tax incentive redundancy argument by investigating the implications of allocating incentives primarily to firms that would have invested even in the absence of special tax treatment. Incorporating government revenue constraints, pliable tax officials, endogenous tax liabilities, and firms with heterogeneous before-tax returns, we show that tax incentives, if given to the “wrong” firms, are not only ineffective in stimulating FDI, but result in a form of tax shifting and may reduce FDI. Data from countries of the former Eastern Bloc suggests that tax incentive schemes have significantly negative impacts on FDI in countries that poorly target firms.

Financial Vulnerability and Personal Finance Outcomes of Natural Disasters

I evaluate the effects of hurricanes of varying intensity on the financial condition of a typical resident in both affected and unaffected census tracts, where the degree of affect is determined by the relative location of a census tract’s boundary with buffers around the tracks of hurricane eyes that occurred in the years 2000-2014. The primary question in the article is whether financial vulnerability, or, alternatively, “financial preparedness,�? affects post-hurricane disaster financial outcomes. I find that hurricanes tend to lower credit scores, for the most, but outcomes are far from uniform across categories of hurricanes. I attribute these differences largely to number of disasters in each quarter of the study period, levels of disaster aid, and media coverage and political interest. In some cases I surmise that those in the 25-mile buffer may benefit from economic stimulus that follows a hurricane, but do not have damages and other economic losses to the same extent as those within a 15-mile buffer. Modeling hurricanes as “treatments�? and interacting them with variables from consumer credit reports, I find that the financial vulnerability of residents in affected census tracts is associated with poorer financial outcomes. Considering lags, financial vulnerability is shown to have a considerable impact on post-hurricane personal finance outcomes.

Prospects and challenges for state and local governement in a digital world

State and Local Finances under Pressure explores the future of state and local government fiscal systems given the numerous pressures they face from economic, legal, technological, demographic and political forces. It explores how these multiple forces play out in terms of the changes state and local governments should and are likely to make.