“Inter-jurisdictional competition for growth can and does lead to potentially misplaced investments - stadiums instead of schools, highways instead of health care. There is nothing intrinsic about the mark in jurisdictions that ensures that it will produce the right kind of spending, even if we knew that that spending was.” Economic DevelopmentLocal Government Author:Richard Schragger
“Despite having become an urban nation in the last century, Americans still have yet to come to terms with the exercise of urban democratic power. To do so requires treating cities as something other than consumption preferences or as location providers for agglomeration-seeking firms, or as entities that are incompetent, corrupt, and in need of discipline. We have to think instead of the city as a process of economic development, as a generator of the middle class, and as the primary location for the exercise of robust self-government.” CitiesLocal Government Author:Richard Schragger
“Consider one of the most important developments in local government finance in the last 50 years - state constitutional taxation and spending limitations. Starting with Proposition 13 in California, adopted in 1978, many states began to severely limit local governments' ability to tax and spend. In the California case, these limits were arguably spurred by rapid rises in property values as newcomers found their way to California in the 1970s. Again, an institutional reaction appear to *follow* economic growth - California was growing rapidly and existing residents were concerned about the fiscal effects brought about by the influx of immigrants. Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), adopted in 1992, also appears to have been in part a reaction to rising tax rates brought about by increasing service demands of increasing populations.” DebtTaxationLocal Government Author:Richard Schragger
“The stories of failure are commonplace. Reporting that, five years after locating there, IBM fired most of its employees in Dubuque and Columbia despite a combined $84 million in tax breaks, the author of a Bloomberg News story noted that this scenario has 'played out often across America: Big company comes to town, provides boost to the local economy and then leaves.' The Kelo case ended similarly: New London provided Pfizer with significant subsidies only to see the company depart a few years later.” Economic DevelopmentSubsidiesTax Breaks Author:Richard Schragger
“Local and state tax incentives are much less visible because they do not constitute a direct charge to local budgets and are often paid for by future generations through municipal debt. This relative invisibility makes it much less probable that the local political process can be counted on to prevent bad incentive deals.” Economic DevelopmentSubsidiesTax Breaks Author:Richard Schragger