{"title":"Government-wide Financial Statements and Credit Risk","authors":"CRAIG L. Johnson, Sharon N. Kioko, W. Hildreth","doi":"10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01003.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01003.X","url":null,"abstract":"Now that state governments issue comprehensive annual financial reports in accordance with Statement No. 34 of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, it is possible to generate a consistent and comprehensive set of government-wide financial information. We use the information to develop financial ratios to benchmark government financial performance from information beyond the traditional general fund, and test the hypothesis that such information is incorporated into the assessment of credit risk. We provide an empirical analysis of the incorporation of government-wide financial information into state government credit ratings, which provides a positive empirical test of the theory of certification and demonstrates how information from the government-wide financial statements is infused into financial markets.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2012-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01003.X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63318966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Balancing Act: Using Private Money for Public Projects","authors":"C. Ebdon, Paul Landow","doi":"10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01002.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01002.X","url":null,"abstract":"As public resources become scarcer, private donations for capital projects and public services may become increasingly important. Modern donors, using the new philanthropy philosophy common now in the nonprofit sector, may desire more control over the use of their funding than in the past. This research examines the effects of private donations on capital decision making, and explores the balancing act required by public officials between best practices and private norms in this process. The study uses the city of Omaha, Nebraska case, where corporate and individual donors have made significant financial contributions for the construction of a convention center/arena and a baseball stadium. Findings include both costs and benefits of this approach, and may be beneficial for theory-building related to this relatively unexplored topic, as well as for practitioners faced with similar needs and demands.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2012-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01002.X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63318724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Preserving the Public Interest in Highway Public–Private Partnerships: A Case Study of the State of Texas","authors":"Beverly S. Bunch","doi":"10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01001.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01001.X","url":null,"abstract":"Faced with existing revenues sources that are insufficient to finance highway maintenance and construction needs, some state and local governments are using or considering highway public–private partnerships. These partnerships may be attractive as a way for a government to obtain upfront revenues from the long-term lease of a road and to shift some of the construction and operations risks to a private firm. However, with these benefits, comes the need to preserve the public interest. This paper discusses issues related to preserving the public interest in highway public–private partnerships and presents a case study of the State of Texas. The case study focuses on an analysis of the strengths and limitations of Texas’ policies and procedures to protect the public interest in the use of long-term leases for the financing, construction, and operation of new toll roads. The case study also discusses what other governments may be able to learn from Texas’ experiences.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2012-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01001.X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63318703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Municipal Bond Insurance Premium, Credit Rating, and Underlying Credit Risk","authors":"Gao Liu","doi":"10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01005.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01005.X","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the question of whether bond insurers are able to sufficiently evaluate the credit risk of insured bonds, the answer to which would determine the future of municipal bond insurance. A sample of insured municipal bonds is investigated to determine whether bond insurance premia can predict the future credit rating transition, the proxy for bond credit risk. The results show that municipal bond insurance premia, conditional on bond credit ratings and other explanatory variables, have explanatory power over credit rating downgrades but not over upgrades. As such, bond insurance premia convey extra information about the underlying credit risk of a bond issue than the original credit rating reveals. This research also provides evidence that the rating agencies might not be doing as a good job as they could potentially do.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2012-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.01005.X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63319082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cross‐Border Shopping and State Use Tax Liabilities: Evidence from eBay Transactions","authors":"J. Alm, M. Melnik","doi":"10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00999.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00999.X","url":null,"abstract":"Online commerce presents consumers with a convenient way of shopping outside of their local jurisdiction, and this online purchase decision is capable of affecting in significant ways the sales and use tax collections of state governments. However, the actual revenue impact has proven difficult to estimate. There is considerable work that examines the revenue impact of seller compliance with sales taxes. However, there is little work on buyer compliance with use taxes. In this paper we investigate the potential impact of cross-border shopping on state use tax liabilities of buyers, using data from the largest online consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer marketplace, eBay.com. We collect our own data on actual cross-border shopping transactions from eBay, focusing upon a \"representative\" commodity classification and a \"typical\" day; these data consist of nearly twenty-one thousand eBay listings generated by roughly seven thousand individual sellers with over nine thousand buyers. These data allow us to examine the extent of actual, not estimated, cross-border shopping by buyers, and the subsequent potential impact of this cross-border shopping on state use tax liabilities. Our results indicate that cross-border shopping is highly prevalent on eBay, with out-of-state purchases accounting for on average 94 percent of the volume of a state's purchase transactions. Even so, given the limited volume of eBay-based transactions relative to total sales transactions, the likely impact of cross-border transactions on state use tax revenue streams is quite low, at least at present, typically less than one percent of actual state sales tax revenues.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2012-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00999.X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63318778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effect of Tax and Expenditure Limitations on Revenue Volatility: Evidence from Colorado","authors":"Travis St. Clair","doi":"10.1111/j.1540-5850.2012.01016.x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5850.2012.01016.x","url":null,"abstract":"Much of the research on tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) focuses on the impact that limits have on the size of the public sector or the distribution of expenditures at the state and local levels. While these results shed light on the extent to which TELs succeed in reducing government spending, they do not have much to say about the impact of TELs on government budgeting or financial planning, despite the fact that voters support TELs in the hope of reducing government inefficiency (Courant, Gramlich, and Rubinfeld 1980; Ladd and Wilson 1982). This paper examines the effect of TELs on the stability of government revenues; sound tax policy entails controlling the volatility of revenues in order to plan more effectively for the future. Using panel data from Colorado's Division of Local Government as well as the Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, this paper examines the impact of Colorado's 1992 Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) on local government finances. Results from difference‐in‐difference estimation suggest that TELs increase revenue and expenditure volatility.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2012-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/j.1540-5850.2012.01016.x","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63319188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Eger, C. K. Fortner, V. A. Hepburn, Catherine P. Slade
{"title":"Does Institutional Structure Effect Public Health Expenditures","authors":"R. Eger, C. K. Fortner, V. A. Hepburn, Catherine P. Slade","doi":"10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00996.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00996.X","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores supply-side costs and institutional structure in a shared authority state public health system. It is found that in a shared governance public health system, intermediary district structure influences the movement of limited resources to serve populations and persons most in need. This early empirical test suggests that policy making and public administration concerning public health expenditures in a shared governance system are in a practical sense local, but decisions made at the intermediary level by regional district administration are an important influence on local public health expenditures.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2011-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00996.X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63318267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Impact of Tax Revenue from Capital Gains Realizations on State Income Tax Revenue and Budget Conditions","authors":"D. Sjoquist, Andrew V. Stephenson, S. Wallace","doi":"10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00991.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00991.X","url":null,"abstract":"We explore the effect of the rapid increase in capital gains realizations on state income tax revenue during the 1990s and 2000s, and the effect that this had on state fiscal decisions regarding the use of these revenue. We find wide variation in the growth of capital gains realizations across states and that the growth in capital gains had a significant effect on state income tax revenue for many states. We find that states used a sizable portion of the additional revenue from capital gains to fund reserves in the year the revenue was generated, and that capital gains revenue lead to some reductions in taxes but not to increases in expenditures. The evidence suggests that states were conservative in their use of capital gains related revenues.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2011-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00991.X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63318456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reforms for Improved Efficiency in Public Budgeting and Finance: Improvements, Disappointments, and Work-in-Progress","authors":"J. Mikesell, Daniel R. Mullins","doi":"10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00998.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00998.X","url":null,"abstract":"The past half-century has brought heightened expectations for what systems of budgeting and finance may be expected to deliver for the public. From systems to provide a first defense against theft and gross misappropriation, they have become systems to help lawmakers direct public resources where they can give the best public return, to help managers efficiently utilize resources under their control, and to communicate plans and results to the public. Government fiscal systems have developed more useful expenditure classification, established new measures for identifying public performance, brought nontraditional spending into control systems, and made finances considerably more transparent. Systems should, in combination with robust democratic institutions, make the public sector perform in the best interests of the citizenry. But in the face of great fiscal system improvements, governments struggle with staying fiscally sustainable, with meeting financial obligations to vulnerable populations, and even with avoiding default, receivership, or bankruptcy. Even as systems improve, government finances decline amid considerable private sector prosperity. Research over the past decade has done little to aid or explain the sweeping expectation and limited success of budget systems to transform essential elements of governance. It is the purpose of this paper to review progress in the development of robust fiscal systems, identify the major obstacles and failures, and link this evidence to the record of recent governmental financial distress, paying particular attention to the struggles of American governments. The broader questions needing to be addressed are the same questions at the forefront of public sector finance 100 years ago; however, the present focus has not been on these broader implications.","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2011-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00998.X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63318519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Unruly World of Public Budgeting","authors":"N. Caiden","doi":"10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00997.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00997.X","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46065,"journal":{"name":"Public Budgeting and Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2011-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/J.1540-5850.2011.00997.X","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63318371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}