State Aid To Cities: A Causal Inquiry

Path analysis is employed to identify major influences on twoforms of state aid to cities—financial and programmatic.Considerable support is found for a sequential model in whichstate resources and city need are modified by the politicalclimate and the legal/structural characteristics of the state.For financial aid, the most powerful influences are a professionalizedlegislature and a legal system under which cities are responsiblefor schools and welfare. Program support is more affected bystate resources and municipal need. In all, those states mostlikely to provide generous support have cities in need, ampleresources, professionalized legislatures, and a decentralizedstate-local structural relationship.     

Education Aid in New York State: Targeting Issues and Measures

The distribution of state aid for public education in New Yorkis the result of a combination of political and educationalconcerns. They influence the amount of school aid distributed,the pattern of aid distribution among school districts, thetypes of programs funded, and the accountability required forthese funds. This article focuses on the forces that influencethe split between general state aid and targeted state aid.General aid refers to aid that districts may use for any purposeconsistent with local priorities or needs. Targeted aid is moneyprovided by the state to a district for a particular purpose.When a district accepts targeted aid, it must agree to spendthe funds in accord with specific statutes or regulations. Considerationsof equity, mechanics of state aid distribution, and the historyof the development of school aid legislation are also discussedin this article.     

Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities: Reinventing Federalism for Distressed Communities

Assisting communities to stimulate investment and to createjobs as part of a federal-state-local government and private-sectorpartnership is a key intergovernmental objective of the Clintonadministration, consistent with its agenda of reinventing government.The Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Cities (EZ/EC) Program, enactedby the Congress as part of the Omnibus Budget ReconciliationAct of 1993, reflects other federalism themes as well, themesthat predate the Clinton administration. A shift in federalpolicy during the 1980s, away from places and toward persons,set the stage for the long and difficult path of the EZ/EC programthrough the Congress. During that same decade, many states enactedtheir own enterprise-zone statutes; these initiatives were partof a second federalism trend—the general resurgence ofstates. The EZ/EC program also demonstrates the persistenceof partisanship in intergovernmental programs; empowerment-zoneand enterprise-community choices announced by the presidentin December 1994 reflected Clinton's need to satisfy his traditionalDemocratic constituencies.     

General-Purpose Aid in New York State: Targeting Issues and Measures

This article explores key questions about targeted versus distributiveaid policies within the context of New York's general-purposestate aid program. Development of that program over the pastforty years shows ebbs and flows of support for both targetedand distributive approaches. Intense policy debates concerninglocal fiscal policies occur as part of annual state budget negotiations,although recently, New York policymakers have favored targetedapproaches. Yet the traditional measures of targeting governmentalneeds, such as differences in fiscal capacity and effort, havebeen expanded to emphasize differences in service responsibilities.Strong, and perhaps ironic, parallels are also evident betweenNew York's program and the now defunct federal revenue sharingprogram.     

Interstate Variation in the Allocation of State Aid To Local Schools

Do state governments attempt to reduce the disparities amonglocal school districts with well targeted aid programs? Thisarticle examines this question with a study of virtually theentire universe of U.S. independent school districts and ofthe distribution of state aid in forty-four states in 1982.In a pooled analysis of states and in separate state analyses,state aid is found to be powerfully linked to enrollment. Despitethe general pattern of enrollment-based aid programs, thirteenstates are shown to be targeting a modest amount of state aidto school districts with greater needs, such as lower per capitaincome or lower district revenues and greater school debt perpupil.     

新农村建设中的广西农村医疗救助研究

实施农村医疗救助是新农村建设的重要内容,也是新农村建设的应有之义。广西农村医疗救助取得了一些成绩,但还存在医疗救助对象瞄准偏差、救助水平偏低、救助基金结余过多、慈善组织提供的医疗救助资源太少等问题,我们从实施目标定位政策、提高救助资金筹集能力、提高救助方案测算科学性和发展慈善医疗救助四个方面提出进一步完善的对策。     

Fiscal Reaction to State Aid Uncertainties: Evidence from New York State

Late budgets have become increasingly present across the states and especially persistent in states such as New York and California. The combination of delayed states budgets and institutional constraints may trigger specific budgetary strategies. Uncertainty over state aid may lead school districts to over‐ or underestimate school budgets, which ultimately may have an effect on real property taxes and the amount of education consumed. Evidence from New York State school districts suggests that school districts react to uncertainty in the state budget through a combination of revenue, expenditure, and fund balance changes. The findings suggest that districts engage in “gaming” the institutional constraints, and tend to build up large fund balances as a response to perceived uncertainty.     

Federal Aid and Economic Development in Nonmetropolitan Communities: The UDAG Program

In 1977 Congress enacted the Urban Development Action Grant(UDAG) program to help distressed communities develop economically.This article draws from case studies of ten nonmetropolitancommunities with Action Grants. It focuses on the factors thataffect the completion and benefits of projects, particularlyrelations with private developers and local management capacity.The studies show that the UDAG program has been flexible inaccommodating differences in economic development needs as perceivedlocally. However, many of the projects have not produced thenumbers of jobs originally proposed. Several communities encounteredproblems with private developers who either abandoned the projectsor failed to produce expected results. Smaller communities inthe sample tended to lack grantsmanship, management, and legalresources.     

Targeting in Economic Development: Comparative State Perspectives

This article examines recent efforts to target state industrialpolicy along three dimensions: sectoral aid to specific businessesor economic activities, geographic aid to growing or decliningregions, and direct assistance to the unemployed. While thestates have done better with sec-toral targeting than opponentsof a federal industrial policy have feared, industrial policymust compete with many other state programs, including moretraditional economic development efforts based on advertisingand tax expenditures. Only a few states have managed to channelmuch state aid to displaced workers or distressed communities.Despite some evidence as to the success of industrial policyfocused on limited areas or activities, dilution of policy focusand underinvestment of resources characterize state industrialpolicy efforts to date.     

Potential Challenges to Targeting Low- and Moderate-Income Communities in a Time of Urgent Need: The Case of CDBG-DR in New York State after Superstorm Sandy

New York State received $4.5 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds after Superstorm Sandy. A major CDBG-DR requirement is to prioritize assistance to low- and moderate-income (LMI) populations. The state is spending two fifths of funds on community-wide (e.g., infrastructure) recovery activities. For these activities to be documented as LMI, a specified percentage of residents benefiting from them must be LMI. We explore the potential tension between addressing community recovery needs and prioritizing LMI assistance. Specifically, we develop a series of scenarios to estimate the likelihood that any community-wide activities will be documented as LMI in New York State. We find that documenting these activities as LMI is largely dependent on the underlying demographics of disaster-impacted areas. Additionally, as recovery activities increase in size, thereby impacting larger populations, they are less likely to be documented as LMI, potentially disincentivizing larger, more impactful investments. We recommend empirically based LMI targets for CDBG-DR grantees.     

Property Tax Responses to State Aid Cuts in the Recent Fiscal Crisis

Many states experienced fiscal crises at the beginning of this decade. Some responded by cutting state aid to local governments. This paper explores the extent to which local governments responded to these aid cuts by raising property taxes. The authors hypothesize that changes in aid help explain the observed differences in per capita property tax revenue changes across states. They find that on average school districts increased property taxes by 23 cents for each dollar cut in state aid. These results highlight the important role that the property tax plays in maintaining the stability of the state and local sector.     

State Government Targeting in Economic Development: The New York Experience

New York State has made extensive use of social, geographic,and sectoral targeting in economic development. It has targetedboth distressed industries, particularly manufacturing, andgrowth industries. When the initial assistance provided to manufacturingin the 1960s did not stem the decline of this sector, the stateresponded by providing larger subsidies. Even though manufacturingcontinued to decline, both absolutely and relatively, supportfor its preferred status has, nevertheless, remained strong,and few of the programs initially aimed at this sector haveseen any sign cant changes in their manufacturing focus. Effortsto target distressed areas and individuals, however, were notsustained over time. The state's two most significant effortsat geographic targeting were expanded statewide over relativelyshort periods of time.     

The Effects of Changes in Federal Aid on State and Local Government Spending

This study suggests federal grants-in-aid had an important influenceon state and local government spending during the 1960s andmost of the 1970s. This positive stimulation also seems to havecontinued during 1982–1985, despite the Reagan administration'sefforts to cut the level of federal aid to states and communities.The stimulative effect of federal aid, however, was showingsigns of diminishing after 1977 and was conspicuously absentfor the 1977–1981 and 1985–1988 periods.     

Economic Actors' Political Activity in 'Overlap Issues': Privatisation and EU State Aid Control

This article considers the political activity of economic actors in what we refer to as 'overlap issues'. The cases examined here are the domestic level privatisation policy-making processes in Spain, France and Ireland, and the subsequent European Commission decisions on state aids given during the sales. Although the influence of economic actors is crucial in understanding the domestic-level privatisation aid negotiations, such actors' participation is absent in the supranational decision-making process. In order to explain this limited political activity of firms at the EU level, attention is focused on both the role of the member states and the paradoxes in EU policies that simultaneously guide and constrain the Commission from making a decision against capital.     

Whither the Developmental State? The Growing Role of NGOs in Japanese Aid Policymaking

Japan is often characterized as a developmental state, i.e., a state with a strong and autonomous bureaucratic leadership that directs the economy toward achieving developmental goals. This study challenges the developmental state model, arguing that the once-powerful Japanese bureaucracy has lost much of its authority and is no longer autonomous from societal forces. By focusing on the growing role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Japan's official development assistance (ODA) policymaking, this study shows how the nongovernmental sector has begun to challenge bureaucratic dominance and reshape state–civil society relations in Japan.     

互联网供应链金融助力乡村振兴战略研究

互联网供应链金融作为一种基于互联网平台和产业链系统的信用融资方式,能够利用供应链核心企业信用延伸共享优势全链条打通物流、信息流、资金流,有效提高金融保障的可获得性,降低涉农金融运行的风险。基于互联网的农业供应链金融主要通过相对有效的征信系统和完善的风险防控机制,向农业供应链成员提供信贷融资服务,以获得新的利润增长点。互联网供应链金融是保障乡村振兴战略实施,特别是实现农业供给侧结构性改革,提高金融有效供给的重要支撑。在归纳互联网供应链金融内涵及其在实施乡村振兴战略中重要意义基础上,分析了互联网供应链金融在支持"三农"方面存在的问题,并提出政策建议。     

Targeting Federal Assistance to Local Governments in Rural and Low-Income Areas, 1972-1983

Two questions have predominated policy discussions about theallocation of federal aid to rural local governments duringthe last two decades: whether rural areas were getting their"fair share" and whether the aid was appropriately targetedto deserving communities. An analysis of data for 1972–1983shows that although the position of rural governments apparentlyimproved during the 1970s, the gains were principally due tosharply increased loans to rural areas, while urban areas benefitedfrom increases in grants-in-aid. Conversely, the aid reductionsof the early 1980s, by cutting into loans, which are less valuablethan grants, appear to have hurt rural areas less than urbanareas. A modest amount of income-targeting in federal developmentfunds was evident in the early 1970s, but it deteriorated duringthe following decade. By 1983 counties with higher incomes andmore satisfactory levels of public services received higherlevels of aid than places that might have been considered moreneedy. While the reasons for the generally diminished targetingare not clear, several possibilities, including the increasingimportance of loans as a federal aid mechanism, are considered.