City Officials and General Revenue Sharing: Attitudes, Perceptions and Implications for Future Intergovernmental Policy

This article describes the 1972 State and Local Fiscal AssistanceAct(General Revenue Sharing), its perceived impact on city expenditures,its impact on the attitudes of city officials, and GRS's implicationfor future intergovernmental policy. Using data from nine yearsof an annual survey to chief executives in cities with over50,000 population, we conclude the program's most importantcontribution was in the general attitudes it fostered amonglocal officials. Our analysis indicates that GRS remains extremelypopular with urban chief executives and that its impact variesamong expenditure categories and cities. We conclude that theReagan administration may be able to develop viable policy alternativesbecause of the lack of consensus among many city officials whoalso exhibit varying degrees of support for the president'sproposed policies. In addition, the consensus which characterizedthe public interest groups in prior years may be eroding, andthis could create greater possibilities for policy change. ^* We would like to thank Tracey Gladstone and Eila Pakkanenfor their coding assist-ance. Ilese Hoyniak provided data processingassistance. We would like to thank Purdue University for providingcomputer time and other assistance.