Achieving Educational Adequacy Through School Finance Reform

In this report, researchers demonstrate a statistical approach to the measurement of the costs of public education, using data from K-12 school districts in Wisconsin and Texas. They then demonstrate how to integrate information on costs into school aid formulas designed to provide the funding necessary to achieve educational adequacy

Integrating Fiscal Decentralization Reforms and the Challenge of Implementation

South Africa\u27s struggles with an ambitious and complex fiscal decentralization program are presented in detail in the first six chapters of this book. In this chapter, we summarize our key findings and turn to a discussion of the way forward with the assignment of powers and functions, the development of local sources of revenue, and the redesign of the intergovernmental transfer system. We give special emphasis to the interrelationships among the pieces of the fiscal decentralization system. We also briefly consider two dimensions of the system - development transfers to support capital investment and municipal borrowing powers - that are not discussed at length in the previous chapters

Effects of residence and race on burden of travel for care: cross sectional analysis of the 2001 US National Household Travel Survey

BACKGROUND: Travel burden is a key element in conceptualizing geographic access to health care. Prior research has shown that both rural and minority populations bear disproportionate travel burdens. However, many studies are limited to specific types of patient or specific locales. The purpose of our study was to quantify geographic and race-based differences in distance traveled and time spent in travel for medical/dental care using representative national data. METHODS: Data were drawn from 2001 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), a nationally representative, cross-sectional household survey conducted by the US Department of Transportation. Participants recorded all travel on a designated day; the overall response rate was 41%. Analyses were restricted to households reporting at least one trip for medical and/or dental care; 3,914 trips made by 2,432 households. Dependent variables in the analysis were road miles traveled, minutes spent traveling, and high travel burden, defined as more than 30 miles or 30 minutes per trip. Independent variables of interest were rural residence and race. Characteristics of the individual, the trip, and the community were controlled in multivariate analyses. RESULTS: The average trip for care in the US in 2001 entailed 10.2 road miles (16.4 kilometers) and 22.0 minutes of travel. Rural residents traveled further than urban residents in unadjusted analysis (17.5 versus 8.3 miles; 28.2 versus 13.4 km). Rural trips took 31.4% longer than urban trips (27.2 versus 20.7 minutes). Distance traveled did not vary by race. African Americans spent more time in travel than whites (29.1 versus 20.6 minutes); other minorities did not differ. In adjusted analyses, rural residence (odds ratio, OR, 2.67, 95% confidence interval, CI 1.39 5.1.5) was associated with a trip of 30 road miles or more; rural residence (OR, 1.80, CI 1.09 2.99) and African American race/ethnicity (OR 3.04. 95% CI 2.0 4.62) were associated with a trip lasting 30 minutes or longer. CONCLUSION: Rural residents and African Americans experience higher travel burdens than urban residents or whites when seeking medical/dental care

La réforme fiscale aux Etats-Unis

Le Congrès des Etats-Unis a voté en 1986 une réforme radicale des impôts sur le revenu des personnes et des sociétés. Au fil des ans, le revenu réellement soumis à l'impôt avait été laminé, sous l'effet d'exemptions, de lacunes, de déductions ou de crédits d'impôt, qui avaient par ailleurs dégradé l'équité fiscale, compliqué la gestion de l'impôt et engendré des distorsions économiques. La réforme fiscale adoptée en 1986 avait pour objet de remédier en partie à ces déficiences. Elle reposait sur le principe d'une neutralité de la réforme du point de vue des recettes et du point de vue de la répartition de l'impôt, à ceci près qu'une réduction des impôts payés par les particuliers, notamment par les titulaires de bas revenus, serait compensée par un accroissement de l'impôt sur le bénéfice des sociétés. Trois ans après la réforme, on constatait que le public ne se montrait pas satisfait de la réforme malgré de notables améliorations objectives, que la simplification de certaines procédures administratives était contrebalancée par une plus grande complexité d'autres dispositions, que l'équité verticale de l'impôt redevenait proche de celle de 1980 et que l'équité horizontale de celui-ci était sensiblement améliorée, que les effets sur l'offre de main-d'oeuvre étaient difficiles à cerner, qu'il y aurait un léger risque d'affaiblissement de l'épargne à moyen terme, et que la réforme aurait des effets assez sensibles sur la fiscalité des Etats et des collectivités locales.Reschovsky Andrew. La réforme fiscale aux Etats-Unis. In: Politiques et management public, vol. 8, n° 2, 1990. pp. 65-86