Urban property tax reform : guidelines and recommendations

The property tax is a potentially attractive means of financing municipal government in developing countries. As a revenue source, it can provide local government with access to a broad and expanding tax base. At present, however, yields of urban property taxes in developing countries are extremely low. In part, these low yields reflect failures in the administration of the tax. Procedural improvements alone, however, are unlikely to have a significant, sustained impact on property tax yields. This suggests that the scope of reform must be expanded to address the systems for rate setting and revaluation, and the incentives confronting administrators of the tax. The scope of reform may have to include the entire structure of local finance. Judging from recent experience, providing local government with complete autonomy over tax policy and administration does not always guarantee that the tax will be exploited effectively. Under these conditions, property tax reform can only be achieved in the context of wider restructuring in the sources of municipal revenue. By reducing the extent of arbitrary subsidies between jurisdictions and confronting local taxpayers with the cost of the services they consume, these reforms are consistent with the pursuit of the efficiency objective that is the principal justification for property tax reform.Municipal Financial Management,Urban Governance and Management,Regional Governance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform

Urban property taxation in developing countries

The property tax is the most widely used source of municipal tax revenue in the developing world, but its current yield is often insubstantial. This paper has two objectives. The first is to assess the policy arguments for the use of property taxes as a municipal revenue source. The second is to review the revenue performance of property taxation and define practical ways to improve it. Tax policy must ensure that the rates are set high enough to make tax collecting worthwhile. Administrative reforms should support simple procedures for property discovery and valuation, suited to the characteristics of the local tax base and the skills of the local authorities. Central governments can achieve reform on a nationwide scale, even where the property tax is locally administered, by delivering standardized packages of training and technical assistance to local governments.Public Sector Management and Reform,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management

Fiscal management in federal democracies : Argentina and Brazil

In shifting to decentralized public finances, a country's central government faces certain fiscal management problems. First, during and soon after the transition, unless it reduces pending or increases its own tax resources, the central government tends to have higher deficits as it shifts fiscal resources to sub-national governments through transfers, revenue sharing, or delegation of tax bases. Reducing spending is hard, not only because cuts are always hard, but because sub-national governments might not take on expected tasks, leaving the central government with a legal or political obligation to continue spending for certain services. Second, after decentralization, the local or state government faces popular pressure to spend more and tax less, creating the tendency to run deficits. This tendency can be a problem if sub-national governments and their creditors expect or rely on bailouts by the central government. Econometric evidence from 32 large industrial and developing countries indicates that higher sub-national spending and deficits lead to greater national deficits. The authors investigate how, and how successfully, Argentina and Brazil dealt with these problems in the 1990s. In both countries, sub-national governments account for about half of public spending and are vigorous democracies in most (especially the largest) jurisdictions. The return to democracy in the 1980s revived and strengthened long-standing federal practices while weakening macroeconomic performance, resulting in unsustainable fiscal deficits, high inflation, sometimes hyperinflation, and low or negative growth. Occasional stabilization plans failed within a few years. Then Argentina (in 1991) and Brazil (in 1994) introduced successful stabilization plans. National issues were important in preventing and then bringing about macroeconomic stabilization, but so were intergovernmental fiscal relations and the fiscal management of sub-national governments. State deficits and federal transfers were often out of control in the 1980s, contributing to national macroeconomic problems. Stabilization programs in the 1990s needed to establish control, and self-control, over sub-national spending and borrowing.National Governance,Public&Municipal Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Urban Economics,National Governance,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management

Decentralization and fiscal management in Colombia

Colombia's political geography contrasts sharply with its economy. Physical characteristics and guerilla war fragment the country geographically, yet it has a long tradition of political centrism and macroeconomic stability. Recently, with political and economic decentralization, there has been some weakening of macroeconomic performance. The authors explore institutional arrangements that have helped Colombia manage the fiscal aspects of decentralization, despite the country's political problems. Fiscal decentralization proceeded rapidly in Colombia. Education, health, and much infrastructure provision have been decentralized to the departmentos and municipios. Decentralization has led to substantial but not overwhelming problems, both in maintaining fiscal balance nationally ( as resources are transferred of subnational levels) and in preventing unsustainable deficits by the subnational governments. The problems have arisen because central government interference prevents departments from controlling their costs and because of expectations of debt bailouts. Both are legacies of the earlier pattern of management from the center, and some recent changes - especially about subnational debt - may improve matters. Colombia's traditional political process has had difficulty dealing with problems of decentralization because traditional parties are weak in internal organization and have lost de facto rule over substantial territories. The fiscal problems of subnational government have been contained, however, because subnational governments are relatively weak politically and the central government, for the time being, has been able to enforce restrictions on subnational borrowing.Urban Economics,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Public&Municipal Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,National Governance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Urban Economics

Data Definitions in the ACL2 Sedan

We present a data definition framework that enables the convenient specification of data types in ACL2s, the ACL2 Sedan. Our primary motivation for developing the data definition framework was pedagogical. We were teaching undergraduate students how to reason about programs using ACL2s and wanted to provide them with an effective method for defining, testing, and reasoning about data types in the context of an untyped theorem prover. Our framework is now routinely used not only for pedagogical purposes, but also by advanced users. Our framework concisely supports common data definition patterns, e.g. list types, map types, and record types. It also provides support for polymorphic functions. A distinguishing feature of our approach is that we maintain both a predicative and an enumerative characterization of data definitions. In this paper we present our data definition framework via a sequence of examples. We give a complete characterization in terms of tau rules of the inclusion/exclusion relations a data definition induces, under suitable restrictions. The data definition framework is a key component of counterexample generation support in ACL2s, but can be independently used in ACL2, and is available as a community book.Comment: In Proceedings ACL2 2014, arXiv:1406.123

Friend Request Pending: Does a Rare Victory Before the Seventh Circuit Mean Sex Offenders Will Finally Receive Fair Treatment from Courts?

Sex offender laws have spiraled out of control in recent years. Yet, despite the irrationality and punitive nature of many of these laws, courts have overwhelmingly sided with states in constitutional challenges. However, recent case law suggests that courts may no longer be willing to give states the benefit of the doubt where substantial individual rights are implicated. In Doe v. Prosecutor, Marion County, Indiana, the Seventh Circuit struck down an Indiana law that banned certain registered sex offenders from using social media websites, finding the law facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment. This comment argues that the court correctly refused to allow Indiana to place such a heavy burden on First Amendment freedoms when the state could not show that the harm it sought to prevent was real, that the law targeted only those offenders likely to present a risk, or that the law would actually make the public safer. Although the law overturned in Doe was somewhat unique because of the clear First Amendment implications, the Seventh Circuit\u27s reasoning coincides with an emerging trend in courts to require that sex offender legislation not overly burden individual rights without a strong basis for doing so. This trend is significant because modern sex offender legislation is often reactionary, based upon myth and fear rather than a legitimate effort to protect the public. In fact, recent research suggests that many modern laws do little to make the public safer and certain laws may even increase the likelihood of recidivism. This Comment argues that society\u27s special hatred for sex offenders has led not only legislatures but also courts to make questionable decisions, some of which may now be vulnerable to legal challenge in light of new research and recent case law. To stave off constitutional challenges, legislatures should ensure that sex offender laws are based on empirical evidence and reasoned discussion. This approach will make the public safer and prevent unnecessary trammeling of constitutional rights

Steering Spatial Development in the Vienna Agglomeration

After the falling down of the “iron curtain” Vienna starts to grow again. It is now a metropolitan area with about 2.6 Mio. inhabitants. Vienna is surrounded by Lower Austria, which is one of the nine countries (Bundesländer) of Austria. Spatial Planning is based on the Austrian Constitution a complex matter. The Federal State, the Countries and the Municipalities have competences in Spatial Planning. Thus, in the agglomeration we are confronted with different spatial planning legislation, instruments and institution.In this situation basically three instruments have been developed to steer spatial development in the Vienna agglomeration: Lower Austria has passed two legally binding spatial development programmes as framework for spatial development in the municipalities around Vienna. Besides that, Vienna and Lower Austria established a “Stadt-Umland-Management” (North and South). This management is an association acts as a cooperation and network platform with no legal competences. Just recently a new “regional master plan” has been elaborated in the North of Vienna. The Master Plan was drafted in a participatory approach. A steering group with representatives (mayors) of all Municipalities and the Government of Lower Austria was formed. All planning steps have been discussed and decided involving the Municipalities and formally approved in the so called “Regional form” where all Municipalities and the Lower Austrian Government have a vote. More specific this plan is a spatial framework for the municipalities in terms of building land for housing, economic activities and protection of green zones of regional importance. The paper concentrates on experiences made in in the drafting process of this new “regional master plan” in the Vienna agglomeration area North of Vienna

Steering Spatial Development in the Vienna Agglomeration

After the falling down of the “iron curtain” Vienna starts to grow again. It is now a metropolitan area with about 2.6 Mio. inhabitants. Vienna is surrounded by Lower Austria, which is one of the nine countries (Bundesländer) of Austria. Spatial Planning is based on the Austrian Constitution a complex matter. The Federal State, the Countries and the Municipalities have competences in Spatial Planning. Thus, in the agglomeration we are confronted with different spatial planning legislation, instruments and institution.In this situation basically three instruments have been developed to steer spatial development in the Vienna agglomeration: Lower Austria has passed two legally binding spatial development programmes as framework for spatial development in the municipalities around Vienna. Besides that, Vienna and Lower Austria established a “Stadt-Umland- Management” (North and South). This management is an association acts as a cooperation and network platform with no legal competences. Just recently a new “regional master plan” has been elaborated in the North of Vienna. The Master Plan was drafted in a participatory approach. A steering group with representatives (mayors) of all Municipalities and the Government of Lower Austria was formed. All planning steps have been discussed and decided involving the Municipalities and formally approved in the so called “Regional form” where all Municipalities and the Lower Austrian Government have a vote. More specific this plan is a spatial framework for the municipalities in terms of building land for housing, economic activities and protection of green zones of regional importance. The paper concentrates on experiences made in in the drafting process of this new “regional master plan” in the Vienna agglomeration area North of Vienna