Can state and local governments rely on alternative tax sources?

State governments are much more likely than their local counterparts to depend on taxes other than sales, property, and personal income taxes. Excises on alcohol, beer, tobacco, gambling, and business taxes are among the alternative taxes. Local governments, on the other hand, are more likely to impose user fees. Reliance on these alternative state tax sources in aggregate has diminished over the past several decades, despite a pattern of rate increases and new gambling alternatives. Competitive pressures between states and with the federal government are likely to continue limiting reliance on these alternatives. Further, the same competitive forces are reshaping state corporate taxes to operate more like taxes on consumption than the traditional focus on taxing corporate production. In addition, states are seeking to broaden the set of business taxpayers to include those exploiting the state’s market and noncorporate businesses.State finance ; Local finance

A Fresh Look at the VAT

The purpose of this paper is to identify and examine some of the key VAT policy issues that have arisen in the implementation of the tax. Specifically, the paper examines four issues as examples of the specific inefficiencies that arise in actual practice with VATs. The first section examines the effect of registration thresholds, normally allowed to lessen administrative burdens, as an example of structural inefficiencies. The second section examines the tariff effects arising from administration of the VAT at border. The third section considers application of the VAT on financial services as an example of exemptions from the tax. Finally, the problem of distributing the revenues of a destination VAT levied at the subnational level is discussed.Working Paper Number 04-38

Investing in rural infrastructure

Rural areas ; Rural development

An Investigation of the Origin of Place Names of Towns in Penobscot County, Maine

A study was made of the origin of place names of towns in Penobscot County, Maine. Each of the sixty-one town names is taken up in chronological order. A list of the previous designations of each town, beginning with the survey designation, is included and an attempt has been made to find the origin of these wherever possible as well as the name used today. In many cases the dates of the first settlements, names of early settlers, and brief outlines of the towns’ histories have been included, particularly if these had any bearing upon the origin of the names. The study has been divided into three periods (roughly including about one-third of the towns in each division). Towns were named for the following reasons: after early settlers, after proprietors of the townships, as geographical descriptions or for outstanding traits, after Indian names, after classical and Biblical names, after towns the settlers had come from, after political figures, after land agents, after famous people, and for foreign places

The Personal Income Tax as a Component of State Tax Structure

This Article evaluates the pros and cons of a state individual income tax from the perspective of an economist. The Article examines the income tax as one component of a tax structure that is best suited for raising a given level of revenues. The important assumption in the analysis is that the level of state public expenditures is determined by residents\u27 demand for public services. This assumption does not preclude the tax structure from allowing greater or lesser expenditures than are demanded during any single year; rather, the assumption is that over time tax levels provide revenues that are in accord with consumer preferences for public services. There are two basic implications to this assumption. First, it is unnecessary to consider how the revenues will be spent to determine whether an income tax is a desirable revenue generator. Second, based on this assumption, an income tax (or any tax) is most effectively evaluated relative to another tax because the existence of an income tax will result in either a direct replacement of or a decrease in another tax. All taxes are politically and economically disadvantageous when analyzed by themselves, so each tax is best judged relative to other taxes. At the state level, the income tax is best evaluated relative to the sales tax. Thus, the analysis below is frequently a comparison between the characteristics of an income and a sales tax. There are other taxes that could be compared with the income tax, but these levies generally would be limited revenue generators in comparison to sales and income taxes. Part II of this Article is a brief overview of the current practice in state income taxation. Part III considers the pros and cons of using an income tax as a revenue generator, including analysis of the tax\u27s potential as a revenue generator, the economic effects of the tax, the equity implications raised by the tax, and the administrative concerns in using the tax. Part IV draws together these pros and cons to reach a conclusion