Proposition 13 and State Budget Limitations: Past Successes and Future Options

June 2003 marks the 25th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, a landmark tax limitation measure approved by California voters in 1978. Proposition 13 triggered one of the nation's largest state and local tax reductions by immediately cutting California property taxes by $5 billion. But Proposition 13's impact went far beyond tax relief in California. It launched a wave of tax limitation efforts in other states and created momentum for the large federal tax cuts passed in 1981. Although Proposition 13 limited property taxes, it failed to impose long-term discipline on state and local budgets in California. Indeed, total state and local revenues (including federal aid) in California have risen from 19.4 percent of personal income the year after Proposition 13 passed to 24.6 percent today. Rapidly expanding spending since the mid-1990s has put the state into a fiscal crisis with record budget gaps currently being reported. Proposition 13's focus on property taxes was too narrow to limit overall state and local government budgets in California. However, a number of states in the past decade have enacted broader tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) that attempt to control overall government growth. This paper discusses how well-designed TELs can restrain spending and provide tax relief. TELs combined with other mechanisms to terminate unneeded government programs should be pursued in all state and local jurisdictions to close current budget gaps and counteract the tendency of governments to collect ever-larger shares of Americans' income

Campaign Finance Regulation: Lessons from Washington State

Extensive regulations govern campaign finance at the state and national levels. Congress has recently passed the McCain-Feingold law that restricts contributions and electoral advertising. Many states, including Washington, have similar regulations. Washington's regulations limit contributions from individuals, political action committees, and political parties. Overall, campaign finance regulation in Washington State has been able to reduce the sums spent on campaigns for the state legislature. Contrary to the claims of proponents, campaign finance regulation has hindered electoral competition in the state. Incumbents were less likely to face either primary or general election challengers after the regulations went into effect. In addition, candidates who challenged incumbents during the general election were less likely to win. Proponents of contribution limits hope to pass new regulations in additional states and expect McCain-Feingold to enhance electoral competition. The experience of Washington State suggests that both aspirations are unlikely to become reality

Dispelling the Myths: The Truth about TABOR and Referendum C

During the late 1990s, Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights was praised widely for its effectiveness in restraining the growth of government and providing tax relief for the residents of the state. TABOR capped government revenue growth at population plus inflation and mandated immediate rebates of surplus revenues. Now TABOR is under attack by interest groups that want to increase government taxation faster than the cap will allow. They blame TABOR for the pressure the state budget has faced over the last four years. Yet that pressure is a direct result not of TABOR but of a recession, a drought, and a misguided educational-spending mandate that forced government to spend more money than it collected. Opponents of TABOR have endorsed Referendum C as a much-needed fix to TABOR. However, far from simply tinkering with TABOR, Referendum C puts government growth in overdrive. The referendum would in effect give Colorado state government a blank check for the next five years. It would also permanently change the way the TABOR cap is calculated and lock in for perpetuity more government spending. This paper sets the record straight on what really caused the budget problems in Colorado and what passage of Referendum C would mean to fiscal control in that state

Explosively-induced ground vibration in civil engineering construction

Research has been undertaken to improve techniques used in the prediction of ground vibration caused by civil engineering construction works. In particular, the effects of explosive excavation of rock for subsurface structures is considered. Factors affecting the input and propagation of explosive energy in the rock mass are investigated, and recommendations made on procedures for trial blasting and the most effective data processing and presentation for the derived predictive equations. These developments are supported by blasting trials at two major road construction sites, where vibration measurements were taken during conventional and innovative blasting operations. A critical review of contemporary dynamic structural damage and intrusion criteria is provided. It is concluded that vibration prediction and control techniques, together with workable damage/intrusion criteria, can be applied which substantially mitigate vibration hazard. The distribution of vibration associated risk between employer and contractor is discussed and contractual options presented. Techniques to determine the engineering properties of rock masses by analysis of stress waves from explosive and hammer impact sources have been developed and successfully tested. The advantages and limitations of the most promising seismic methods are discussed and field seismic classifications are compared with known rock mass properties and established geotechnical classification systems. The research shows that both rock mass properties and 'site specific' laws of vibration decay may be obtained during the trial blasting sequence of a site investigation programme

Experimental and Finite Element Studies of Acetabular Cement Pressurisation and Socket Fixation in Total Hip Replacement

PhDWith time, the rate of symptomatic acetabular component loosening accelerates and overtakes that of the femoral component as the principal reason for the revision of total hip replacement. In the femur extensive study has shown that cement pressurisation and good preparation of the bone bed improves the survival rate, but acetabular fixation requires further investigation. Production of cement pressure in the acetabulum is anatomically difficult. Pressurisation with conventional and novel designs of cement pressurisers has been compared to manual techniques and component insertion. The pressurisers increased peak and mean pressures and pressure duration. Finite element modethng of cup insertion showed that flanges and higher insertion rates increased cement penetration into cancellous bone. Per-operatively, one design of pressuriser produced cement pressures comparable to those found in the laboratory. Structural finite element modelling of the natural hip indicated that the subehondral plate and the relatively dense cancellous bone supporting it distribute the joint contact force into the medial and lateral pelvic cortices. A perfectly bonded cemented polyethylene cup stiffened the acetabulum so that more load was transferred directly to the cortices at the acetabular rim, with consequent interface stress concentrations. However, complimentary experimental studies using a dynamic joint simulator and a servo-hydraulic materials testing machine suggested that perfect fixation between cement and bone at the rim was not possible, even under laboratory conditions. Debonding of the cement bone interface at the rim, where dense bone prevents cement interdigitation, allowed micromotion. Since the clinical mechanism of failure of the acetabular component appears to be progressive debonding, from rim to apex, of the cement-bone interface, these studies support the initiation of the failure mechanism by mechanical factors, which may then allow the ingress of wear debris. The experimental studies suggested that the use of pressurisers reduces the amount of micromotion and thus may improve the long term stability of the interface

More to producing a thesis

Quality doctoral thesis begins with effective supervision. Universiti Putra Malaysia Faculty of Modern Languages and Communications senior Lecturer Dr Vijay Kumar Mallan believes research into doctoral education helps effectual doctoral supervision

Leveraging on intellectual assets

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) fosters an Alumni culture that gets graduates to contribute to their alma mater

Working students prefer long-distance learning

A total of 10,386 graduates received their scrolls in three convocations at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) this year

3-Dimensional Core-Collapse

In this paper, we present the results of 3-dimensional collapse simulations of rotating stars for a range of stellar progenitors. We find that for the fastest spinning stars, rotation does indeed modify the convection above the proto-neutron star, but it is not fast enough to cause core fragmentation. Similarly, although strong magnetic fields can be produced once the proto-neutron star cools and contracts, the proto-neutron star is not spinning fast enough to generate strong magnetic fields quickly after collapse and, for our simulations, magnetic fields will not dominate the supernova explosion mechanism. Even so, the resulting pulsars for our fastest rotating models may emit enough energy to dominate the total explosion energy of the supernova. However, more recent stellar models predict rotation rates that are much too slow to affect the explosion, but these models are not sophisticated enough to determine whether the most recent, or past, stellar rotation rates are most likely. Thus, we must rely upon observational constraints to determine the true rotation rates of stellar cores just before collapse. We conclude with a discussion of the possible constraints on stellar rotation which we can derive from core-collapse supernovae.Comment: 34 pages (5 of 17 figures missing), For full paper, goto http://qso.lanl.gov/~clf/papers/rot.ps.gz accepted by Ap