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E‐commerce has become an integral part of Americans' lives and while it offers many benefits, it also represents forgone sales tax revenue for governments. Using a difference‐in‐differences model, this analysis examines how the Amazon tax affected local sales tax collections in North Carolina and whether that impact has been greater for urban, rural, or tourism‐rich counties. The results suggest that the Amazon tax increased revenues and urban jurisdictions benefit most. This finding is important for practitioners and policymakers as they consider the impact of policy changes, such as the South Dakota v. Wayfair ruling, on revenue capacity and financial management.

Local sales taxes (LSTs) have received growing attention over the past decade, but a fundamental aspect of LSTs has remained largely unexplored: How do state laws governing LSTs differ from one another? The literature acknowledges that state laws vary widely, but leaves the discussion at that. This research seeks to fill that void by presenting a comprehensive set of state LST laws and creating a resource that will enable researchers to consider these differences in their analyses. State LST laws are framed within the lenses of jurisdictional eligibility and discretionary authority.

Local governments are responding to growing pressures to increase transparency and citizen engagement, particularly in light of the fiscal stress created by the Great Recession. Historically, the budget process has been a target for these efforts, generally through public hearings and requirements for publicly available budget documents. However, there is growing interest in moving past information sharing to more dynamic and interactive engagement. A review of citizen engagement literature reveals the diverse ways in which local governments and citizens engage with each other. It also reveals that most studies are presented primarily from the perspective of the local government. This article responds by presenting a case study on Greensboro, North Carolina, where a citizen-led effort successfully introduced participatory budgeting (PB). In October 2014, Greensboro passed a resolution in which it committed $500,000 annually to PB, allowing citizens to develop and vote on budget proposals. The research presented here is a first step toward understanding efforts to increase transparency and engagement from a citizen perspective, and it highlights some of the unique challenges that citizens face when they take on such an initiative.

AbstractState-level income tax policy is a hotly debated topic in both academic and political spheres. Although economic theory and some empirical analyses suggest that larger income tax burdens affect migration decisions, there is also a good deal of empirical evidence showing that tax policy has little to no effect. This lack of consensus in the academic literature is echoed in the political world, where many states are debating whether to eliminate income taxes or reduce rates as a means of spurring economic growth. Connecticut's adoption of an income tax policy in 1991 provides a unique opportunity to analyse the impact of a sizable income tax policy change on migration. The results suggest that Connecticut's income tax deterred movement into the state but had no impact on exit from the state, resulting in a net loss in migration.

Analyses of the relationships of earmarked finances on their respective programs and total expenditures have produced conflicting views of how governments spend earmarked revenue. Some show that earmarks are used in addition to existing finances to increase the total level of funding for recipient programs while others show that earmarks are fungible and program spending is unchanged. An analysis on local option sales taxes earmarked for transportation (LOST‐Ts) suggests that transportation spending is increased by more than LOST‐T revenue. For every dollar generated by LOST‐Ts, transportation spending increases by an estimated $1.76 and nontransportation spending decreases by an estimated $0.73.

There is increasing pressure on state and local governments to be transparent. The ultimate goal of increased transparency is to improve the accountability and the efficiency of government through greater citizen awareness. However, despite the abundance of data now available at the click of a button, citizens are still distrustful and dissatisfied with government policies. Fiscal illusion may be at the root of the disconnect. Fiscal illusion suggests that the citizens systematically misperceive their tax burdens and subsequently the cost of government. These issues are discussed with an emphasis on the relationship between fiscal illusion and transparency in this essay.

Using military residency data from 1998 to 2005 across all 50 states, I find that income taxes deter legal residencies and that the effect grows as income increases. My results indicate that states with no income tax or with exemptions for military wages experience 100% and 39% more service member residencies, respectively, than states with an income tax. The influence of state tax policy increases with higher pay and tenure. My findings are in keeping with economic theory, which suggests that high income workers will migrate out of high tax areas and be replaced by low income workers. (JEL H24, H71, J61)

In keeping with previous literature, local option sales taxes (LOSTs) are shown to reduce property tax burdens as well as increase own source revenue, although the magnitude is larger than previously estimated. This article advances the literature by using more sophisticated econometric techniques to minimize self‐selection bias concerns. It also addresses some of the lingering questions from previous studies. Using county data from 35 states over the time period of 1983–2004, counties with LOSTs are matched to counties that have the same estimated propensity to adopt a LOST but are precluded by their states from doing so.

There is increasing pressure on state and local governments to be transparent. The ultimate goal of increased transparency is to improve the accountability and the efficiency of government through greater citizen awareness. However, despite the abundance of data now available at the click of a button, citizens are still distrustful and dissatisfied with government policies. Fiscal illusion may be at the root of the disconnect. Fiscal illusion suggests that the citizens systematically misperceive their tax burdens and subsequently the cost of government. These issues are discussed with an emphasis on the relationship between fiscal illusion and transparency in this essay. Adapted from the source document.