State Rules and the County-City Arena: Competition for Land and Taxes in California's Central Valley

An Assessment of Research on American Counties

“…In a similar vein, MacManus (1996) takes a closer look at county governing boards, partisanship, and elections and speculates about which factors may have prompted pro-gressive changes in these features. Likewise, Sokolow (1993a) systematically examines changes in the organization and functioning of county boards over time in their dual roles as administrators and policy makers. However, these scholars conclude that little is still known about whether the progressive changes and reform trends they observed made county governments more efficient, effective, responsive, or accountable.…”

“…On the negative side, this means counties may be growing too dependent on state aid. Four studies suggest that state control over local revenue authority severely affects counties' ability to raise sufficient funds to satisfy the service demands of county residents (Johnston, Pagano, and Russo 2000;Pagano and Johnston 2000;Sokolow 1993b;Thomas and Boonyapratuang 1993). Moreover, state constraints on county revenue authority have been shown to affect decisions that impose financial burdens on citizens and are not necessarily mitigated by increases in state aid (Johnston, Pagano, and Russo 2000;Pagano and Johnston 2000).…”

Integrating California's Climate Change and Fiscal Goals: The known, the Unknown, and the Possible

“…Though State Bill (SB) 154 devised a property tax reapportionment system that provided a bailout for local governments post Proposition 13, it enacted minimum service levels for public safety that for some cities meant diverting revenue from other services (Chapman and Kirlin 1979). Counties may struggle to maintain levels of service for health, welfare, and criminal justice, particularly if they are unable to replace lost property tax revenue with sales tax revenue or to cut costs (Sokolow 1993). In sum, Proposition 13 has likely worsened inequities in education and social service provision across California.…”

New Cities, Local Officials, and Municipal Incorporation Laws: A Supply-Side Model of City Formation

“…Disputes over an incorporation petition frequently evolve around allocation of tax revenues between an incorporating community, the county where it is located, and/or neighboring cities. For example, in California county officials frequently hold up annexation proposals till the annexing city agrees to transfer back to the county part of the sales tax revenues collected from the annexed territory (Sokolow, 1993). Similar disputes arise in Florida.…”