Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management

China's Fiscal Reform: The Issue of Extra Budgeting1

To adjust the fiscal relationship between the central government and the local government, especially to increase the two ratios of (1) central fiscal revenue over GDP and (2) central fiscal revenue over government revenue, China conducted a 1994 fiscal reform effort, the result of which is, at best, mixed. One of the failures to boost the first ratio is the existence of large-scale extra budget funds (EBFs) and extra-extra budgetary funds (EEBFs). This paper explores the history, the problem...

The Prospects for General Sales Taxation in American State and Local Government Finance: Challenges for a Fiscal Workhorse Unready for the New Millennium

The retail sales tax has provided a strong foundation for American state government finance since its beginnings in the Great Depression. However, its position as a productive, reliable, and administrable revenue source is now under challenge from three forces. First, it continues as a tax primarily on purchases of tangible personal property, despite the shift in consumption toward services. Second, the physical presence rule for taxation of sales by remote vendors creates an intolerable imba...

Changes in State Tax Structures: True Comprehensive Reform or Artifacts of Incrementalism?

Using data obtained from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), we investigate modifications in state tax codes to determine their characteristics, the apparent trends of state tax reform, and whether changes constituted comprehensive reform or mere incremental adjustments to existing tax structures. Based on the data, we find that few states achieved comprehensive tax reform in the 1990s despite the fiscal surplus that provided an environment conducive to widespread change. Mo...

Rationality, Accountability Reform and Accounting for Land Under Roads in an Australian Local Government

Recently the inclusion of land under roads as an asset in financial reports by Australian local governments has led to several concerns arising from dissatisfaction with certain elements of the new accounting standards and concepts, particularly, the Australian Accounting Standard AAS 27 "Financial Reporting by Local Governments" and the Standard Accounting Concepts SAC 4 "Definition and Recognition of the Elements of Financial Statements." These concerns have also meant that most local gover...

Factors Leading to State Participation in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project

The loss in sales tax revenue from nontaxable remote sales erodes a state's ability to fund essential programs. Taxable goods sold via the Internet in 1999 created a loss to state and local governments of $525 million in sales tax revenue. This study examines the effects of five variables on a state's willingness to participate voluntarily in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP). Three hypotheses are supported: 1) the higher the grade on the Business Vitality score, the more likely electe...

State and Local Fiscal Structures and Fiscal Stress

In the past two decades, much of the literature in the area of government financial management has been devoted to studying the causes of fiscal stress. Most studies emphasized the role of such factors as economic cycles, business relocation and factors beyond the control of policy makers as major causes of fiscal stress. This study extends the scope of the research in this area to investigate whether state and local fiscal structures contribute to fiscal stress. Using a pooled cross-sectiona...