Municipal Revenues and Land Policies

Based on the proceedings of Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s fourth annual cross-disciplinary land policy conference, this volume collects scholarly work by a wide range of experts in land policy, tax policy, economics, and urban planning.

Municipal Revenues and Land Policies offers analysis of a variety of municipal revenue instruments such as intergovernmental transfers, property tax, tax increment financing, and local option sales and income taxes. Other nontraditional public good financing mechanisms including business improvement districts, homeowners' associations, impact fees, certificates of additional construction potential, debt financing, and public-private partnerships are examined. The analysis focuses on comparing the viability of these municipal revenue sources in the face of fiscal uncertainty.

About the Editors

Gregory K. Ingram was president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy from 2005 to 2014.

Yu-Hung Hong was a fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Municipal Finance

1. Municipal Revenue Options in the Time of Financial Crisis, Gregory K. Ingram and Yu-Hung Hong

2. Financing Cities, Robert P. Inman

Intergovernmental Transfers and Municipal Fiscal Structures

3. Intergovernmental Transfers to Local Governments, David E. Wildasin

Commentary: Michael Smart

4. Trends in Local Government Revenues: The Old, the New, and the Future, J. Edwin Benton

Commentary: Jocelyn M. Johnston

5. Creative Designs of the Patchwork Quilt of Municipal Finance, Michael A. Pagano

Commentary: Carol O’Cleireacain

Broad-Based Local Taxes and Development Impact Fees

6. The Contribution of Local Sales and Income Taxes to Fiscal Autonomy, John L. Mikesell

Commentary: Cynthia L. Rogers

7. The Effects of Development Impact Fees on Local Fiscal Conditions, Gregory S. Burge

Commentary: Albert Saiz

8. A New Financial Instrument of Value Capture in São Paulo, Paulo Sandroni

Commentary: Margaret Walls

Financing Submunicipal Services

9. Governance Structures and Financial Authority in Submunicipal Districts, Robert J. Eger III and Richard C. Feiock

Commentary: Richard Briffault

10. Illustrating the Effects of Business Improvement Districts on Municipal Coffers, Leah Brooks and Rachel Meltzer

Commentary: Lynne B. Sagalyn

11. Does TIF Make It More Difficult to Manage Municipal Budgets?, David F. Merriman

Commentary: Mark Skidmore

12. Homeowners Associations and Their Impact on the Local Public Budget, Ron Cheung

Commentary: John E. Anderson

Capital Financing of Infrastructure

13. Complex Debt for Financing Infrastructure, Jeffrey I. Chapman

Commentary: Mark D. Robbins and William Simonsen

14. Prospects for Private Infrastructure in the United States: The Case of Toll Roads, José A. Gómez-Ibáñez

Commentary: José C. Carbajo

Comparisons of the Property Tax with Other Revenue Instruments

15. An Analysis of Alternative Revenue Sources for Local Governments, David L. Sjoquist and Andrew V. Stephenson

Commentary: William F. Fox

16. How Alternative Revenue Structures Are Changing Local Government, Tracy M. Gordon and Kim Rueben

Commentary: Michael J. Wasylenko