IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/20063_9.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

The role of special districts and intergovernmental constraints

In: Research Handbook on City and Municipal Finance

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher B. Goodman

Abstract

Special districts are commonplace in U.S. local governance; however, they often provide services that other forms of local government provide. This chapter poses two questions: why do special districts exist, and what are the implications for local fiscal outcomes? The main conclusion is that special districts exist because they are highly adaptable, particularly in potentially circumventing state fiscal restrictions. This adaptability makes them attractive to solving problems at both the sub-city and extra-city levels. Generally, the literature agrees that the proliferation of overlapping special districts inefficiently increases the size of the local public sector far beyond the size demanded. The connection between special district growth and the objectives of state fiscal restrictions is an essential missing link in state policymakers’ thinking about the efficacy of such rules.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher B. Goodman, 2023. "The role of special districts and intergovernmental constraints," Chapters, in: Research Handbook on City and Municipal Finance, chapter 9, pages 173-186, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20063_9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781800372962.00016
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20063_9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.