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State and Local Government

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All states are constitutionally or statutorily mandated to balance their budgets every fiscal year except for_____
Vermont
Fiscall stress refers to financial pressures placed on a government from such factors as revenue shortfalls and______________
taxing and spending limitations
The state and local governments' fiscal landscape has changed dramatically over the last___________
two decades
Until the turn of the century, the major source of state and local revenue was___________
property taxes
Taxing internet sales provides a significant opportunity for the states to generat additional ____________
tax revenue
State and local spending rose nearly 2,000 percent between 1950 and 1985 and is highest on ______________
elementary and secondary schools
A progressive tax is one that increases as a percentage of income as___________
that income rises
The use of private toll roads represents a variation of the "user fee" and is being adopted or considered in ____________
17 states
Evaluating tax options on the basis of "yield" means examining the amount of money that government can expect after______________
it has paid to collect the tax
The use of "circuit breaker" legislation on property taxes is intended to make those taxes more equitable as the tax rate is closely related to__________
ability to pay
The general sales tax is the favorite of voters, who perceive it to be_____
fairer
Severence taxes, as a source of state revenues, are popular because they _______
exempt natives from the tax
The use of state lotteries as money raisers is a practice that has never failed to ______________
win approval when put to a popular referendum
The fact that people want more government services but don't want higher taxes has driven many political leaders to favor imposing____________________
user fees to deliver added services
The tax revolt that originated in the 1970's and early 1980's has continued at a slower pace and, in many states, has taken the form of requiring_________
supermajorities for tax increases
Older industrial cities have been particularly vulnerable to fiscal stress because wages declined in a shift to the service economy and they have ___________________________
lost manufacturing jobs to the sunbelt
Current procedures for estimating state and local revenues as a basis for budget planning rely more and more on sophisticated economis models made possible by____________
computer technology
Revenue estimates in state governments can be, and often are, influenced by political gamesmanship based on motives such as__________
the need to show a year-end budget surplus
Many states establish rainy day funds because they face mandatory blanced-budget provisions abd want to avoid the problems arising from___________
faulty data or poor economic assumptions
The most important state and local government investment is usually the money in____________
employee pension funds
Capital budgets in states are funded by__________
long term bonds
The commercial bond market places an informal limit on state and local debt by rating each government's ability to pay its various obligations, and that rating affects interest rates, which then influence the jurisdictions______
willingness to incur new debts
States have begun to play a greater role in helping to finance various activities at the local level because reapportionment in the 1970's brough tlegislators to office who had________
greater understanding of urban problems
Governments devise elaborate strategies and spend large sums of money to promote___________
economic developement
Travel and tourism are big business for many states and are the nation's third largest___________________
retail industry
Accomodations taxes are taxes on hotel and motel occupancies, with the revenues usually earmarked for_____________
tourism-related issues
Inherent in the concept of economic development is the belief that developing the economy of a state or community enhances the ________
quality of life for citizens
According to one study conducted by the National Conference of State legislatures, tourism accounts for nearly 7% of the gross national product and finances____________
6 million jobs
States have been criticized for spending too much money and making too many concessions to attract__________
industry
The term "smokestack chasing" means luring business from elsewhere with what incentives?
tax breaks, public subsidies, and low wages
General agreement on how to "do" economic development_____________
does not exist
The public_private partnership for economic development can be tenuous because private enterprises are often quite mobile, and hence in a position to______________
play one government against another
As a political issue, economic development is a consensus issue that____________
everyone favors
A number of states are using travel and tourism as economic promotional tools. This strategy is especially appealing because the tax yield derived from an easily administered "bed tax" is attractive, and_______________
tourist spending is subject to a sales tax
Use of the performing arts as a promotional tool for economic development in cities has a decided advantage beyond the secondary spending by audiences and participants because community ammenities frequently attribute to_______________
business relocation decisions
Studies on the value to economic development of professional sports stadiums provide mixed evidence of success, but such stadiums stimulate civic pride and contribute to community image, which in turn affect ________
business relocation decisions
In making decisions about new business locations, large firms tend to be favorably influenced by a favorable labor climate and proximity to ___________
suppliers and consumers
Answers to questions about the impact and return on government incentives associated with economic development show that sometimes economic development efforts produce__________
intended outcomes
Public debate over "incentive packages" that are offered by government to attract business revolves around questions about whether competitive behavior in seeking business relocation is counterproductive, because eventual returns may not be____
worth the initial costs
Incentives packages to encourage business relocation may include tax breaks, low-interest loans, and construction of infrastructure needed to support________________
business operations
Concerns over the high costs of some economic incentives have led to use of "clawbacks", whereby a subsidized firm must repay all or part of a subsidy if the firm fails to ____________
deliver on its promises
Gambling as an economic development tool seems to be increasingly accepted as a legitimate means of___________
raising revenues
Special areas of a community that offer special government incentives aimed at stimulating investment are called___________
enterprise zones
"A Nation at Risk" was a report published by the National Commision on Excellence in Education that lamented the erosion of the _______________
educational foundations of American Society
American schools have suffered from "curriculum drift," a term that refers to de-emphasizing verbal and mathematical skills, while numerous_______________
non-essential courses became popular
The gradual decline in the quality of teachers is partly attributed to changes in the _____________________
nature of the work force
Inherent in the concept of public education is the belief that the public interest is better-served with a population comprised of_____________
well-educated citizens
During the 1980's, President Reagan tried to abolish the______________
Department of Education
Despite the common sense belief that money is related to the quality of education, research suggests that there is no significant statistical relationship between scool resources and __________________
student performance
Americans' opinion that education is the single most important function carried out by state and local governments derives mainly from the fact that it accounts for more of state and local budgets than any other function, and that a majority of the popul
engaged or employed in education
The history of education policy in the United States is a series of crises. Before the current crisis, American education underwent a major overhaul as a result of Soviet success in launching the first orbiting space satellite and a belief that our defic
allowed this to happen
The crisis in education in the 1980's was more profound than previous ones because of the rapidity of world economic and social changes, and the fact that we had a clearer picture of our real shortcomings, and a perception that___________________
the crisis was worsening
Hard evidence of the malaise in American schools can be seen in SAT and ACT scores, where verbal and mathematics scores dropped in almost evry year between________________
1963 and 1982
A deficient school curriculum is believed to account for the recent poor showing of students. Critics say it suffers from a lack of central purpose and the absence of instruction in _________
the basic skills
Students are among those blames for the current educational crisis. Critics say that students lack motivation, drive, and ______________
parental involvement
Two related problems concerning teachers are a decline in the quality of those entering the teaching profession, and a failure to provide incentives that ___________________
attract quality people
The result of efforts at equalizing funding amoung school districts is that many states provided funds based on a distribution formula that considers property values and____________
tax effort
Despite the use of the equalization formulas in distributing state funding for school districts, studies show that distribution is done on the basis of number of pupils, and not on ____________
inequalities in educational tax bases
Coleman's "1966" researchon resources and student performance shows that family, socioeconomic background, and classmates were more important than academic resources in determining________
levels of performance
Creation of a US Department of Education occurred when the Carter administration sought a symbol of the national government's policy leadership in _________
education
Fighting violence in schools is part of the general effort to improve education ans typically centers on disarmament and containment of violence, but some scholls look to teaching conflict resolution, or__________
mediation skills
State and local financial support for public schools annually consumes more that_________
$320 billion
As part of the effort to address the problems of education and meet public demands for educational accountability, one of the incremental reforms in standards has been adoption of competency testing in at least 25 states before a student can_______
graduate from high school
One of the efforts underway to restructure education relates to "School choice" which would permit individual student choices as to ____________
the school he or she would attend
One of the major forces behind state involvement in public education has been the ability to enlist broad support by linking economic development to ______________
educational improvements
Fewer than 20 % of all property crimes reported to police are "cleared" by____
arrest
The concept of victimless crime holds that, in theory, no one is __________
harmed by the activity
The constuction and operation of prisons is the fastest growing item in _____________
most state budgets
Victimization surveys are scientific polls that are more accurate than the Uniform Crime reports because they include crimes that are____________
not reported by victims to authorities
Causes of crime are associates with what known factors?
age, urbanization, poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, and race
The contributory causes of white-collar crimes are basically unknown but____________
related to greed
State and local government accounts for 9 out of every 10 dollars spent on____________
police protection and corrections
The major purpose of a grand jury is to serve as a check on the power of a prosecutor by looking at evidence and deciding whether to _________________
bring the case to trial
According to the National Crime Survey, which is a survey on victimization, the true rate of crime in the US is 2 1/2 times greater than reported by the___________________
Uniform Crime Reports
What is an example of criminal activity that in many states would qualify as victimless crime?
gambling
One of the alternatives in matters of victimless crimes is decriminalization, which entails prescribing a minor penalty for___________________
involvement in such activities
Death penalty laws are in place today in about 38 states, but many have not actually_________________
carried out the death penalty
Studies comparing homicide rates in states with death penalties and those without have found no significant difference, or found that states with death penalties have________________
higher homicide rates
The ethical argument that in cases of crimes so heinous that only death of the perpetrator can resolve the moral outrage of society can best be described as___________
retribution
The rising costs and increased public attention to crime has resulted in greater and greater emphasis by police in all jurisdictions on crime__________
prevention
Three classic goals of correctional policy are to rehabilitate, deter, and produce productive, ________________
law-abiding citizens
Where the judge has discretion in the number of years given an offender, the sentencing policy is said to be_________
determinate
The three-strikes-and-you're-out movement will make plea bargaining a more______________
attractive option
The prime movers in state correctional policy in the last quarter-century have been the___________
federal courts
In 1998, how many state prison systems were wholly run by the national government under federal court orders?
8
Amoung the back-door strategies proposed to alleviate prison overcrowding are early release and___________________
electronic house detention
One of the strategies for reducing prison populations is to create "factories with fences" wherein prisoners help defray the cost of their own incarceration; but opposition from the private sector, threatened by the low-cost of labor, has______
blocked many such efforts
The region with the biggest prison overcrowding problem is the South, where a higher percentage are locked up and________________
given longer sentences
One front-door strategy to solving prison overcrowding involves creative sentencing wherein a judge matches punishment with the crime and keeps nonviolent offenders_____________
in society
Privatization of prison systems has been proposed to enhance capacity, but the practice raises a number of constitutional questions about delegation of such authority and day to day legal questions about accountability for prison responsibilities such as
punishment
A growing state response to calls for gun control has been to echo the cry of the NRA that guns do not kill people,_____________
people kill people
The number of poor whites on welfare exceeds the sum of___________
black and hispanic recipients
Conservatives generally believe that the poor are largely responsible for their own condition, while liberals believe that the poor are victims of structural conditions that are__________
beyond their control
The idea of nationalized health care implies that all citizens are entitled to ____________
health care benefits
AFDC was included in the Social Security Act of 1935. Its original purpose was to provide aid to children whose fathers were deceased, by the 1990's more than 90% of the payments were to single parent homes in which______________
the father was living
In 1999, there were more than 32 million people officially_______________
below the poverty line
The national government uses a statistic called the poverty line to identify the point at which families or individuals qualify for_____________
various forms of public assistance
In the 1930's, poverty was largely associated with old age, today it is largely associated with_________
children
The term "feminization of poverty" refers to the rapid increase in the number of __________________
female-headed households
The basic foundation for the current welfare system was laid by the liberal democrats during the____________-
Great Depression
The consensus that led to welfare reform in the 1980's came because conservatives agreed that the government had a responsibility to help the needy and liberals agreed that there was a such thing as__________
welfare dependancy
The new consesus on social welfare has led to agreement that the government provide training and job-placement and the able-bodied seek a job or______________
preform public work
The state role in social welfare programs, initiated by the federal government, has been to put the federal programs into action, administer them, and draw up ____________________
rules of eligibility
State levels of social welfare spending vary dramatically, and some states pay more under one program, while others____________
pay more under other programs
Direct cash transfers are one of three categories of social welfare and provide help in the form of government checks to ___________-
those who are eligible
In-kind programs are one of several categories of welfare and provide help in the form of government food stamps, medicaid, housing, and so on to ____________-
those who are eligible
Current agreement on social welfare policy is that it should aim at the well-being of children and_____________
the American family
The current objective of social welfare is to make it less of an entitlement and more of an arrangement in which the recipient gets help and looks for and accepts a job, but support for single-parent families may actually encourage, divorce, separation o
out-of-wedlock births
The state with the lowest overall spending per capita on social welfare is_________
Kansas
edicaid costs consume an average of about 20% of ____________
state budgets
Evidence on the use of welfare checks by recipients suggests that 1/4 of the money goes for_________-
illegal drugs
ost costly and controversial federal welfare program in the US is___________
AFDC
One of the major costs to medicaid is providing___________-
Nursing home care for senior citizens
Apprximately 60% of social welfare dollars come from _________
the federal government
The health care problem has caused most states to reform, experiment, and innovate in healthcare in an effort to deal with their own unique__________
circumstances and economies
Spending on health care by the states varies greatly, depending on, among other things, the degree of urbanization and the unique health care needs of __________--
each state's population
Tennessee's comprehensive health care plan was initiated in 1994 and insures nearly all of the state's____________
uninsured population
Oregonian's in 1994, voted to legalize________________
physician assisted suicide
In the face of gridlock in Washington on health care and incoherence on welfare policy, states should be encouraged to innovate and _______________
experiment with both policy areas
In 1998, California became the first state to implement a statewide ban on smoking, which included_____________
bars and restaurants
Left unregulated, firms that produce pollutants as a byproduct of their manufacturing process will usually tend to maximize profit by reducing production costs-including the costs of_____________
environmental protection
Too much regulation of business and industry to protect the environment can negatively affect the economy and the ____________
availability of jobs
Government's role in environmental policy is generally seen to be a matter of balancing the tradeoffs between economic growth and_________
environmental protection
The leading federal agency for environmental policy is the EPA, an independant regulatory body created in____
1970
first federal statutory step into environmental policy was the Water Polution Control act in____
1948
The major problem with the use of landfills for solid waste disposal are leakage of pollutants into surface and underground water sources and the available space to___________
handle the volume
In the issue of solid waste policy, the federal government becomes involved when water and/or air quality are_________
threatened
One major advantage and one major disadvantage to incineration of solid wastes are that it reduces the volume by by about 90%, but it also__________
pollutes the air
Cogeneration of electricity using solid waste reduces the volume of waste but is costly and environmentally_______
questionable
It is estimated that the US produces roughly 500 billion pounds of ____________
solid waste annually
Hazardous wastes are defined as industrial and household wastes that are toxic, corrosive, or inflammable, or have______________
reactive properties
The purpose of the "Superfund" is to provide money to clean up old ___________
abandoned hazardous waste sites
Reducing the amount of hazardous waste generated is possible, and industry, once reluctant because of costs, is attempting more and more to _________
recycle such wastes
The term environmental equity refers to fairness for minorities and the poor in exposure to environmental and _________
health risks
Environmental protection policymaking is a matter in which the national government plays a major role, with the state and local governments increasingly responsible for_________
implementation

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