State and Local Government
Terms
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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