Week Three: Laws, Regulations & Policies
Post by Day 4 an example of mandate law that has had a significant impact on state or local governments. First, describe the mandate law you selected. Next, describe the effects of the mandate law, such as the ACA, on the fiscal and budgetary operations of the state or local governments. In your analysis, specify whether the impact is positive or negative and explain why.
Introduction
For this week’s discussion, I looked no further than the Minnesota State Legislative Auditor’s Report # 00-01 “Program Evaluation Report: State Mandates on Local Governments” (Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, 2000). The report, which comes out of response to a survey of 654 local government officials, from
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Officials who responded stated that they thought levy limits were a hindrance to good management, and without the levy limits, taxes may increase because of the demand on local services, and that in planning for economic development, they would not have to rely as much on borrowing (2000).
Accountability without levy limits was offered by respondents through the election process, and truth-in-taxation, although interestingly enough, truth-in-taxation was the mandate that earned the second highest amount of responses in the report (Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, 2000).
While there are advantages to the mandate, such as protection for the taxpayer and an assurance that property tax relief is felt by all property tax payers, many are wary that the limits now could lead to higher property taxes in the future (Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, 2000).
The impact that the communities feel from this mandate is a mixed bag of positive and negative. Property tax relief is welcomed by all for sure, but the increased demand on local services and the smaller pool of funds to serve those demands is not.
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Cooperative Federalism is the offspring of necessity, in response to the great depression, built upon the notion that there are responsibilities at each level of government, or to quote Cliff’s Notes who offers the most fitting description, when it states that “there are many areas in which their responsibilities overlap” and by example it is offered that “drug enforcement involves federal agents, state troopers, and local police” (Cliffsnotes.com, 2016). This is I believe more the state of our Federalist government today, rather than the one described by Mr.
Cooperative Federalism was the “Marble Cake Model”. The Chocolate layer (National Government) and the Vanilla layer (States’ Government) were swirled together. The national government has become incorporated with the state and local governments, making it difficult to tell where one type of government begins and the other types end. State and local governments oversee many federal programs, for example, and the states depend on federal funds thus needing the two governments to help each other out and collectively work
Federalism is a concept that refers to a system of government in which power is shared between the national and non-national governments. Cooperative Federalism is a model of federalism in which all governments are linked and participate in the administration of programs. Creative federalism was a term used to describe the Great Society program of Lyndon Johnson. President Johnson sought to devolve powers to the states using creative federalism. The devolution of responsibilities to the states began under President Nixon but were accelerated in the 1980s under President Reagan. Ronald Reagan 's brand of new federalism dramatically decreased the use of categorical grants. Federalism under President Obama is still in the development stage, but the 2009 Federal Stimulus Plan can best be described as new federalism, creative, federalism, and general revenue sharing. There are four controversial examples of federalism at work today.
Federalism has evolved throughout American history. At different points in time, the balance and boundaries between the national and state government have changed substantially (resulting in the dual federalism, cooperative federalism etc.). Dual federalism which can also be referred to as divided sovereignty draws a clear distinction between federal and state governments, with the state government exercising the powers given to them without the influence of the federal government. It can further be supported by the Tenth Amendment which states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.” Cooperative Federalism is defined as the cooperative functioning of the state, national and local governments. The American ensemble functions according to the New Dual Cooperative Federalism.
In the Unites States of America Federalism is the basic structure of the American government; it is the distribution and balance of powers between the National government and the States government. In order to obtain a compromise between those who wanted stronger state government and those who preferred a stronger national government the founding fathers arranged and settled for a federal system rather than the alternatives of a unitary or confederal system. While both National and State governments each have specific powers and authority, they also share certain powers and must be able to cooperate effectively with each other.
When it comes to federalism, it is not the easiest to pinpoint the exact meaning. Federalism can be defined as the distribution of power in an organization between a central authority and a voting member of a community (Merriam, Webster). It can be described as one of two fundamental organizational principles of the U.S Constitution. The other basic organizational principle, such as separation of powers, involves the distribution of powers within the National Government. It is said that federalism is the single most important protection for our freedom ( Nagel, 181). There are many different types of federalism, including Dual, Cooperative, Regulated, and New federalism.
Federalism is a government system where both the national and state governments share power inside the exact political system. The national government has express powers and implied powers. For example, the national government can make laws. The state governments have reserved powers. For instance, they can carry out the great majority of public services, and are responsible for certain health duties. There are two models of federalism: dual federalism and cooperative federalism. Dual federalism involves national and state governments that are independently run with each government level having its own powers. On the other hand, cooperative federalism deals with national and state governments that both take part in some tasks that used to
Property tax is a charge on property that the owner is responsible for paying. The tax is constructed on the value of the property one owns and is often estimated by local or municipal governments. When paying a property tax bill, the money goes to a number of important programs, city employees, police officers, firefighters, and public works departments also receive pay. The property tax money is used to pay for parks, traffic construction, street lights, sidewalks, and public transportation. Imposing a cap on property taxes would not only impact communities but it will also create several major problems. Cities would be affected and unable to hire employees in the public safety, since salaries and other benefits would be increased. A cap would reduce job establishment and damage the state's economic growth. The cap would also create more traffic problems by limiting
Dual federalism had been destroyed by the Civil war (book, page 75). Also, the 1920’s great depression created the need for a strong national government. Over time, a strong national government had to work with the state government to solve the problems brought about by the depression. This became the new form of federalism, cooperative federalism, which as the name suggests, means the national and state government cooperate together in running the nation. However, the national government was still supreme in power. An impact of this was that the executive branch, which is a branch of the national government, gained more power and
Federalism is a compound way of governing, with a central government, also known as a federal government, and a local government. Each government had their own powers, but to accomplish the bigger goals the key was to have cooperation and teamwork to solve the issue. The federal government’s powers were solely focused on war, money and relations with other countries and states outside of the United States. In accordance, the local government took care of the more specific things going on in that certain state. For example, they took care of things such as elections, constructing schools, and passing laws for marriage and divorce. This helps to guard against having a government ruled over by a tyrant by having the more sizable powers given to the higher-up individuals in the government, and the locals governments dealt with the laws that pertained to their specific state. “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments” (Document A). The governments are ruled this way because if one government had all the power, they would surely use it unfairly, as all that power would get to their head. “Hence a double security rises to the rights of the people” (Document A). This would in fact raise the rights that the people had because they would have a
5.) People of the country would have to deal with how much money the state has
Federalism is a system of government where state and federal governments share power. Doc A is an excerpt from Federalist Paper #51, written by James Madison in 1788. The Federalist Papers are a series of newspaper articles used to persuade the states to ratify the constitution. According to Doc A,”... the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments.”
When new development or renovations on empty lots begin the citizens of the communities start asking amount them who will be the beneficiary of the gentrification. Even the displaced of mom and pop businesses are disappear. And the neighborhood no longer can afford to leave on such communities. The question is how does gentrification impact the government? Well, government plays a big role in serving low income to citizens. It create apartment that an affordable to them. It doesn’t impact the government on a negative way because they generate new policies and programs that help the people from the community. So, many types of local and states polices are design to accommodate affordable houses, even though the cost are increasing. One of the several program that the government had is one called “inclusionary zoning” (IZ). The characteristics for this program are: “(1) whether they are mandatory or voluntary, (2) what size or type of development projects are affected, (3) the required share of affordable units, (4) the
Compare the role played by each of the following in keeping public administration accountable to the public and to elected officials: (a) freedom of information laws, (b) sunshine laws, and (c) sunset laws.
Before 1978, the average property tax rate for a home in California was at a little less than 3% of the assessed value of a home. There were no limits on annual increases for the tax rate or on the individual ‘ad valorem’ charges; the taxes based on the assessed value of the property (Stoltman, 2013). During the early seventies the real estate market experienced dramatic growth and there was a rapid escalation in the value of our homes. At this time assessors were required to keep assessed values current. Because of such, property taxes were skyrocketing at a substantial rate. However, increases in the assessed value were not made every year thus resulting in a major tax jolt for homeowners every few years (California Tax Data, 2002). Prior to Proposition 13 local agencies could independently establish their tax rates, and make the total property tax rate composite of the individual rates with only few limitations. It was common in the late 1970’s for homeowners to lose their homes due to uncontrolled taxes. Essentially, before Prop. 13 if someone bought a home on a block in the 1950’s for $100,000 and someone else bought a home next door to you for $300,000, your property tax would go up because the assessed value of your home would go up with the new sold value, not with the price you paid for your home. This boom of the 70’s ultimately gave rise to a tax revolt that would aim to
Tax payer’s money is not used as intended to benefit them. Money paid in taxes are supposed to be used to deliver taxpayers (residents) highest priorities. In Pennsylvania, 25% percent is spent on K-12 Education, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program 16%, Higher Education 13%, Transportation 5%, Public Assistance 1%, Corrections 4% and all others 35%.( ) There has been a proposal to raise county property tax by 40% for 2016, fortunately it was approved for 32%. For every $100,000, tax would be increased by -----------. ( ) It is clearly unfair for citizens to be paying an exorbitant amount of taxes so that improvement can be made in their state and community,