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Local Transportation Sales Taxes: California's Experiment in Transportation Finance
Author(s) -
Crabbe Amber E.,
Hiatt Rachel,
Poliwka Susan D.,
Wachs Martin
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
public budgeting and finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.694
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1540-5850
pISSN - 0275-1100
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5850.2005.00369.x
Subject(s) - revenue , finance , transportation infrastructure , popularity , sales tax , capital expenditure , business , capital (architecture) , transportation planning , economics , transport engineering , psychology , social psychology , double taxation , archaeology , engineering , ad valorem tax , history
Over the last 25 years, voters in 20 California counties approved “local transportation sales taxes” to pay for transportation projects. A growing source of revenue, they generate roughly $2.5 billion per year. Four features explain their popularity: they require direct voter approval; funds are raised and spent within the counties that enact them, so voters experience benefits directly; most automatically expire; and they usually specify the improvements to be financed. These taxes are an important revenue source, but tend to favor capital investments over operations and maintenance. They have enhanced local governments' decision‐making authority, but may have made regional transportation planning in multicounty regions more difficult to achieve.