Law Commons^™

Municipal Lease-Purchase Agreements: A Virginia Perspective, R. Webb Moore

University of Richmond Law Review

America's state and local governments are in a fiscal vise. Federal intergovernmental aid reached a high water mark in fiscal 1979, but subsequent cutbacks by President Reagan and Congress brought the era of rapid growth in federal domestic spending to a screeching halt in 1981 with reductions of over fifty-three billion dollars in budgetary authority and thirty-five billion dollars in budgetary outlays. Local governments have responded by taking one of three fiscal paths: (1) forced austerity, resulting in school and library closings, deteriorating infrastructure, elimination of mass-transit systems and benefit and personnel cuts; (2) an increased dependence on local tax …