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Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Law
Comments On Guidance For Tax-Exempt Social Welfare Organizations On Candidate-Related Political Activities, Brian D. Galle, Donald B. Tobin
Comments On Guidance For Tax-Exempt Social Welfare Organizations On Candidate-Related Political Activities, Brian D. Galle, Donald B. Tobin
Brian D. Galle
The Notice is a good first step. It creates bright-line standards that are easy to apply and that will eliminate much of the gray area regarding permissible political activity. Clearer lines will reduce the discretion on the part of the IRS. By decreasing the IRS’s discretion, the regulation will reduce the opportunity for the IRS to be used as a political tool in an Administration’s tool box. However, the Notice does not go far enough. Congress has established a regulatory regime that has as its central purpose the disclosure of any significant campaign contributions by individuals or firms. In recent …
Does Federal Spending 'Coerce' States? Evidence From State Budgets, Brian D. Galle
Does Federal Spending 'Coerce' States? Evidence From State Budgets, Brian D. Galle
Brian D. Galle
According to a recent plurality of the U.S. Supreme Court, the danger that federal taxes will “crowd out” state revenues justifies aggressive judicial limits on the conditions attached to federal spending. Economic theory offers a number of reasons to believe the opposite: federal revenue increases may also float state boats. To test these competing claims, I examine for the first time the relationship between total federal revenues and state revenues. I find that, contra the NFIB plurality, increases in federal revenue -- controlling, of course, for economic performance and other factors -- are associated with a large and statistically significant …
The Problem Of Nonprofit Executive Pay?: Evidence From U.S. Colleges And Universities, Brian D. Galle, David I. Walker
The Problem Of Nonprofit Executive Pay?: Evidence From U.S. Colleges And Universities, Brian D. Galle, David I. Walker
Brian D. Galle
Nonprofit organizations suffer from agency problems that are similar to or perhaps even more severe than those observed at for-profit companies. As a result, one might expect the executive pay setting process in the two sectors to reflect similar deficiencies. This Article explains why the managerial power theory that was developed to help explain for-profit executive pay is plausibly applicable to nonprofits. More importantly, this Article offers new evidence based on data from a large panel of colleges and universities collected across a nine year period that supports the idea that potential stakeholder outrage plays a role in limiting nonprofit …
Carrots, Sticks, And Salience, Brian D. Galle
Carrots, Sticks, And Salience, Brian D. Galle
Brian D. Galle
This Article considers the second-best design of Pigouvian taxes and subsidies in the presence of agents who are imperfectly aware of the instrument. Until very recently, the price instrument literature has assumed perfect rationality, and even the handful of prior attempts to account for “hidden” prices focus mainly on the income tax. I extend these efforts in several directions. First, I show that the best available instrument for correcting negative externalities is often one whose price is partially adjusted upwards -- or, in the case of subsidies, downwards -- to counter-act the neglect of irrational actors. In addition, I argue …
Laboratories Of Democracy? Policy Innovation In Decentralized Governments, Brian D. Galle, Joseph K. Leahy
Laboratories Of Democracy? Policy Innovation In Decentralized Governments, Brian D. Galle, Joseph K. Leahy
Brian D. Galle
Innovations in government produce positive externalities for other jurisdictions. Theory therefore predicts that local government will tend to produce a lower than optimal amount of innovation, as officials will prefer to free-ride on innovation by others. As Susan Rose-Ackerman observed in 1980, these two predictions, if true, tend to undermine arguments by proponents of federated government that decentralization will lead to many competing “laboratories of democracy.” In this paper, which is aimed primarily at legal academics, we review and critically assess nearly three decades of responses to Rose-Ackerman’s arguments, none of which have been discussed in depth in the legal …
Hidden Taxes, Brian D. Galle
Hidden Taxes, Brian D. Galle
Brian D. Galle
The idea of hidden taxes is as old as John Stuart Mill, but convincing evidence of their existence is new. In this Article, I survey and critique recent studies that claim to show that there are some taxes that can go unnoticed by those who pay them. I also develop the array of unanswered theoretical questions and policy implications that potentially follow from the studies' results. Probably the central question for hidden taxes is whether they might enable government to raise revenue without also distorting the economy. If so, I argue, they have the potential to radically refashion the architecture …
Federal Grants, State Decisions, Brian D. Galle
Federal Grants, State Decisions, Brian D. Galle
Brian D. Galle
The authority to raise and spend money is one of the most expansive and fundamental of all Congress' enumerated powers, particularly when Congress chooses to impose conditions on those who wish to receive its cash. The consensus modern view of this “conditional spending” is that its unfettered use threatens the diversity and accountability goals of “our federalism.” As a result, nearly all commentators support either direct or indirect judge-made limits on conditional spending. These claims, I argue, rest on a set of largely unexamined assumptions about the political motivations, budgetary situation, and incentives of the state officials who must decide …
Administrative Law's Federalism: Preemption, Delegation, And Agencies At The Edge Of Federal Power, Brian D. Galle, Mark Seidenfeld
Administrative Law's Federalism: Preemption, Delegation, And Agencies At The Edge Of Federal Power, Brian D. Galle, Mark Seidenfeld
Brian D. Galle
This Article critiques the practice of limiting federal agency authority in the name of federalism. Existing limits presently bind agencies even more tightly than Congress. For instance, although Congress can regulate to the limits of its commerce power with a sufficiently clear statement of its intent to do so, absent clear congressional authorization an agency cannot, no matter how clear the language of the agency’s regulation. Similarly, although Congress can preempt state law, albeit only when its intent to do so is clear, some commentators have read a line of Supreme Court decisions to hold that agencies cannot, except upon …
Can Discriminatory State Taxation Of Munipical Bonds Be Justified?, Brian D. Galle, Ethan Yale
Can Discriminatory State Taxation Of Munipical Bonds Be Justified?, Brian D. Galle, Ethan Yale
Brian D. Galle
This report continues the authors’ analysis of Department of Revenue of Kentucky v. Davis, a case argued in the 2007--2008 Supreme Court term. The issue in Davis is the constitutionality of Kentucky’s practice (shared by nearly all other states with an income tax) of taxing interest on federally exempt bonds issued outside the state while exempting its own municipal bonds from taxation. In this report, they skeptically evaluate several possible state interests that might be offered to justify that practice. For example, they point out that Kentucky’s assertion that the policy conserves state revenue is wrong. They also argue that …
Designing Interstate Institutions: The Example Of The Streamlined Sales & Use Tax Agreement, Brian D. Galle
Designing Interstate Institutions: The Example Of The Streamlined Sales & Use Tax Agreement, Brian D. Galle
Brian D. Galle
This Article presents a case study in designing cooperative interstate institutions. It takes as its subject the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (“SSUTA”), a recently-developed compact among the States now awaiting congressional ratification. The SSUTA’s primary goal is to bring uniformity to the field of state and local sales taxation, a regime in which multi-jurisdictional sellers now confront literally thousands of different sets of rules. I predict here that the SSUTA as currently designed is unlikely to accomplish that goal, and attempt to suggest possible amendments that could improve its expected performance. From these efforts I extract larger lessons …
Interpretative Theory And Tax Shelter Regulation, Brian D. Galle
Interpretative Theory And Tax Shelter Regulation, Brian D. Galle
Brian D. Galle
This Article responds to an important recent essay in the Columbia Law Review by Marvin Chirelstein and Larry Zelenak. Chirelstein and Zelenak propose a dramatic change in tactics in the way that the government attempts to combat tax shelters - that is, efforts by corporations and high-earning individuals to avoid tax by clever manipulations of the technical terms of the Tax Code. For the past seventy years or so, the IRS has responded to these manipulations by urging courts to read the tax statutes purposively, rather than literally, and thus to deny favorable tax treatment to business transactions entered into …
Can Federal Agencies Authorize Private Suits Under Section 1983? A Theoretical Approach, Brian D. Galle
Can Federal Agencies Authorize Private Suits Under Section 1983? A Theoretical Approach, Brian D. Galle
Brian D. Galle
Since 1980, private suits brought under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 have been a prime vehicle for enforcing federal statutory norms against state and local government. Federal regulations, however, affect a vast cross-section of state conduct not directly controlled by federal statutes. It is therefore surprising to discover that, notwithstanding some occasional acknowledgments of the considerable importance of the issue, there is almost no scholarly discussion concerning to what extent federal norms embodied in regulations can be enforced through private Section 1983 litigation. The federal Courts of Appeals are badly divided over the question, and no coherent rationale for one approach …