Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Managing Change: Reflections On Innovation In The Public Sector, Ira A. Jackson, Jane P. O'Hern

New England Journal of Public Policy

In January 1983, when Governor Michael S. Dukakis appointed Ira Jackson as commissioner of revenue, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was facing an estimated $300 million deficit. The state was also suffering from a severe loss of public confidence in the integrity of its tax administration. His first and most urgent priority being the restoration of that confidence, Commissioner Jackson implemented a three-part strategy to improve voluntary compliance with the tax laws: raising the stakes for evaders, treating honest taxpayers as customers rather than victims, and changing public attitudes about tax evasion. Productivity gains and innovative procedures at the Department of …

State And Local Taxation Of Financial Institutions:An Opportunity For Reform, C. James Judson, Susan G. Duffy

Vanderbilt Law Review

Forces at work in both public and private sectors may soon change the way state and local political subdivisions tax financial institutions. The market for financial services is changing dramatically. Governments have expanded substantially the scope of activities in which financial depositories may engage. The competitive environment for financial activities also is changing as general business corporations enter the financial services field, an area previously considered the exclusive domain of financial institutions. Financial institutions have increasing opportunities for interstate activity, which offers both risks and challenges. These changes have occurred during a period in which the extensive framework of state …

Significant Sales And Use Tax Developments During The Past Half Century, Jerome R. Hellerstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Sales and use taxes have been the great growth taxes of state and local governments during the past half century. The general sales tax, along with selected levies on gasoline, tobacco, and liquor, has had phenomenal growth during the past fifty years. In 1932 only Mississippi imposed a general sales tax. It produced seven million dollars, less than one percent of Mississippi's total tax revenues. Taxes once introduced, however, tend to grow at least until widespread dissatisfaction leads to a taxpayers' revolt,such as California's Proposition 13' or the election of President Ronald Reagan and the ascendancy of political conservatism and …

Selected Issues In State Business Taxation, Walter Hellerstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article surveys selected issues in state business taxation.The topics were chosen with the hope that they would be of general interest to the conference for which this Article originally was prepared. The Article therefore eschews the detailed case analysis that typifies much of the law review writing about state and local taxation-including my own-and focuses instead on broader policy and economic questions that those concerned with state business taxation should find no less important.

Part II of this Article considers business taxes and state tax incentives. Part III discusses federal and state tax conformity. Part IV addresses a number …

An Analytical Approach To State Tax Discrimination Under The Commerce Clause, Philip M. Tatarowicz, Rebecca F. Mims-Velarde

Vanderbilt Law Review

The commerce clause as an instrument of federalism facilitates a system of government that places a national government over fifty sovereign states. Federalism requires a balancing of the interest in a unified national approach to government with the competing interest in state sovereignty. As Justice Brennan explained:

"Our Constitution is an instrument of federalism. The Constitution furnishes the structure for the operation of the States with respect to the National Government and with respect to each other.. ..Because there are 49 States and much of the Nation's commercial activity is carried on by enterprises having contacts with more States than …

Taxation: State And Local, Ronald H. Jacobson

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.