Finances publiques décentralisées en temps d'austérité : l'exemple des États- Unis

Abstract

Some important aspects of the current French decentralization are enlightened by the recent changes in US public finance. Proceeding from very different premises, the « New Federalism » and the French decentralization share in common a context of general economic slowdown and fiscal tightness. The problems that arise and their solutions are therefore often similar, in spite of conspicuous differences in the institutional frameworks. Such similarities are in broad agreement with the economic theory of decentralized governments. The case-study of the US local public finance clearly reveals the effects of the recession. After several decades of continuing growth in local budgets, the 1981-1982 recession, closely following the « Tax Revolt » movement, caused a reversal in these trends. Both the increase in needs and the decline in revenues have been aggravated by the transfer of competences and finan- cial responsabilities from the federal government to the states. An increase in state and local taxes could not be avoided. And, in so far as some existing public services are given a high priority, other outlays had to be reduced : thus public employment shrank and public investment sharply declined.