Decentralization of public program administration and financing to subnational units of government is examined in the context of hospital and nursing home assistance programs in the United States. Do subnational governments (i.e., states) adapt service utilization controls and tighter program eligibility during periods of fiscal austerity? Are these actions affected by expenditure levels, state budget balances, tax revenues, and the state's proportion of low income persons? Published data covering the period 1978-1982 from each of the 50 U.S. states were analyzed using multiple regression. States with a low proportion of low-income persons and a high per capita tax base were likely to increase minimum income eligibility standards to keep pace with inflation. All other states, regardless of fiscal condition, tended toward more restrictive income standards. States were equally likely to adopt utilization controls for health and long-term care services regardless of state revenue or health expenditures.
When the Reagan Administration took office in 1981, it concentrated its domestic efforts upon national government spending, deficits, and inflation. Its major proposed remedies have consisted of "supply-side" economics, cuts in the rates of federal spending on non-military programs and a return to greater state/local responsibility for public policy initiatives and financing. It is with this last aspect of the Reagan proposals that the present work is concerned: the impact and policy implications of federal decentralization on Arkansas. The option of a state tax increase is explored as Arkansas' response.
In 1971 the California Supreme Court opened the door to a major reform movement to restructure the present system of decentralized school finance. With the exception of Hawaii, elementary and secondary education in the United States is supported primarily by local property taxation supplemented in part by state funded grants-in-aid. The California Supreme Court, in the now famous Serrano rulings, declared the California system in violation of the state constitution's equal protection clause. Similar rulings have also been handed down by the New Jersey Supreme Court (Robinson vs. Cahill) and the Superior Court of Hartford, Connecticut (Horton vs. Meskill). In addition, ten states have recently enacted major reform bills, and legislation is under consideration in several others. The pressure for reform is strong and continuing. As a review of the recent reform proposals indicates, the legislative search for new means of financing local schools is not simply an incremental tinkering with existing laws.' Major changes, often court required, are at issue. Long-run outcomes are uncertain; each proposal has new winners and new losers. When planning a major reform of local school finance, therefore, past experience from incremental policymaking may not be an adequate guide to choice. Long-run general equilibrium predictive models and a clearly specified evaluation rule will be needed. It is the purpose of this paper to develop such a policy framework and to apply the analysis to one region currently in the midst of school reform, the New York metropolitan area. Six alternative reform proposals are considered: foundation aid, two district power equalization plans, property tax credits, expanded Title I assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and centralized financing and spending controls. Preferred reforms are selected under utilitarian (promiddle class), Rawlsian (pro-poor), and equal school spending (Serrano) criteria.
All chapters end with Notes. Preface. 1. The Field of Social Welfare Policy. Institutional Perspectives on the Study of Social Welfare Policy. Evolving Institutions and the Welfare State. Analytic Perspectives on the Study of Social Welfare Policy. Political Perspectives on the Study of Social Welfare Policy. Individualist and Collective Approaches to Planning. Conceptions of the Public Interest. Competing Values: Participation, Leadership, and Expertise. Why Policy Analysis is Relevant to Direct Service Practitioners. Emerging Issues: Feminist Perspectives on Social Welfare. 2. The Modern Welfare State. The Evolving Welfare State. Theories of Welfare Growth. Is America Exceptional? Welfare Goals. Welfare Scope. Welfare Realms. Emerging Issues: Renegotiating the Boundaries. 3. A Framework for Social Welfare Policy Analysis. Benefit Allocations in the Social Market and the Mixed Economy on Welfare. Elements of an Analytic Framework: Dimensions of Choice. An Example: The Transformation of Social Services. Application of the Framework. Distributive Justice in Public Assistance. Individual and Collective Values in Public Assistance. Theories, Assumptions, and Social Choice. Emerging Issues: The Search for Equity. 4. The Basis of Social Allocation. Who Shall Benefit? Universality and Selectivity in Income Maintenance. Child Support and Asset Building. Social Effectiveness and Cost Effectiveness. Another Perspective on Allocation: A Continuum of Choice. Allocative Principles and Institutional-Residual Conceptions of Social Welfare. Operationalizing the Allocative Principles. Eligibility Versus Access. Emerging Issues: Generational Equity. 5. The Nature of Social Provisions. Basic Forms: Cash Versus In-Kind. Alternative Forms: An Extension of Choice. Vouchers: Balancing Social control and Consumer Choice. Substance of the Social Provision. Social Provisions as Reflections of Policy Values. Cash, Kind, and the Cycles of Public Assistance. Emerging Issues: Choice for Whom? 6. The Design of the Delivery System. Privatization and Commercialization in Service Delivery. Promoting Coherence and Accessibility: Service Delivery Strategies. Unsettled Questions. Selecting Strategies. Emerging Issues: Services Rationing and Managed Care. 7. The Mode of Finance: Sources of Funds. Sources of Funds. The Philanthropic Contribution. Contributory Schemes and Fee Charging. Public Financing: Not Entirely a Public Matter. Emerging Issues: Financing Social Security. 8. The Mode of Finance: Systems of Transfer. Centralization, Decentralization, and Their Ideologies. How the Money Flows. How Transfers Are Conditioned. Devolving Public Welfare. AFDC to TANF. Emerging Issues: Immigrants, Social Policy, and the States. 9. Policy Dimensions: International Trends in the 21st Century. Pressures for Change. Directions of Change. Implications of Change.