California's Proposition 13 and the Fiscal Limitations Movement in the United States

Abstract

There have been substantial recent efforts to use public policy measures to limit public taxing and spending in the United States. These fiscal limitations policies are analysed, with primary attention on the explanations for and the effects of Proposition 13, the measure enacted by California voters in June 1978. More broadly, the characteristic features of fiscal limitations measures in the United States are explicated. These measures attempt to place constitutional or statutory constraints on a government's expenditure levels, on its revenue generation capabilities, or on the nature of its fiscal policy-making process. The data and analysis suggest that some of the fundamental forces underlying fiscal limitations measures might emerge in many ‘First World’ political systems and that such measures, as a policy innovation, might diffuse widely.