The politics of general revenue sharing: the new federalism in urban perspective

Abstract

The research problem for this dissertation was to determine the affects of President Nixon's New Federalism in four Pacific Northwest cities. More specifically, the dissertation sought to determine and explain the effects of the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act of 1972, a basic component of the New Federalism, in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Eugene. The central goal of revenue sharing and the New Federalism is to decentralize government in the American federal system. The central fear of those who oppose the effects of such decentralization is that the poor and minority groups of America may be discriminated against by local special interest groups. The purpose of the dissertation was to see the extent to which the goals of the proponents and the fears of the opponents have so far been realized in the revenue sharing experience of four cities. A comparative case study approach was used whereby the General Revenue Sharing experience of each city was described and analyzed in terms of the goals of the New Federalism and the fears of its opponents. The data used for this investigation was obtained from taped interviews with city officials in each of the four cities. A questionnaire was prepared for the interviews which included questions pertaining to federalstate- city relations in terms of grants-in-aid, the fiscal condition of the city, the decision-making process used in the city for allocating revenue sharing funds, who participated in the decision-making process, who benefitted from revenue sharing in the city and the overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the concept of the New Federalism and revenue sharing. In addition to the data collected from city officials who were directly involved in the city revenue sharing process, additional data was obtained from those interviewed showing how the revenue sharing money was dealt with. It should be noted that these city officials were administrative personnel as well as elected officials. The results of the dissertation showed that the decentralization of American government sought by the Nixon Administration has so far not been obtained through General Revenue Sharing insofar as these four cities are concerned. The money from General Revenue Sharing was not adequate for these cities to meaningfully gain increased power and independence from either their states or the federal government. The fiscal requirements of these cities due to inflation, labor costs, demands to compensate for cutback categorical grants of the federal government and inadequate urban tax