Large Jurisdictions Research Articles

Determinants of Tax Rates in Local Capital Income Taxation: A Theoretical Model and Evidence from Germany

In a theoretical model local jurisdictions provide a public input an d a public consumption good financed by a tax on capital income. When deciding about tax rate and budget structure the jurisdictions will generally respond to each others fiscal choices irrespective of whether the policy is more oriented towards raising local income or raising public consumption. These policy differences along with differences in size will however give rise to local differences in tax rates. The theoretical implications for the distribution of tax rates are then confronted with the case of the business tax (Gewerbesteuer) in West Germany. Taking into account possible competition effects, tax rates are found to be positively related to the population size of the communities even when controlling for density. This conforms with the hyothesis t hat large jurisdictions are less concerned with a tax policy aimed at attracting mobile capital. In addition, federally mandated local welfare expenses are established as a determinant of local tax differences raising concerns about distortions induced by the German federal system.

Learning Style Preferences of Gifted, Average-Ability, and Special Needs Students: A Multivariate Perspective

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in the learning style preferences of gifted, average-ability, and special needs students. One hundred seventy-two elementary school students from two large school jurisdictions from a large urban area in Western Canada were administered the Dunn, Dunn, & Price (1985) Learning Style Inventory (LSI). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed. Type of Learner (Gifted, Average-Ability, Special Needs) and Gender were the independent variables. The 22 scales of the LSI served as dependent variables. Discriminant analysis was used to follow up each significant multivariate F ratio. Significant main effects were found for both Type of Learner and Gender. Results of the discriminant analyses indicated that gifted students preferred learning alone, being self-motivated, and using tactile approaches to learning. Males preferred peer-oriented learning situations.

Is the O.J. Simpson verdict an example of jury nullification? Jury verdicts, legal concepts, and jury performance in a racially sensitive criminal case

In criminal cases involving minority defendants, some minority legal scholars argue that despite the overwhelming evidence of guilt, racial minority jurors should possess the moral obligation to acquit ‘'guilty'’ defendants as a protest against racial discrimination in the criminal justice and court systems. While the rate of racial acquittals is on the rise in criminal courts in large metropolitan jurisdictions, the present analysis shows that in the O.J Simpson trial involving a number of racial and ethnic minorities, minority jurors are more likely to adhere to the strict application of criminal legal standards —presumed innocence, burden of proof, and reasonable doubt — in their deliberative process. Our empirical analysis reveals that while the presence of biases in law enforcement raised the ‘'reasonable doubt'’ and ‘'proof beyond a reasonable doubt'’ standards among white jurors, none of the three legal standards had statistically significant relations with their determination of the trial outcome. For racial minorities, however, all three legal concepts and racial biases in the criminal justice system show statistically significant impacts on their determination of the Simpson verdict. While there is the greater scrutiny of both presumed innocence and reasonable doubt among racial minority jurors, the concept of the government's burden of proof negatively affected minorities’ views in the Simpson acquittal. This suggests that the government's superior positions and prosecutorial resources may be too much to overcome in order to win an acquittal. Thus the burden of proof standard may measure racial minorities’ sense of powerlessness in obtaining a fair trial and securing an acquittal. Similarly our findings show that racial minorities who believe there are racial biases and prejudices held and used by law enforcement authorities also feel that O.J. Simpson would be adjudicated guilty of murder, suggesting that the government which relies on evidence collected by discriminatory law enforcement agencies might still be too powerful to enable Simpson to win an acquittal verdict. While advocates for racially based jury nullification reinforce the image of lawlessness of minority jurors in America's criminal courts, the present analysis show that, at least in a highly publicized criminal trial involving a prominent minority defendant, minority jurors show the opposite, suggesting that racial minority jurors are indeed law abiding participants in the administration of justice.

Regionalism and Representation

Despite renewed interest in metropolitan governance, little attention has been given to issues of representation by regional governing entities. Many regional bodies operate under an arrangement whereby each local government receives an equal vote-systematically underrepresenting large jurisdictions and unincorporated areas. The author describes an index to measure the (dis)proportionality of representation on the governing boards of regional institutions. Applying the index to metropolitan planning organizations in California, he finds that most have a substantially skewed representational structure. Such patterns may violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection, given the enhanced policy-making role of metropolitan planning organizations under recent federal transportation law.

COPARENTING ARRANGEMENTS IN A JURISDICTION WITH STATUTORY GUIDELINES

Some states have recently moved away from the traditional winner‐loser model of child custody to one focused on coparenting. Under the old approach, divorce decrees typically “awarded” custody to one parent while relegating the other to a “visitor” with poorly defined status. The new system is premised on the child's need for a continuing relationship with both parents and promotes this goal by upgrading the noncustodial parent's status and time‐share, assigning substantive rights and responsibilities to both parents. To give effect to the shared parenting idea, Texas adopted joint custody and statutory visitation guidelines legislatively. The policy covers all major aspects of parental rights and duties with great specificity (not just child support, for which all states must have guidelines). It applies equally to divorce and paternity cases. Judges are authorized to deviate from standard visitation guidelines but must state a rationale for doing so on request. Parties may also negotiate and agree to arrangements at variance with the guidelines, subject to approval by the court. This article describes the statutory regime in Texas and its implementation in the family court system. Based on a sample of divorce and paternity cases in the state's largest jurisdiction, it documents innovative court interventions and a wide array of coparenting and support arrangements.

The Jersey Limited Liability Partnership: A New Legal Vehicle for Professional Practice

The Limited Liability Partnerships (Jersey) Law 1997' is, at least in terms of the jurisdictions of the British Isles, a unique legislative experiment which, despite being legislation enacted by a small offshore jurisdiction, could well have a profound impact on the future legal framework of major United Kingdom professional practices, particularly those operating in the accountancy and legal services sectors. In a nutshell, the legislation creates an innovative legal vehicle the Jersey Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) which combines the traditional partnership structure with the twin fundamental principles of separate legal personality and limited liability characteristically found in company law codes. Perhaps more importantly from a professional practices perspective, the Jersey structure contains no restrictions on the participation of partners in a firm's management and thus does not reproduce the fundamental flaw of existing United Kingdom limited partnership legislation, the Limited Partnerships Act 1907, which confers limited personal liability (to the extent of their capital contributions) on limited partners but prohibits them from participating in partnership management. This prohibition has always made the United Kingdom limited partnership an unattractive choice of legal vehicle for professional practices. While the LLP concept has, until Jersey's bold and highly controversial initiative, been an unknown concept in British commercial law, it is well entrenched in America where some 40 State legislatures have enacted LLP legislation in recent years.2 Moreover, it seems probable that Jersey's move will act as a catalyst for a similar rapid proliferation of LLP legislation in both small and large jurisdictions of the British Isles: evidently, Jersey's 'micro' offshore jurisdiction counterparts (and competitors), Guernsey3 and the Isle of Man,4 are seriously contemplating the

The education of local health department top executives.

An analysis was done on the educational backgrounds of current top agency executives of U.S. local health departments (LHD), using the National Association of City and County Health Officials 1992-1993 national survey of LHDs as the data source. Nurses are often the executive in jurisdictions with less than 50,000, while executives of jurisdictions with more than 250,000 are predominantly physicians. Overall, 78 percent of LHD executives have no formal public health training, and executives of larger jurisdictions are more likely to have a public health degree. Because a majority of executives lack formal training opportunities for them need major expansion. Particular emphasis should be placed on expanding short-term opportunities such as state-based leadership and distance-based learning programs.

A spatial hierarchical framework for the co-management of ecosystems in Canada and the United States for the upper Great Lakes region

Over the past three decades, considerable effort has been invested in the development of complex and comprehensive ecosystem classifications and inventories in many parts of North America. Paralleling this has been an evolution in those hierarchical frameworks guiding the development and application of classifications. However, resource management agencies continue to grapple with the dilemma of applying multiple classification and inventory templates over large jurisdictions, especially as they attempt to address ecosystem management objectives. Given that Canada and the United States share ecosystems and that commitments have been made by all levels of government to make progress towards ecosystem-based approaches to management, there is a need to provide the proper tools. Comprehensive goals will not be achieved without collaboration and cooperation.This paper outlines the range of ecosystem classification approaches that exist in the Upper Great Lakes region. Canadian and American national hierarchical frameworks are briefly examined. Specific information needs and tasks are outlined which must be followed, independent of national boundaries, for the successful integration of planning and monitoring programs for large regional ecosystems.A general model is proposed for the development and application of an integrated, multi-scale and bi-national ecosystem classification, inventory and information system. This approach would facilitate data sharing and communication across jurisdictional boundaries.

Police handling of domestic calls: The importance of offender's presence in the arrest decision

Though much has been written about the correlates associated with the police decision to arrest when responding to domestic incidents, the current literature is almost completely silent about the effect of offender's presence on disposition. Using police records from one large jurisdiction in South Florida, this research investigates differences between offenders who are present when police arrive and those who are absent in terms of offender, victim, and situational characteristics. Consistent with prior research, this study found that 48 percent of domestic violent offenders were absent when police arrived. Furthermore, offender's presence was found to be the most powerful predictor of an arrest outcome.

Switzerland—a paradigm for Europe?

Learning from the Swiss experience, this article argues that federalism and direct democracy are effective mechanisms for dealing with the diversity of interests, languages, cultures and religions in Europe. These institutions only partly harmonize economic, social and cultural politics. By far more important is that federalism and referenda foster competition between the various interests, but do so within a well-defined basic constitutional design so that competition produces beneficial effects. Federalism is not an alternative to referenda but rather a prerequisite for the effective working of a direct democracy. In small communities, the information cost of voters deciding on issues or judging representatives' performance are much lower than in a large jurisdiction. The more fiscal equivalence is guaranteed, the better the benefits of publicly supplied goods can be acknowledged and the corresponding costs be attributed to the relevant political programmes or actors. Thus, while federalism provides for cheaper information, referenda enable citizens to use this knowledge effectively in the political process. The interdependence of federalism and referenda also works the other way around: referenda improve the working of federalism. Besides the possibility of voting with their feet, citizens may also vote directly. This represents a double incentive for politicians to take their citizens' preferences into account; otherwise, they may lose their tax base to another jurisdiction or may be forced by referenda and initiatives to meet the demands of the voters.

Case Management Techniques Work

In 1989 a large metropolitan general jurisdiction courtfaced a backlog of 70,000 pending cases and a three-and-one-half-year wait to trial. The court was anxious to test the concept of court management of cases with a practical application. The court, working with the local bar on a delay reduction task force (DRTF), adopted the goals of eliminating the backlog and reducing the time-in-process to 18 months for civil cases and 12 months for domestic cases. After a review of the literature and techniques used elsewhere, the DRTF implemented three case management programs: a joint status report requirement, case schedules issued at filing, and a hybrid individual calendar program.The court found that although no one program met all its goals, the combination of these programs helped the court achieve its goals and led to an unexpected reduction in the number of trials and the average length of trial. Understanding how these programs affected the court’s case processing offers practical, relevant information ...

On the Number and Size of Nations

This paper studies the equilibrium determination of the number of countries in different political regimes, and in different economic environments, with more or less economic integration. We focus on the trade-off between the benefits of large jurisdictions and the costs of heterogeneity of large and diverse populations. Our model implies that (i) democratization leads to secessions; (ii) in equilibrium one generally observes an inefficiently large number of countries; (iii) the equilibrium number of countries is increasing in the amount of economic integration.

No staff, no time, no money: Can budget reform work in a rural county?

Budget reforms directed toward providing more information and analysis for management and policy making appear to be most widely used by larger jurisdictions. Reforms such as performance budgeting, program budgeting, and zero based budgeting are associated with professionalism, management information systems, budget staffs, and a lengthy budget preparation and planning phase. This article addresses the question of whether it is possible to implement budget reform without the staff and financial resources that so often goes hand-in-hand with it. The experience of one rural county government in attempting budget reform is examined.

Risk of Pediatric Lead Poisoning From Nonenvironmental Exposures: Gun Ownership

Sir. —Discussion of the magnitude and public health importance of low exposure to lead among American children continues to focus on lead-based paint as the major source of potential ingestion. 1,2 Other sources, often related to behavioral rather than environmental factors, have been presumed unusual. Included are childhood oral exploration involving lead-containing objects, such as bullets and fishing sinkers, or parental use of lead-bearing unglazed pottery, cosmetics, or Mexican folk medicines. A concern among public health practitioners and pediatricians has been the lack of differentiation in policy recommendations to allow for geographic and demographic (cultural) variation in magnitude and source of lead poisoning. 3 Alternative Lead Exposures. —One recent study tested more than 3000 children living in low-socioeconomic areas in a large jurisdiction in southern California and demonstrated that the majority of individuals with high levels of blood lead were causally related to parental use of lead-bearing unglazed pottery and

Asphyxial deaths due to physical restraint. A case series

To assess the common factors and the pattern of deaths related to the use of physical restraints. Case series. The chief death investigators of 37 large jurisdictions were sent questionnaires for all cases of restraint-related deaths. Sixty-three questionnaires from 23 jurisdictions were returned. The questionnaires allowed us to determine the restraint type used, the age and sex of the deceased, the furniture type with which restraints were used, the type of facility where the deceased was restrained, and whether the application of restraints was incorrect. We report 63 cases of asphyxial deaths from the use of physical restraints. Ages of decedents ranged from 26 weeks to 98 years. The greatest number of deaths occurred in the 80- to 89-year-old patients. There is a higher frequency for females of all ages, but the distribution for males and females is roughly the same for all age groups. Deaths occurred while the patient was restrained in a chair (wheelchair or geriatric recliner) or a bed. Most chair-related deaths (six of 19) and bed-related deaths (16 of 42) involved the use of vest restraints. Thirteen of the 42 bed-related deaths involved bedrails. The majority of deaths (61%) occurred in nursing homes and 57 of these 63 cases occurred while restraints were properly applied. Our report of 63 cases is an underrepresentation of the true number of restraint deaths. Our finding that the vast majority of restraint deaths occurred while restraints were correctly applied implies an inherent danger in the use of physical restraints. The safety of restraining patients and the efficacy of physical restraint needs to be examined and alternate means of assuring the safety of patients need to be developed.

Asymmetric tax competition

The paper analyzes Nash equilibrium when two jurisdictions set tax rates on a tax base which is mobile between them. Population differences imply tax differences. The smaller jurisdiction levies a lower tax rate in equilibrium, and its residents are better off than those in the larger jurisdiction. The Nash equilibrium is inefficient. If the two jurisdictions merged, the resulting allocation would be efficient. However, if differences in population are great enough, residents of the small jurisdiction would be made worse off by such a merger.

Could marten become the spotted owl of eastern Canada?

Conservation of spotted owl habitat in western North America illustrates the difficult decisions that must be taken and the conflicts that can arise in land-use planning. In eastern North America, spotted owls are absent but marten, an animal species which prefers old-growth forest, has become rare in some areas as a result of habitat loss. The marten is a threatened species in Newfoundland, exists in small numbers in Nova Scotia, and has been extirpated in Prince Edward Island. Lack of long-term integrated forest resource planning, short rotations, and silvicultural practices that produce sub-optimal habitat may eliminate the species in Atlantic Canada. Two cases are discussed from Newfoundland and New Brunswick where unbalanced forest age structures suggest a bleak future for the marten. Other larger jurisdictions in Canada should closely examine their forest land management plans in view of the Atlantic experience.

Measuring the Economic Efficiency of Producing Rural Road Services

AbstractThe research reported here examines the ability of a sample of Midwest township officials to produce low‐volume rural road services in an economically efficient manner. Farrell‐type measures of input use and scale efficiency are reported. Results suggest that over 50% of costs may be unnecessarily incurred because of input use inefficiency. Correlation between output measures and the efficiency measures suggests that larger jurisdictions are more efficient than smaller jurisdictions. In addition, 84.5% of the townships exhibit technology characterized by increasing returns to scale. These results suggest that jurisdictional consolidation of production‐related responsibilities may yield substantial cost savings.

Decentralization of the Subnational Public Sector: An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Local Government Structure in Metropolitan Areas in the U. S.

The conventional wisdom about the optimal organization or structure of local governments has undergone a dramatic change in the last twenty years. For a period after World War II, a movement existed in the U.S. and in many European countries that called for the consolidation of existing units of local governments into larger, general-purpose, jurisdictions [1; 12; 17; 19]. Such amalgamations, it was argued, would improve administrative efficiencies and equity in the delivery of locally-provided public services and allow for a greater degree of scale economies to be realized in the production of these services. These arguments persuaded legislators in several European countries-Sweden, Denmark, and West Germany are the most notable-to undertake substantial restructuring of their local governments. In each case, the restructuring was imposed on the local sector by the central government and involved the consolidation of municipalities [18, Ch. 12]. The most dramatic amalgamations occurred in Sweden where the number of municipalities declined from around 2,500 in 1950 to less than 300 at present. Unlike many European countries, comprehensive reorganization of local governments did not take place in the U.S. in the post World War II period.' Instead, the structure of local governments evolved slowly and in largely piecemeal fashion. As a result, a pattern of local governments has emerged in the U.S. that critics characterize as fragmented with a crazy-quilt of overlapping boundaries and with little in the way of coordination and cooperation among local authorities. In spite of the consolidationist arguments, the preponderance of research in the past three decades, beginning with Tiebout [32] and Stigler [31], has concluded that at least in some circumstances smaller jurisdictions (in terms of geographic size and in some instances in terms of scope of functional responsibilities) offer important advantages over larger jurisdictions.2 A large

Measuring Jail Use: A Comparative Analysis of Local Corrections

There have been few comparative studies of the way jail space is used across localities. This research examines problems in measuring jail use and discusses a typology of jail use that involves simultaneous consideration of daily population rates and annual jail admission rates. Data from the 1986 Annual Survey of Jails are used in a comparison of jail use in 345 large jail jurisdictions across the country. The research indicates that the typology is useful in describing patterns of jail use. Large and consistent differences in jail use are associated with crime rates and region of the country. These differences are also related to crowding, capacity, and the makeup of the jail population. The comparative approach provides some direction for policy development and further research.