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Using tax abatements to spur economic development can be controversial. The potential benefits are stressed when abatements are granted, but subsequent reporting may be insufficient for citizens to hold governments accountable for actual results. We solicited perspectives on tax abatements from three user groups (citizens representing advocacy groups, county board members, and financial analysts) and county officials involved in financial reporting, budgeting, or property tax administration. Users and preparers expressed generally similar views about the need for reporting; however, some differences were evident in the degree of support for reporting specific information items and the format for making information available. We also found that much information desired by users is not available to them currently, and governments may need to create mechanisms to collect information.

In August 2015, the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) adopted Statement 77, requiring government disclosure in audited financial reports of a particular type of tax expenditure, tax abatements. GASB's reporting standards move tax abatements from a budgetary environment to an accounting environment. This paper evaluates GASB 77's provisions to encourage an early and on-going dialogue about the Statement's prospects for achieving greater transparency compared to existing tax expenditure reporting efforts. We conclude that GASB 77 will be most beneficial to consumers of financial information in medium and large jurisdictions where there is no alternative tax abatement disclosure platform, or where the alternative offers less transparency than what can be achieved through financial reporting.

This article explores the impact of property tax abatements on tax rates. Using the case study approach, the research uses data from Monroe County, Indiana, and finds that the impact of abatements on tax rates is negligible. The method consists essentially of calculating the difference between actual tax rates and hypothetical tax rates assuming abatement are not awarded. The results suggest that public officials may see in abatements a symbolic and relatively harmless policy tool for purposes of garnering political support from businesses and citizens. The article discusses these findings in light of current law suits brought against prominent abatement programs.

The development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is vital to the economy, as such the financing of SMEs has become the focus of government and enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to find the operational and financial strategies of the supplier and retailer in supply chain.

In a Stackelberg game, supplier moves first setting wholesale price, while the retailer follows, setting the ordering quantity. Enterprises maximize their profits by optimization. When measuring profit targets, the capital constraints and income taxes of two companies are considered. In the portfolio financing model, the retailer can obtain products from suppliers through trade credit, and the supplier can use asset-backed securitization (ABS) to solve his/her financing problems.

The wholesale price is a decreasing function of retailer’s initial cash balance, and the supplier’s financing interest rate is a decreasing function of his/her own capital, the incentive effect of the supplier’s price discount strategy on retailer is more intense in the supply chain with high-priced product or high-capital retailer. And in a capital-constrained supply chain, an increase in tax rate or financing rate does not necessarily motivate the supplier to increase wholesale price. Most importantly, if the supplier’s markup is moderate, portfolio financing has value for both retailer and supplier, while solving the financing problems of both parties.

Future research can consider the explicit and implicit interest when supplier provides trade credit to retailer. It is also possible to consider the portfolio financing when multiple retailers are facing financial constraints.

It provides guidance for supply chain enterprises with financing needs, helping them find optimal decisions. With financial interest, enterprise income tax on the enterprises’ financing factors will produce a tax shield effect; thus, a cost–benefit analysis with the tax shield effect can provide more accurate picture when making corresponding decisions.

Government takes feasible adjustments of tax rate for the sake of motivation on financial SMEs tax shield. Furthermore, ABS calls for service from financial institutions, which will, in turn, expedite financial institutions revenue.

The authors provide insights on enterprise financing models, combining ABS with trade credit, expanding enterprise financing channels and enriching the theory of financial supply chain and supply chain management. The authors analyze in detail the influence of tax factors on enterprises by introducing tax factors into traditional process of enterprise operation and financing strategy.

Local public officials rely on tax and non-tax incentive packages to develop their economies. No conclusive evidence supports the economic improvement incentives afford. We investigate, with an experimental approach, the political reasons public officials use tax incentives. The experiment uses simulation gaming to model local economic development as an auction, in that way permitting us to compare the impact that motives, goals, and contexts have on outcomes. Our findings suggest that the majority of economic development competitors fall victim to the “winner’s curse”-overestimating and overbidding the potential payoff for business development.

This chapter evaluates the effectiveness of states' research and development (R&D, used to represent creditable research expenses) tax credits. Prior studies report mixed results on the effect of state R&D tax credit incentives. Generally, such studies consider the influence of state R&D tax credits by applying the statutory income tax and R&D credit tax rates. We reexamine the effect of a state's entire tax burden instead of the statutory tax rates in moderating the effectiveness of a state's R&D tax credit incentives. After controlling for several nontax factors, such as the workplace environment, political environment, and workforce education levels in a regression analysis during the 2010–2013 period in 50 states, we find that statewide private-sector R&D spending is a positive function of the R&D tax credit and this effect increases with the overall level of the state tax burden. We attribute this finding to the fact that high tax burdens increase the present value of the R&D tax credits.

This paper examines the relationship between and the effects of resource allocation and levels of professionalism on local economic development policies and strategies. In short, it asks a basic question; do cities get what they pay for in terms of economic development? A value judgment is, of course, inherent in this question; "what you pay for" serves as a euphemism for "good" economic development programs and policies. That is, if a local government devotes more budget and staff resources toward economic development, is the city more likely to implement effective economic development policies? Thus, this research examines the relationship between the resources and the professionalism of the local economic development agency, and the corresponding economic development goals and techniques employed in those communities.

The magnitude and immediacy of threats to the sustainability of state government programs call for significant changes in how we think about and make policies that influence the public budget. The Great Recession's prolonged battering of state budgets exhausted cutback strategies and has left policy makers with few options, producing a decision gridlock that is inescapable using traditional functional and line-item budget perspectives and embedded practices. Transforming state budgets requires an uncommon view. This paper identifies and describes seven overarching and pervasive habits in state policy making that contribute to unsustainable budgets. Although the applicability and commonness of each habit will vary by state, both individually and as a set the seven habits impart important handles for gaining greater control over a state's fiscal directions and fortunes.

Many States in America have enacted laws to encourage redevelopment of contaminated urban properties. The laws attempt to do this by addressing one barrier to redevelopment, the environmental liability attached to contaminated urban properties. In general, the laws attempt to remove or reduce the significance of that barrier by reducing or eliminating the environmental liability risk attached to these properties. Our hypothesis was that these efforts cannot encourage significant redevelopment because they fail to address non‐environmental barriers to urban redevelopment. To determine whether this legislative focus on environmental liability is misplaced, we conducted a survey of Northeast Ohio businesses which had decided, since the enactment of Ohio’s brownfields law, either to move to a new location, or to expand at an existing location. The survey asked businesses to rank the relative importance to their relocation decision of environmental and non‐environmental factors. The results of the survey show that numerous non‐environmental factors were of equal or greater importance to decision‐makers than the environmental status of the property. Therefore, legislative efforts to encourage redevelopment of contaminated urban properties must be expanded to address non‐environmental barriers to redevelopment

The purpose of this paper is to consider the burdens faced by small business entrepreneurs in North Dakota.

Two surveys of entrepreneurs are reported on, assessing burdens at start-up and five years later. Burdens are compared within each time period, across time periods, and are linked to industry type and business size. The study also compares survivors and non-survivors, and considers whether survivorship is linked to initial burdens.

Regulatory factors and taxes were not as burdensome in the initial time period, compared to workforce and financing factors. In the follow-up survey property taxes were the largest burden, particularly among larger businesses. Among survivors, availability of capital was more burdensome at start-up and permitting and licensing complexity at follow-up. Survivors had more employees and rated permit/license complexity as more of a burden compared to non-survivors. Cross-industry burden differences were noted. Finally, businesses with more labor availability struggles at start-up were less likely to survive, and labor market burdens increased for businesses closer to the oil boom area.

Limitations mainly relate to the sample businesses, which are all from a single state. This potential issue is elaborated on in the manuscript.

The contribution of this research primarily relates to the innovative design of using pre/post surveys to directly assess the opinions of entrepreneurs, allowing the study of burdens across time, survivorship, and industry effects.