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Budgets: Lessons from the States," Cato Institute Fact
Sheet, September 17, 1996.
15. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Local Area Unemployment Statistics.
16. "Tax Revenues Rise As Tax Cut Continues," Empire Economy
2, no. 3 (April 1997).
17. Zsolt Becsi, "Do State and Local Taxes Affect Relative
State Growth?" Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Economic
Review, March-April 1996, p. 34.
18. Comments at "Cutting Taxes and Balancing Budgets: The
Governors' Experience," Roundtable luncheon, Cato Institute,
September 17, 1996.
19. Stephen Moore, "Welfare States," National Review,
November 6, 1995, pp. 50-52.
20. Governor's Press Office, Press release, November 19,
1996.
21. For instance, the Corporation for Enterprise Development
publishes an annual rating of the states to determine which
governors are implementing the best economic policies. In
the 1980s Massachusetts and Dukakis routinely ranked at the
top of the rating scale, up until the fiscal collapse of
Massachusetts in 1989. The 1994 report labeled New
Hampshire, the lowest tax state in the nation and the only
state without an income and sales tax, as the worst place to
do business in America. Since the report's release, New
Hampshire has had faster income and job growth than the
national average.
22. For instance, Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby says, "I
have consistently found evidence that both students and
taxpayers are better off under locally based systems of
school funding and school control. . . . More state aid
means less effective schools." Caroline M. Hoxby, "Local
Property Tax-Based Funding of Public Schools," Heartland
Institute Policy Study no. 82, May 19, 1997.
23. The Bureau of the Census surveys state governments each
year and produces detailed data files on the various
components of each state's spending and revenue. Those
annual data reports are titled "State Government Finances."
The census data on state governments are superior to those
from all other sources because the census accounts for every
type of expenditure and every type of revenue generated for