Reconsidering the Determinants of Public Authority Use

Do Cities and Counties Attempt to Circumvent Changes in their Autonomy by Creating Special Districts?

“…Several other analyses demonstrate similar findings at the local level (Foster 1997;McCabe 2000). However, Nelson (1990), Frant (1997), and Shi (2017) find no relationship between the two. Generally, increased functional home rule powers, broadly defined, are associated with a reduction in the number of special districts created.…”

“…First, few analyses focus on special district creation (Bauroth 2015;Billings and Carroll 2012;Farmer 2010;McCabe 2000). Rather, they focus on the usage of special districts (Bowler and Donovan 2004;Carr 2006;Carr and Farmer 2011;Foster 1996;Frant 1997;Nelson 1990;Shi 2017). Second, few analyses utilize panel data ((Billings and Carroll 2012;Farmer 2010;McCabe 2000;Shi 2017) and among those that do, few utilize as many time periods as the analysis presented here.…”

Do Cities and Counties Attempt to Circumvent Changes in Their Autonomy by Creating Special Districts?

“…Several other analyses demonstrate similar findings at the local level (Foster, 1997;McCabe, 2000). However, Nelson (1990), Frant (1997), and Shi (2017) There is much evidence to suggest a relationship between local autonomy and special districts; however, the exact relationship is not agreed upon in the literature. Moreover, the more recent literature suggests some form of a contingent relationship is important in our understanding of the relationship between reductions of local autonomy and the creation of special districts (Bowler & Donovan, 2004;Carr, 2006;Carr & Farmer, 2011;Farmer, 2010).…”

“…First, few analyses focus on special district creation (Bauroth, 2015;Billings & Carroll, 2012;Farmer, 2010;McCabe, 2000). Rather, they focus on the usage of special districts (Bowler & Donovan, 2004;Carr, 2006;Carr & Farmer, 2011;Foster, 1996;Frant, 1997;Nelson, 1990;Shi, 2017).…”

Community Development Districts: The Entrepreneurial Side of Government

“…There are scholars who demonstrated that there are alternative reasons for state and local use of these entities besides their financial abilities. Special-purpose governments are used also because of demographic indicators such as population, area and urbanization (Frant, 1997) as well as for their institutional characteristics which were expected to solve service delivery concerns in a framework of political competition (Bourdeaux, 2005). The reliance on special-purpose governments is also seen as a means of overcoming collective action problems such as coordination (Baer & Feiock, 2005;Mullin, 2010) and division (Baer & Feiock, 2005).…”