Is Local Discretionary Sales Tax Adopted to Counteract Fiscal Stress?

Abstract

Economic development has traditionally relied on operational resources concentrated in the government's general fund balance for postinfrastructure operations. In this article, the authors explore the phenomenon of infrastructure surtax adoption for development and operation in an empirical analysis of Florida counties. The authors focus their analysis on the factors that influence the adoption grounding the analysis in the theoretical framework of the policy innovation and adoption literature. Their results support earlier findings; however, the most striking point is that fiscal stress and direct tax burden do not statistically influence the infrastructure surtax innovation.