Book contents
- Responsive States
- Responsive States
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Federalism and Policy Feedback
- 2 The Surprising Persistence of Unemployment Insurance
- 3 The Brief Life of the Sheppard–Towner Act
- 4 The Remarkable Expansion of Medicaid
- 5 The Rise and Demise of General Revenue Sharing
- 6 How Superfund Sowed the Seeds of Its Own Instability
- 7 No Child Left Behind and the Politics of State Resistance
- 8 Policy Design, Polarization, and the Affordable Care Act
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - The Rise and Demise of General Revenue Sharing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2019
- Responsive States
- Responsive States
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Federalism and Policy Feedback
- 2 The Surprising Persistence of Unemployment Insurance
- 3 The Brief Life of the Sheppard–Towner Act
- 4 The Remarkable Expansion of Medicaid
- 5 The Rise and Demise of General Revenue Sharing
- 6 How Superfund Sowed the Seeds of Its Own Instability
- 7 No Child Left Behind and the Politics of State Resistance
- 8 Policy Design, Polarization, and the Affordable Care Act
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act, creating a program of general revenue sharing with state and local governments. At the signing ceremony, Nixon proclaimed that the new program would “give these hard-pressed governments the dollars they need so badly” and “the freedom they need to use those dollars as effectively as possible.” With virtually no strings attached, general revenue sharing offered state and local governments unprecedented spending discretion. And at the time of passage, its $30 billion price tag over the first five years made it the largest federal grant-in-aid ever enacted (Stephens and Wikstrom 2007, 39). Not surprisingly, state and local officials had lobbied vigorously for its passage; indeed, Nixon observed that its enactment would have been impossible without their support. Puzzlingly, however, state leaders hardly resisted when Congress discontinued the state portion of general revenue sharing eight years later.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Responsive StatesFederalism and American Public Policy, pp. 110 - 131Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019