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.