Concerned with explanation and prediction of legislative decision-making, this thesis was based on the premise that relatively structured, discernable patterns of behavior underlie the everyday decisions made by legislators. It has focussed on the final stage of legislative decision-making, the recording of preferences on roll call votes, and has tested the hypothesis that legislators form voting groups as they take voting "cues" from each other.Using "Q" factor analysis, the roll-call voting of the 1971 Session of the Indiana Senate was examined and five voting groups were found. The voting groups were named according to casual inferences made by the researcher.The implications of the findings of this thesis were discussed and specific suggestions for further research were presented.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine provisions for equality and liberty for the funding of school capital expenditures in each of the 50 states. More specifically, the following issues were analyzed: (a) the extent to which state policies provide equality in funding school facility construction, (b) the extent to which state policies provide local boards liberty in decisions on funding school facility construction, and (c) categorization of the 50 states with respect to provision of liberty and equality for capital outlay funding. A descriptive database of the capital outlay funding systems for each of the 50 states was developed.A descriptive survey research procedure was used. Data were collected from August through November 1999 using a survey instrument developed by the author. Usable data were received from all states.States were categorized as high, moderate, or low with regard to their potential to achieve funding equality and liberty for local districts. Only one state, Hawaii, ranked low in liberty; however, 18 states ranked low in equality. Six states ranked high in both liberty and equality.The following conclusion were formulated: (a) states that continue to rank low in equality are likely to face future litigation; (b) the courts have tolerated some degree of inequality to preserve liberty; (c) politics and not economics often determined how state legislatures responded to equality concerns; (d) differences among the states are far greater with respect to equality than they are with respect to liberty; (e) many states will continue to experience considerable conflict over funding school construction because of the inevitable tensions between liberty and equality.Further study was recommended in both the 18 low equality states and the six states that ranked high in both equality and liberty. The purpose should be to identify legal, political, and economic variables that affected school construction finance policies in those states. / Department of Educational Leadership

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

No description available.

Tax expenditures are deviations from a normative tax structure which take the form of exemptions, deductions, credits, etc. Tax expenditure reports show estimates of revenues foregone from tax expenditures. This study investigated report use in ten states by (1) examining tax expenditure reporting processes and report use and (2) applying three path models of technical information use to tax expenditure reports. Data were gathered from report preparers-legislative staff persons and legislators. The adoption of recommended standard features was examined. Commonly adopted core features and innovative features were identified. Examination of tax expenditure reports and reporting processes supports the following findings: (1) The tax expenditure concept has broad acceptance. (2) Reporting achieves an educational objective by facilitating an understanding of tax structure. (3) Use of reports is consistent with the use of technical information in general. (4) Legislators and staff persons share similar perceptions on reporting. (5) The practice of formally comparing tax and direct expenditures has not been widely adopted. (6) Awareness of tax expenditure costs may protect revenues by fostering resistance to new tax expenditures. In the three specified path models of information use, the dependent variable is level of report use. The independent variables in each model represent three theory of information use. The most paths were retained as significant in the information specific model, but the individual attribute model explained the highest percentage of variance in level of use (28.1%). The role constraint model was unsupported. A final combined model, explaining 34.3% of variance in level of use, shows that the information specific and personal attribute models are related. In the combined model: (1) report usefulness has the largest direct and total effect on level of use, (2) the exogenous variables, quality of report communication and fiscal analysis attitude affect report usefulness by affecting the intervening variables, relevance of report and technical quality of report. This suggests report preparers may influence marginally report use by improving report communication and technical quality of reports. / Ph. D.

Public asset management is a critical component of the financial integrity of government. However, in practice, problems exist in the field of public asset management at different levels of government in the United States. This research explores the management of public fixed assets owned, controlled and used by state governments in America. It attempts to answer two major questions: (1) What are the characteristics of a modern public asset management system based on the available literature? and (2) How do public asset management practices at the U.S. state government compare to the system standard described in the first question? Based on systems theory and current research on public asset management and public procurement systems, this research develops an intellectual framework of a public fixed asset management system. This system is composed of six interdependent cornerstones, including legal and regulatory requirements, organization structure, management process throughout th e life cycle of assets, human capital strategies, information and technology resources, and monitoring, integrity, and transparency. Each cornerstone consists of a number of components that reveal the underlying working principles of the relevant cornerstone and together determine the standards of fixed asset management in the relevant area. Survey results demonstrate that state governments fundamentally satisfy the standards identified in the fixed asset management system. However, certain problems obviously exist in the area of each cornerstone. In addition, survey results reveal that the six cornerstones of fixed asset management system are interrelated with one another. In most states, when a management element in the area of one cornerstone is widely implemented, the relevant management elements in areas of other cornerstones are employed and vice versa. / A major contribution of this research is the development of a fixed asset management system. State and federal governments may compare their fixed asset management to the standards identified in this system. Local governments may find appropriate management components to adapt to their characteristics from this system. / by Yaotai Lu. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The objectives of this study are to investigate the impact of Enterprise Zones (EZs) on the employment of zone residents in 14 states and 60 communities. The author's investigation constitutes the "first" national study to evaluate the employment impacts on zone residents. (A comparative, supplemental, single case study on new jobs for zone residents in Portland, Oregon has been added in Appendix B.) The results show that the impact of EZs on decreasing the unemployment rates of zone residents is significant. Also, the interventionist factors of length of time since designation, type of incentives, and number of incentives are all significant indicators of different performances between zones. The employer-based incentives of property tax abatements and income tax credits are the types of incentives that are significant. However, the descriptive factors of land use, population, and geographic size are not significantly influential. On average, the predictive model shows that a full-incentives package would result in an EZ decreasing unemployment to the level of its surrounding community in just over ten years. (The supplemental single case study also shows that the majority of new hires are zone residents.) The major policy implications and recommendations from this study are: (1) That a full-scale incentives package with employer-based property tax abatements and income tax credits, along with other incentives, should be implemented by all state EZ programs; (2) That more economic incentives should be developed at the federal level to enhance state EZ programs; (3) That more targeted areas should be designated as EZs by the federal program, and that all states should enact targeted EZ programs; (4) That annual unemployment data reports on EZs and their surrounding communities should be mandated by the federal and state governments. (The major recommendations from the supplemental single case study are that specific data should be mandated and derived on new hires and zone residents for all EZ programs, and that a formal job referral and training provider network should be provided for all EZ programs.)

No description available.

In any given week glance through the nation's leading newspapers and popular magazines and chances are you will find an article on the nation's medically uninsured. In chiding a country that allows 16% of its citizens to suffer the risks associated with that lack of insurance, reference is frequently given to the exemplary coverage provided to federal government employees by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. What of the benefits provided to state government employees? How good is the coverage, and, of particular interest, are there significant variations across states and what factors might contribute to those differences? This study assesses the level of health care benefits afforded to state government employees in all fifty states and considers the potential impact of political ideology, political culture, economic conditions and public employee union membership in influencing variations in those benefits across the states. The state paid portion of a family’s health care premium was adjusted to allow for differences in health care costs across the states resulting in a range of the level of benefits from $318 per month in Mississippi to $1834 per month in New Hampshire. A state’s economic condition, the level of public union membership, and a moralistic political culture were all shown to have a positive association with the level of benefits. Political ideology, defined as the degree of liberalism, was, however, not shown to have a statistical association. Understanding health care benefit differences between states and the factors that drive those differences has the potential of improving lives and the functioning of state governments. Scant information on those differences exist in the current literature; this study has developed a baseline of information and an assessment of driving influences that will, hopefully, stimulate additional approaches and research efforts. Benefits, in general, have been shown in the literature to impact the ability of state governments to attract and maintain employees of merit. Advocates of increased benefits can utilize these study results to place their requests in a broader context.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the Haitian Hybrid Student Success Skills (HHSSS) program on the academic achievement of 4th and 5th grade Haitian students. This intervention included both the Student Success Skills (SSS) classroom program in English (Brigman & Webb, 2004), followed by the Haitian SSS small group translation Teknik Pou Ede Eláev Reyisi (Brigman, Campbell, & Webb 2004, 2009). School counselors in the treatment schools implemented the HHSSS program in grades 4 and 5 after receiving training from the study researcher. A series of ANOVA and ANCOVA analyses then were conducted to determine whether there were significant differences between the treatment group, the comparison group 1, and the comparison group 2 in reading and math using the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) as a benchmark. Statistically significant differences were found between: (a) the treatment group and comparison group 1 in reading, (b) the treatment group and vii comparison group 2 in reading, and (c) between both comparison group 1 and comparison group 2 in reading. This study provides empirical support showing that students who are taught key cognitive and self management skills in their native language can begin to close the academic gap regardless of their language background. Furthermore, it supports the positive impact school counselors can have on student success by implementing an evidence-based program. / by Velouse Jean-Pierre Jean-Jacques. / Vita. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.