Taxation in Tennessee and the Southeastern States during an economically exigent decade : 1975-1984

Author

Sharen Fossett Fischer

Date of Award

3-1987

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Educational Administration and Supervision

Major Professor

Dewey H. Stollar

Committee Members

William H. Coffield, John R. Ray, Colbert W. Whitaker, Daniel R. Quarles

Abstract

This study has presented a multi-dimensional approach to tax structure evaluation for the Southeastern states from 1975-1984. Criteria for evaluation were equity, elasticity, and yield. A four-phased examination presented a wealth of data for analysis.

Phase one was a historical research effort pertaining to tax structures in the Southeastern states. The tax collections with accompanying percent of yield for six major tax bases: general sales and gross receipts, selective sales, state property, corporation net income, individual income, and licenses were delineated by state for each year from 1975-1984, with the addition of 1985 data which was published in time for study inclusion.

Phase two examined educational funding in the selected states. Several sets of data were presented and analyzed: per pupil expenditures, state expenditures for education, governmental revenue sources funding education, and taxpayer burden for education in terms of per capita personal income, per capita educational expenditures, and percent for education of per capita income.

Phase three studied the fiscal capacity, tax effort, and revenue utilization for the Southeastern states. A bulk of data which demonstrated these aspects of taxation was presented and analyzed. Emphasis was placed on state tax structures as individual entities and on the separate major tax bases which comprised each revenue system.

Phase four presented an analysis of the 1985 tax structures in relation to equity, elasticity, and yield. The Tax Structure Quality Index (TSQI) was created and implemented to display these measured criteria for evaluation. Each state tax mix was analyzed in terms of: tax structure equity, educational equity, revenue elasticity, educational elasticity, and yield as a progressive diversification of tax balance.

It was concluded that the tax structures which best met the criteria for evaluation in the Southeastern states were those of Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina. The state revenue systems which performed most inadequately were determined to be those in Mississippi and Tennessee.

The study concluded with several suggestions for improvements in the tax structures of the Southeastern states.

Recommended Citation

Fischer, Sharen Fossett, "Taxation in Tennessee and the Southeastern States during an economically exigent decade : 1975-1984. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1987.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/12054