ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that a review of studies of expected impacts of rapid growth on the local public sector. It explores studies of actual impacts of rapid growth on local public services and finances. The chapter provides an assessment both of our understanding of fiscal impacts of rapid growth and of the fiscal information needs of local decisionmakers in rapid growth situations. State and local tax structures also affect the abilities of local units to provide and finance expanded public services. The experiences of the counties and municipalities studied illustrate that major increases in expenditures can be financed without relying on increased property taxes, the source most likely to adversely affect long-time residents. Local policy changes have been a mixture of increasing fees and charges and reducing certain services. The anticipated local fiscal stress has also been mitigated in a number of cases by negotiated cooperative agreements between the local governments and the corporations whose projects generated the imapcts.
