ABSTRACT
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part will entail a careful and exhaustive review of the extant scholarly literature and relevant government reports and documents which is conducted so as to be able to identify plausible causes of and explanations for revenue trends and variations. From this search, we have been able to identify at least eight broad subject areas that warrant careful scrutiny. They are as follows: state constitutions and statutes, political culture and citizen attitudes/opinions, population shifts and area demographic, intergovernmental transfers, citizen expectations and views on government and government officials, tax revolts and taxing and spending limitations, archaic/repetitive budgetary customs and traditions (incrementalism), and changes in national laws and national, local, and international economies. Second, this chapter describes the study's parameters (time frame, units of analysis, description and sources of data, definition of key terms and concepts).
