Devolution to the state level attracks growth creating businesses
Musser 2012 (Brandon, Graduate student at the Central European University, Economics department, Economic Policy in Global Markets, Master’s Thesis, “The Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on Highway and Transportation Spending in the United States” April 6th http://dw.crackmypdf.com/0996971001342193466/musser_brandon.pdf AS)
Returning to Tiebout’s assumption of the mobile taxpayer/consumer presents some insight as to why local governments might put a higher priority on infrastructure than the federal government. The greater the mobility of voter/taxpayers between subnational jurisdictions, the more sensitive subnational levels of government will become to these market signals in their attempts to attract new residents and businesses or even retain existing ones. As a result, fiscal competition is introduced among same-level jurisdictions as they compete for a limited supply of residents, businesses and, ultimately, the tax revenues that follow them. One strand of the literature argues that this competition should affect the composition of public expenditures, inducing subnational levels of government to invest in those public goods which enter into the production functions of private firms and, likewise, into the preference functions of individuals (Keen and Marchand, 1997). The quality of ports or access to main transportation arteries (highways, railroads), for example, would carry a lot of weight for a manufacturing firm that needs to ship and receive bulk quantities of materials and finished goods as quickly as possible. Likewise, the quality of primary schools, extent and user-friendliness of public transportation, or even the number of parks and other public spaces could greatly influence their decision to reside in one community versus another.
Devolution to the states key to economic growth- prefer our models
Musser 2012 (Brandon, Graduate student at the Central European University, Economics department, Economic Policy in Global Markets, Master’s Thesis, “The Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on Highway and Transportation Spending in the United States” April 6th http://dw.crackmypdf.com/0996971001342193466/musser_brandon.pdf AS)
Akai and Sakata (2002)examine cross state data in the United States for the 1992-1996 time period and find evidence that fiscal decentralization has had a positive and significant effect on economic growth, although they do not make any comments as to how exactly fiscal decentralization might contribute to economic growth. The authors felt convinced that examining data from the United States was the best way to observe the effects of fiscal decentralization onreal economic variables, arguing that using cross-country data in which the cultural, historical, and institutional differences between countries very significantly, making it more difficult to isolate the effects of fiscal decentralization unless necessary adjustments are made to the data. Also, by using panel data, the authors are able to control for regional-specific effects although they found, contrary to their expectations, an insignificant coefficient for the dummy variable representing the Southern region.
2NC Solvency- Poverty Reduction
States Solve poverty related transportation issues- Federal government models
Vestal 2008 (Christina journalist at Stateline.org journalism and news, August 7 (Web, 8-7-08), http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=331776 “States adopt bold anti-poverty measures” LJ)
As the economy falters and the ranks of the poor multiply, states for the first time in recent memory are mounting high-profile, comprehensive campaigns aimed at radically reducing poverty - many with an emphasis on children.¶ ¶ At least 15 states and the District of Columbia have created bi-partisan commissions to narrow the widening gap between the rich and the poor by eliminating barriers - such as lack of education, poor transportation and inadequate child care - that prevent many from finding better jobs and escaping chronic poverty. In addition, the states are working to help disadvantaged children in the hope of breaking the generational cycle of poverty.¶ ¶ "It's striking how many states have taken on poverty as a top policy priority," Jack Tweedie, poverty director at the National Conference of State Legislatures , told Stateline.org. "No one even used the word 'poverty' in the past. It was all about helping working families."¶ ¶ Advocates for the poor say the new state poverty initiatives mark a sea change in political support for an issue that has languished for decades. And with the possibility of a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic Congress, some are optimistic the federal government also will take up the mantle and increase state assistance programs.¶
2NC Solvency- Terrorism
Federal government fails at terrorism prevention and response- forces state governments to be dependent and ineffective
Nivola 2005 (Pietro, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution“Why Federalism Matters,” Brookings Policy Brief Series #146, http://www3.brookings.edu/papers/2005/10governance_nivola.aspx October, AS)
Why the paternalists in Washington cannot resist dabbling in the quotidian tasks that need to be performed by state and local officials would require a lengthy treatise on bureaucratic behavior, congressional politics, and judicial activism. Suffice it to say that the propensity, whatever its source, poses at least two fundamental problems. The first is that some state and local governments may become sloppier about fulfilling their basic obligations. The Hurricane Katrina debacle revealed how ill-prepared the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana were for a potent tropical storm that could inundate the region. There were multiple explanations for this error, but one may well have been habitual dependence of state and local officials on direction, and deliverance, by Uncle Sam. In Louisiana, a state that was receiving more federal aid than any other for Army Corps of Engineers projects, the expectation seemed to be that shoring up the local defenses against floods was chiefly the responsibility of Congress and the Corps, and that if the defenses failed, bureaucrats in the Federal Emergency Management Agency would instantly ride to the rescue. That assumption proved fatal. Relentlessly pressured to spend money on other local projects, and unable to plan centrally for every possible calamity that might occur somewhere in this huge country, the federal government botched its role in the Katrina crisis every step of the way—the flood prevention, the response, and the recovery. The local authorities in this tragedy should have known better, and taken greater precautions. Apart from creating confusion and complacency in local communities, a second sort of disorder begot by a national government too immersed in their day-to-day minutia is that it may become less mindful of its own paramount priorities. Apart from creating confusion and complacency in local communities, a second sort of disorder begot by a national government too immersed in their day-to-day minutia is that it may become less mindful of its own paramount priorities Consider an obvious one: the security threat presented by Islamic extremism. This should have been the U.S. government's first concern, starting from at least the early 1990s. The prelude to September 11, 2001 was eventful and ominous. Fanatics with ties to Osama bin Laden had bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. Muslim militants had tried to hijack an airliner and crash it into the Eiffel Tower in 1994. U.S. military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, were blown up, killing nearly a score of American servicemen in 1996. Courtesy of Al Qaeda, truck bombings at the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 caused thousands of casualties. Al Qaeda operatives attacked the USS Cole in 2000. And so it went, year after year. What is remarkable was not that the jihadists successfully struck the Twin Towers again in the fall of 2001 but that the United States and its allies threw no forceful counterpunches during the preceding decade, and that practically nothing was done to prepare the American people for the epic struggle they would have to wage. Instead, the Clinton administration and both parties in Congress mostly remained engrossed in domestic issues, no matter how picayune or petty. Neither of the presidential candidates in the 2000 election seemed attentive to the fact that the country and the world were menaced by terrorism. On the day of reckoning, when word reached President George W. Bush that United Airlines flight 175 had slammed into a New York skyscraper, he was busy visiting a second-grade classroom at an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida. The government's missteps leading up to September 11th, in short, had to do with more than bureaucratic lapses of the kind identified in the 9/11 Commission's detailed litany. The failure was also rooted in a kind of systemic attention deficit disorder. Diverting too much time and energy to what de Tocqueville had termed "secondary affairs," the nation's public servants from top to bottom grew distracted and overextended.
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