Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-nr592 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-31T03:53:42.165Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reform During Crisis: The Transformation of California's Fiscal System During the Great Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

James E. Hartley ,
Steven M. Sheffrin  and
J. David Vasche
James E. Hartley
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Economics at Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA 01075.
Steven M. Sheffrin
Affiliation:
Professor of Economics and Director, Center for State and Local Taxation, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616.
J. David Vasche
Affiliation:
Director of Economics and Fiscal Forecasting in the Office of the Legislative Analyst of California, Sacramento, CA 95814.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the midst of the Great Depression, California engaged in a massive restructuring of its tax system, reducing reliance on the property tax and introducing sales and income taxes. Our analysis suggests that this restructuring, which included a voter referendum, was primarily driven by a desire to change the mix rather than the level of taxation. Nonetheless, by introducing new taxes that had a higher revenue elasticity than the existing taxes, California created a revenue system that allowed the rapid growth of spending to continue.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 657 - 678
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCE

Attiyeh, Richard, and Robert, F. Engle, “Testing Some Propostions About Proposition 13.” National Tax Journal 23 (06 1979): 131–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bieto, David T..Taxpayers in Revolt. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina press, 1989.Google Scholar
Brownle, Elliot. “Tax Regimes and National Crisis in the United States: An Institutional Overview.” Paper presented at All-UC Conference on Fiscal Crises in Historical perspective, UC Santa Barbara, 1994.Google Scholar
California. State Assembly. Assembly Interim Committee On State and Local Taxation. Report. Sacramento: California State Printing Office, 01 1947.Google Scholar
California. State Assembly Assembly Journal. Sacramento: California State Printing Office, various issues, 1931–1937.Google Scholar
California. Office of the State Controller. Reports of the State Controller.Sacramento, various issues.Google Scholar
Ebel, Robert D., and Christopher, Zimmerman. “Sales Tax Trends and Issues.” In Sales Taxation, edited by Fox, William F.3–25. Westport, CT, and London: Praeger: 1992.Google Scholar
Haig, Robert Murray, and Shoup, Carl. The Sales Tax in the American States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1934.Google Scholar
Higgs, Robert. Crisis and Leviathan. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Jensen, Jens P.. “Property Tax Limitations.” Tax Policy 2 (02 1935): 2–9.Google Scholar
Los Angeles Times,25 05 1933.Google Scholar
Morosco, A. H., “Proposed School Tax Amendment.” Tax Digest 10, no.9 (1932): 307–13.Google Scholar
National Industrial Conference Board. Economic Record, 8 09 1939.Google Scholar
Putnam, Jackson K.Modern California Politics.San Francisco: Boyd & Fraser Publishing Company, 1980.Google Scholar
Reuben, Kim S.. “The Political Economy of State Sales Tax Adoptions: 1930–1938.” Paper presented at All-UC Conference on Fiscal Crises in Historical Perspective, M.I.T. 1994.Google Scholar
San Francisco Chronicle, various dates.Google Scholar
Sheffrin, Steven M. “Perceptions of Fairness in the Crucible of Tax Policy.” In Progressivity and Income Inequality, edited by Slemrod, Joel, 309–40. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stockwell, Marvel M.Studies in Califomia State Taxation, 1910–1935. Berkeley, California:University of California Press, 1939.Google Scholar
Tax Digest, Los Angeles, California, various issues, 1931–1938.Google Scholar
Vandegrift, Rolland A. “Taxes Must Be Reduced.” Tax Digest 11, no. 4 (1933): 118–21.Google Scholar
Wallis, John Joseph. “The Birth of the Old Federalism: Financing the New Deal:1932–1940.” this Journal 44, no. 1 (1984): 139–59.Google Scholar