SPECIAL-DISTRICTS, CITY-GOVERNMENTS, AND INFRASTRUCTURE - SPENDING IN105 US-METROPOLITAN-AREAS

Special district structure in US metropolitan areas has not been analy zed although studies document the growth of special districts and thei r impact on the coordination and planning activities of local governme nts. Few estimates have been made of public capital spending in metrop olitan areas and none that classify spending by cities and special dis tricts. Thus, there has been no comparison of how metropolitan areas d iffer in their reliance on special districts. This paper attempts to f ill these research voids. The authors studied the 1987 capital spendin g patterns of 105 metropolitan areas. While the outlays for special di stricts were significant, city governments were the major force in inf rastructure capital spending. Although metropolitan regions with high reliance on special districts had higher incomes, private capital inve stment was slightly higher. The authors found no evidence that relianc e on special districts was associated with higher levels of outstandin g debt.