Swenson, David A.; Eathington, Liesl

March 2006

Much has been written about a shift in federal to state relationships during the 1990s.  Couched in terms of a renewed fiscal federalism, devolution, or even the heady rhetoric of “reinventing” government both resources and public service authority flowed to the state governments.  Somewhat less was said at the time regarding state governments’ relationships with local governments or the extent of federal re-distributions of resources beyond state governments to local governments.  This paper is an investigation of some of the federalism transformations that occurred in the past decade or so.  In particular, it assesses the flow of resources and spending at all levels of government and sorts out which show changes in relationships. 

JEL Classification: H00

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