Considering Tax Expenditures In State Budget Deliberations

I. Introduction I am going to speak generally about three components of state public finance: first, tax revenue; second, government expenditures; and third, the allocation of the tax burden. I will illustrate how tax expenditures, such as sales-tax exemptions and other preferential laws, affect each component of public finance. In all of this, we must remember that budget deliberations should focus on keeping the three components of public finance in…