Creative politics

State legislators are constantly making tradeoffs between changing taxes and providing public services. Glenn Beamer uses a series of in-depth case studies in eleven states to show how legislators made decisions on taxation, economic development, education financing, and Medicaid.The author identifies six factors that influence legislators's decisions: accountability, dependability, equity, obscurability, and horizontal and vertical transferability. Within the context created by citizen demands, intergovernmental politics, policy histories, court interventions, and state constitutions, this study analyzes how legislators employ these principles to develop and enact policies.