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Cornell State Policy Database (U.S.)

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    Social Safety Net Index
    Zhang, Xue; Warner, Mildred E. (2022-04)
    These files contain data on social safety net index that support the results in Warner, Mildred E. and Xue Zhang. 2021. “Social Safety Nets and COVID-19 Stay Home Orders across US States: A Comparative Policy Analysis,” Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 23(2): 176-190. https://doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2021.1874243. For the analysis in Warner and Zhang (2021), we collected social safety net policies for 50 states in the US, including whether the state mandates paid sick leave, expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, has a state minimum wage above the Federal minimum, and the level of TANF benefit for a family of three. We ran a factor analysis on these four policies to create an index for all 50-state on their social safety net. We found that during COVID-19, states with a higher level of pre-crisis social safety net protections (paid sick leave, Medicaid expansion, higher state minimum wage, higher TANF benefit) imposed stay-at-home orders earlier and reopened later. This comparative policy research shows that providing social safety net protections is a policy complement to public health.
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    Tax and Expenditure Limits (TEL) Restrictiveness Index
    Wen, Christine; Warner, Mildred E. (2022-01-27)
    These files contain data supporting all results reported in Wen et.al. 2020,“Starving Counties, Squeezing Cities: Tax and Expenditure Limits in the US.”In Wen et al., we found: State-imposed local Tax and Expenditure Limits (TELS) are restricting revenue raising ability of local governments across the U.S. We create a 50-state index to measure the severity of TELS by type of tax limitation (rate limit, tax ceilings, etc.) for each type of local government: county, municipality and school district. We find in states with more restrictive TELs, counties are more restricted, while cities reduce their property tax dependence and shift to alternative revenue sources and incur more debt. State aid does not make up the difference. TELs increase stress for all local governments but are most severe for counties.