Communities in Fiscal Distress: State Grant Targeting Provides Limited Help

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed whether states were meeting the needs of financially distressed communities in light of the expiration of federal revenue-sharing in 1986, focusing on: (1) the extent to which state assistance programs reduced differences in tax burdens among general purpose local governments; and (2) whether state programs were more effective than federal revenue-sharing programs in reducing tax burden differences between distressed and better-off communities.