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In 2005, New York (NY) state capped the growth of county-level Medicaid spending, which abruptly decreased counties' Medicaid outlay in both relative and absolute terms. This study exploits this discontinuity in county Medicaid outlay to estimate the impact of the relief mandate policy on county budgets and property tax levies. It bridges a gap in the public finance literature by addressing local government responses to a sudden decrease in the outlay of a large mandatory spending category. We find a compositional change but no income effect on non-Medicaid spending. However, the policy reduced the effective property tax rate significantly by 6.6 to 8.1 percent on average among affected NY counties after the enactment of the policy relative to control counties. This study advances our understanding of local fiscal responses to an intergovernmental fiscal policy that changes how state and local governments share the costs of a large public social insurance program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At its Media Day in New York in mid-September, Lanxess announced a new mid-term goal for its leading earnings indicator – EBITDA pre-exceptionals – of €1.8 billion in 2018. It says it expects to achieve its previously established goal of €1.4 billion EBITDA pre-exceptionals in 2014, a year ahead of schedule [ADPO, November 2010]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]