The Consequences of Specialized Governance on Spending and Expansion of Public Transit

Abstract

Special-purpose governments are commonly characterised as hidden governments with less taxpayer accountability and can issue debt. However, little research has been conducted to see if operating and capital expenses are driven by the public’s perception of need or are a policy consequence of functional specialisation. The following study tests how problem salience and form of government interact to impact local governments’ expenditures. We use National Transit Data (2013–2014) to test these moderating relationships. Our findings indicate that at least in the context of public transit, service area characteristics play a larger role in the spending and expansion than either the form of government or issue salience (as measured in this paper). This also indicates that the moderating effect of salience and governance does not appear to be significant for public transit policy.