The fiscal plight of many inner city local authorities in England raises questions about similarities in urban fiscal stress processes in England and the United States. This paper focuses on one explanation for urban fiscal strain, the reduced viability of property taxes for local revenue gathering, which has been reported as significant in the United States. Given central government grant reductions and party political differences over expenditure priorities, it is argued that Labour controlled councils are (and should be) most prone to fiscal trauma. The results do not find that Labour control is linked to a poorer property tax environment. Labour's fiscal problems are linked to ideological issues, not to local economic conditions.
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