This guide is a fully updated summary of state and federal laws that pertain to public finance and taxation. It is a valuable supplement to law school courses on local government law and state and municipal finance, as well as course offerings on these topics in schools of business and public policy. The book places the technical legal rules it considers in the context of the broader public policy issues that those rules raise. It focuses on several past fiscal crises as a catalyst for, as well as a source of, doctrinal changes in these areas of the law.