The increase in the importance of countercyclical behavior has expanded the research on fiscal saving behavior to local governments. In particular, the Great Recession has shown that local governments are not immune to economic shocks, spurring interest in local savings behavior. County governments are particularly vulnerable to negative economic shocks, as they rely more on intergovernmental revenues. With a focus on the determinants of fiscal slack, we empirically examined the relationship between tax revenue volatility and unassigned fund balance in 57 California counties over the period of 2004 to 2014. Employing spatial regression models, our empirical analysis revealed that revenue volatility is positively associated with general unassigned fund balance in California counties, and revenue diversification has partially positive effects on the fund balance. We infer that tax revenue volatility threatens the stabilized delivery of local services, which suggests that local governments should look to the factors that potentially affect revenue stability to improve their capacity for financial management. The spillover effects from the findings suggest that spatial effects need to be taken into account in analyzing the determinants of local fiscal slack.
