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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
As one of the most significant of recent developments in public administration, the government corporation has been the subject of much study and discussion. Apparently without exception, interest has centered around the corporate agencies of the federal government and their operations. The time is perhaps overdue to point out that an increasing number of our state governments are depending upon corporations of their own for financing, constructing, and operating a wide variety of enterprises, including tollbridges, sewage disposal plants, water resources and hydro-electric projects, housing programs, construction of university buildings, planetariums, public markets, and health resorts. The creation of the large majority of these state and local “authorities,” as they are ordinarily termed, is the direct outgrowth of the New Deal's public works and housing programs. In December, 1934, President Roosevelt wrote the 48 governors suggesting legislation which through “revision of the procedure relative to municipal financing” would enable the states to take “full advantage” of any public works program that Congress might continue. The legal division of P.W.A. was placed at the disposal of the states, and much of the stimulation as well as the form of “authority legislation” must be credited to its staff. In some states, only through separate corporations and the device of revenue bonds could state constitutional limitations upon borrowing be circumvented and state participation in the public works program made possible. Administrative advantages of the public corporation were also considered of importance, however, and in states where constitutional obstacles were not met, these seem to have been the determining factor in the creation of corporate agencies.
1 Taylor, Samuel, “California Low Rent Housing Legislation,” 11 University of Southern California Law Review (1938), p. 459 Google Scholar; Foley, E. H. Jr., “Revenue Financing of Public Enterprises,” 35 Michigan Law Review (1936), pp. 1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Foley, op. cit., p. 5.
3 This is true, for example, of the local housing authorities of California. Taylor, op. cit., p. 460.
4 Cal. Stats., 1923, p. 452.
5 Cal. Stats., 1927, p. 694.
6 Cal. Stats., 1929, p. 165, and Cal. Stats., 1931, p. 77.
7 Doyle v. Jordan, 200 Cal. 170; Wheatley v. Superior Court, 207 Cal. 722; Dempter v. Superior Court, 207 Cal. 795; and Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District v. Felt, 82 Cal. 683.
8 See the author's Government Corporations and Federal Funds (1938), pp. 61 ff and passim.
9 Cal. Stats., 1929, p. 1489.
10 The last clause is an amendment added in 1933. Cal. Stats., 1933, p. 35.
11 In re California Toll Bridge Authority, 212 Cal. 298, 298 P.485.
12 California Toll Bridge Authority v. Kelly, 218 Cal. 7, 21P.(2d) 425.
13 Cal. Stats., 1933, p. 2643.
14 “State Water Plan Urged in Washington,” California Highways and Public Works, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Apr., 1935), p. 21.
15 See Rivers and Harbors Bill of 1937, 49 Stat. L. 850.
16 “Water Authority Approves Proposed Legislation for Central Valley Project,” California Highways and Public Works, Vol. 17, No. 5 (May, 1939), p. 4.
17 Cal. Slats., 1935, p. 1463.
18 See Resolution, Chap. 138, Cal. Stats., 1935, p. 2708.
19 Taylor, op. cit., p. 449.
20 Ibid., pp. 458–459.
21 National Association of Housing Officials, Planning for Low-Rent Housing (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1938).Google ScholarPubMed
22 Foley, op. cit., pp. 26 ff.
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