136
Opinion of the Court
icy treating "state" repos any different from "federal" repos for tax purposes.
Second, respondent cites our decision in Rockford Life Ins. Co. v. Illinois Dept. of Revenue, 482 U. S. 182, 190 (1987), in which we stated that "the intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine . . . is based on the proposition that the borrowing power is an essential aspect of the Federal Government's authority and, just as the Supremacy Clause bars the States from directly taxing federal property, it also bars the States from taxing federal obligations in a manner which has an adverse effect on the United States' borrowing ability." According to respondent, undisputed expert testimony in the record establishes that the taxation at issue in this case will make it more difficult and expensive for the Federal Government to finance the national debt.
This expert testimony essentially consists of a 1986 affidavit sworn by Peter D. Sternlight, a former official of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In our view, Stern-light's affidavit has no relevance to this case. It concluded only that "an impairment of the repo market would make it less attractive for [government securities] dealers to perform [their] very useful . . . function [of underwriting a sizeable portion of Treasury securities], thus adding to Treasury interest costs." App. 42. But the "impairment" that worried Sternlight would result "[i]f repurchase agreements were to lose their present characteristics of flexibility and liquidity," or if repos became "unavailable" to certain kinds of public and private institutional investors. Id., at 42, 43. These possibilities might develop if repos were to be characterized as secured loans for purposes of federal bankruptcy and banking law or of commercial and local government law. Our decision today, however, says nothing about how repos should be characterized for those purposes.7
7 See also Brief for Federal Reserve Bank of New York as Amicus Curiae 9-10 ("The Sternlight Affidavit was filed by the New York Fed in 1986 as amicus curiae in [a case] which had nothing to do with state
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