The Changing Property Tax and State-Local Relations

Alvin D. Sokolow

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, vol. 28, issue 1, 165-187

Abstract: The substantial transfer of fiscal power to state government, undermining local government autonomy, characterizes the course of state-local relations in the last quarter of the twentieth century in the United States. Central to this shift is diminished local control of the property tax, a result of the tax limitations adopted in most states since the 1970s. This article argues that control of the property tax is critical to the workings of local representative democracy, affecting both the discretion of elected officials and participation of citizens. It presents both quantitative and qualitative evidence of the centralization trend, including changes in property-tax flows and state finances affecting local governments, an analysis of the comparative severity of property-tax limitations, changes in K-12 education financing, and local consequences of the tax limitations. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/ (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:publus:v:28:y::i:1:p:165-187

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Publius: The Journal of Federalism is currently edited by Paul Nolette and Philip Rocco

More articles in Publius: The Journal of Federalism from CSF Associates Inc. Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().