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Property Taxation and Local Government Finance
The property tax is unpopular among both scholars and taxpayers, yet many scholars have proposed ideas to rehabilitate this tax and its role in local public finance. Based on a 2000 Lincoln Institute conference, this book reviews the economics of local property taxation and examines its policy implications. The chapters are written in a nontechnical form for policy makers and other noneconomists.
345 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 2001
About the author
Wallace E. Oates
25 books1 followerWallace Oates was a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland and a University Fellow at Resources for the Future. He received his PhD in economics at Stanford in 1965 and joined the faculty at Princeton University. He moved to the University of Maryland in 1979. He specialized in the areas of public economics and environmental economics.
His primary research interests were public finance and environmental economics. Since his first book, Fiscal Federalism (1972), he explored the assignment of functions to different levels of government in a federal system, the provision of local public goods, the design of intergovernmental grants, and the structure of local revenue systems. He worked on these matters with urban groups, the European Union, the OECD, and various federal and state agencies in the United States.
His central environmental economics interest was in the use of economic incentives for environmental management. In numerous writings including The Theory of Environmental Policy (1975, revised edition 1988), with William Baumol, he studied the design and implementation of taxes on polluting activities and systems of tradable emissions allowances. He worked on the design of regulatory programs for pollution control with the U.S. EPA, the OECD, and other federal and state agencies. He served on the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee for the EPA.
His primary research interests were public finance and environmental economics. Since his first book, Fiscal Federalism (1972), he explored the assignment of functions to different levels of government in a federal system, the provision of local public goods, the design of intergovernmental grants, and the structure of local revenue systems. He worked on these matters with urban groups, the European Union, the OECD, and various federal and state agencies in the United States.
His central environmental economics interest was in the use of economic incentives for environmental management. In numerous writings including The Theory of Environmental Policy (1975, revised edition 1988), with William Baumol, he studied the design and implementation of taxes on polluting activities and systems of tradable emissions allowances. He worked on the design of regulatory programs for pollution control with the U.S. EPA, the OECD, and other federal and state agencies. He served on the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee for the EPA.
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July 7, 2011
A massive, almost unwieldy, compilation of essays on property taxation in America, that still manages to shine more light on the subject than anything else I've read. It lays out the debate between the "benefit view" of the property tax, espoused by the ever-insightful William Fischel, where property taxes are seen as "user charges" for local services, and the "new view," discussed by one of its creators George Zodrow, who argues that it is actually a national tax on capital with local variations. George Wallis examines the history of the tax since 1790 (in the first hundred years it increased in importance for state and local government, and then was almost completely abandoned by states in the early 20th century). Authors also discuss the history of property tax revolts (California's Proposition 13 in 1978 was only the most recent, between 1932 and 1933 16 states passed maximum tax limits), education finance and school litigation (focusing on the aftereffects of California's Serrano v. Priest case of 1976 which equalized school spending across districts), and a variety of others subjects.
Although sometimes its as dull as dish-water, much of the writing shows how important the debates about the property tax have been in American history. It also helps rehabilitate the image of what is often called "America's Most Hated Tax."
Although sometimes its as dull as dish-water, much of the writing shows how important the debates about the property tax have been in American history. It also helps rehabilitate the image of what is often called "America's Most Hated Tax."
Displaying 1 of 1 review