Paying for Planning

This book chapter examines the role property tax has played and could potentially play in cities by analyzing four types of property tax limitations and determining that revenue share is more related to non-property tax revenue and to tax rate and local limitations than changes in land price. Preferential tax rates for types of property, ratios of effective tax rates, and the property tax limitations of tax rate, assessment, revenue, and local are analyzed to understand how maximum rates of property taxation change across states and regions. Potential sources of additional revenue reside in increasing relative taxation on business property and by changing property tax statutes to allow for higher levels of taxation for commercial and industrial property, with low-property-tax-share cities having the greatest potential for revenue increase.