PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

There is no respite from the turmoil currently affecting much of the USA in relation to property taxes. In an article with the title “The Property-Tax Temper Tantrum”, the author refers to a recent paper to which we have published a link on the IPTI website.

The article states: “Everyone wants the government to pay for stuff. We need our Social Security, our Medicare, our police and fire protection, our elementary schools; heck, somewould add universal health care and free college too. But no one seems to want to pay for it.

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• Property taxes currently generate 70 percent of all local tax revenue, some or all of which would have to be replaced with other taxes under property tax repeal.
• Replacing the property tax with newly granted local taxing authority is exceedingly difficult, because local sales and income tax bases vary widely across jurisdictions; there may, for instance, be no feasible sales tax rate by which an agricultural county or bedroom community could replace its property tax revenue.
• Backfilling forgone local property tax revenue through new state taxes is difficult because it dramatically shifts overall tax burdens, undermines local accountability, and cannot easily adjust for changing population mixes.
• All revenue alternatives are less conducive to economic growth than the existing property tax regime, but some transfer regimes are sharply degrowth.