Property Taxes,Services,and the Calculating Voters

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the relationships between the services-Abstract property tax nexus and votes for and against a statewide property tax limit. Positive correlations between tax rates and favorable votes and a negative relationship between city residence and favorable votes are reported. Small towns and unincorporated areas produced lower percent ages of votes favorable to the limitation; however, such towns and areas did vote for the limitation at a greater rate per dollar of property tax rate. The logic of tax-service relationships suggests that, despite increasing percentages of favorable votes cross-sectionally with increasing property tax rates, the provision of municipal services contributed to the defeat of the measure through lessening the pressure for a property tax limit within cities, In this case, where a broad range of local government services was threatened, the institutional arrangements for collective choice encouraged voters to consider both sides of the tax-service nexus, and the demand for the relatively wide range of services within cities helped to deter the coalescence of service-receiving minorities into an operative anti-property tax majority.