Property tax revaluation and tax levy growth

Jurisdiction-wide property revaluation, like many administrative reforms, may have unintended consequences. This paper examines one such potential consequence. By pooling 18-year time series for each of 39 Massachusetts cities (17 of which revalued) and 270 Massachusetts towns (202 of which revalued), we examine the hypothesis that politicians take advantage of the confusion generated by revaluation and raise property taxes by more than they otherwise would have. We observe such a response in cities but not in towns and attribute this difference to differences in their governmental structures. © 1982.

Duke Scholars

Author Helen F. Ladd Sanford School of Public Policy