Archive Report
Archive Report
Dependence on Property Tax During Depression
Drastic Curtailment of Revenues of Local Governments
By tapping new sources of taxable wealth and increasing the rates of existing non-property taxes, state governments have attempted during the depression to correct inequities in their tax systems resulting from the decline in income from property. Local governments, however, have continued to depend on the general property tax for upwards of 90 per cent of their tax revenues. Two significant consequences have attended the failure of local governments to diversify tax sources during the depression. First, local revenues have been drastically reduced. Second, property-owning groups have made organized efforts to relieve the tax burden on real estate through the adoption of constitutional or statutory provisions limiting property tax rates or exempting homesteads ...