A Comprehensive Model of Determinants of Property Tax Assessment Quality: Evidence in New York State

This study proposes and examines a comprehensive model for the determinants of property tax assessment quality. In addition to providing evidence in support of reform of property tax administration by institutionalizing the full market value standard, a specific revaluation cycle, and county or statewide assessment functions, this study examines the impact of the monitoring pressure of residents on the quality of assessment. The empirical results reveal that the median tax share, the median property value as a share of median income, the ratio of state aid to total expenditures, and the share of adults with college or higher education have significant impacts on the quality of property tax assessment.     

Agricultural Use‐Value Property Tax Assessment: Estimation and Policy Issues

This paper provides an overview of the theory and methods used to implement use‐value property tax assessment for agricultural land in the United States. After a critical review of the methods used by various states in their application of use‐value statutes for agricultural land, the paper examines several policy issues related to the estimation and application of use‐value assessment methods. Five state case studies are included, providing an overview of methods used in use‐value assessment, and suggestions are provided regarding several ways in which use‐value assessment methods need to be improved.     

Addressing the Affordable Housing Crisis for Vulnerable Renters: Insights From Broward County on an Affordable Housing Acquisition Tool

South Florida is experiencing an affordable rental crisis that is especially burdensome on those most vulnerable in society, low-income households. Rapid urbanization has resulted in inequitable land-use patterns that are a barrier to housing for the poor. As a solution to the crisis, local housing agencies seek to expand their affordable housing stock for vulnerable renters in opportunity-rich neighborhoods, but there is no standard framework for identifying properties for acquisition. Broward County serves as a case study to develop a housing acquisition tool. Using a combination of spatial statistics and principal components analysis, neighborhoods in which housing agencies may consider acquiring property are identified through the creation of an affordability surface in ArcGIS. Affordability is overlain by an opportunity surface derived from neighborhood quality and accessibility rankings. The results identify neighborhoods in Broward County that are both affordable and opportunity-rich, to better serve the county's most vulnerable renters.     

Full Disclosure: Unanticipated Improvements in Property Tax Uniformity

This paper contributes to two strands in the property tax literature. One thread considers the effects of full disclosure requirements or “truth in taxation” on the rate of property tax growth. The second studies the determinants of assessment uniformity. This article focuses on the role of full disclosure in changing administrative incentives and improving the uniformity of the property tax. A panel of 29 Utah counties over a 32‐year period is used in a TSCS analysis. Findings suggest there is substantial evidence that full disclosure improved uniformity in Utah, but limited evidence that it restrained property tax growth.     

党建引领社区公共价值生产的机制与路径:基于上海“红色物业”的实证研究

基于公共价值领导理论,对上海“红色物业”的创新过程和内在逻辑进行实证分析。研究发现,“红色物业”是政党基层组织在社区治理网络中的拓展和融入。在这个过程中,通过建立愿景塑造、共识形成、主体规范、协调沟通、行为监督五项机制,再造了物业管理相关方之间的连接和关系,形成了对于社区多元主体的公共价值领导,引导了价值共识的形成,维护并激活了导向公共价值的“治理网络”,最终创造了社区公共价值。     

Comment on Harvey Jacobs' “Social conflict over property rights: the end,a new beginning,or a continuing debate?”

Jacobs draws on history, law, politics, and policy to examine the development and response of the private property movement and the social conflict over property rights and public planning. This comment suggests that the debate be broadened beyond the advocates of property rights and planning to include the interests of other members of the community, including minority and low-income households who are often affected by the outcomes. Otherwise, property will continue to be used to exclude people from democracy, rather than include them.     

Diversifying Local Government Revenue in Bosnia-Herzegovina Through an Area-Based Property Tax

After a bitter and devastating war, Bosnia and Herzegovina is making slow but steady progress rebuilding its economy and government structure. As normalcy returns, the demand for government services invariably will continue to increase, especially at the sub-entity levels of government. Unfortunately, the current fiscal structure severely restricts the resources available to local governments. This article suggests that Bosnia and Herzegovina consider adopting a property tax as a means to provide much- needed revenue. After describing the current governmental and fiscal system that has evolved since the signing of the Dayton Accords, the authors discuss why an area-based property tax, rather than a more traditional property tax based on capital value or market prices, makes sense for this country in transition.     

The Effects of Assessment Quality on Revenue Volatility

This paper examines the relationships between assessment quality, property tax revenue volatility, and other revenue volatility using panel data of all 100 counties in North Carolina between 2003 and 2007. Findings suggest that characteristics of the property tax base are the most important predictors of property tax revenue volatility among counties over time. Specifically, increases in assessed value and years in which a mass revaluation occurs are most influential in determining property tax revenue volatility. The second stage of analysis reveals that population, nontax revenue dependence, property tax dependence, and assessment quality have the greatest influences on volatility of other revenues among counties over time. The effect of assessment quality on nonproperty tax revenue volatility is conditional upon a county's property tax dependence.     

A ‘Property‐Owning Democracy’ or ‘Generation Rent’?

‘A property owning democracy’ has been at the centre of Conservative Party social policy since Noel Skelton coined the phrase in 1924. The idea has been underpinned by contrasting the independent, hygienic, suburban homeowner with the urban, managed, flat‐dwelling, high‐density council tenant. No Conservative‐led government has left office with a homeownership rate lower than when it came to power and the right to buy has enabled this growth to be maintained. However, in 2005, homeownership started to decline and this drop has continued into the Coalition government's term of office with more households now exiting owner‐occupation into the private landlord sector than entering owner‐occupation from private renting. The ‘reinvigorating’ the right to buy is an attempt put a ‘property owning democracy’ back on track but, should it fail, the Conservative Party may turn to more radical policies such as sale on vacant possession of ‘high value’ local authority and housing association houses.     

Property Rights and Forest Commons

Although property rights have been linked to a variety of positive social outcomes at the macro‐level, less research focuses on how property rights affect the benefits that actors receive at the micro‐level. This article examines property rights to a common‐pool resource (CPR) that are asymmetrically allocated among users, and presents a theoretical argument that property rights affect the allocation of resource benefits in two important ways. First, users with extensive property rights receive more benefits than users with limited property rights. Second, users with the power to influence how community rules are enforced—for example, landholders and ethnic majorities—more effectively define and defend their property and thus receive disproportionate CPR benefits compared to users with similar levels of property rights, but with less power. Using household‐level survey data in Bolivia, Kenya, Mexico, and Uganda, collected after a period of property rights decentralization, the empirical analysis finds support for these propositions. We conclude that power critically moderates the effects of property rights on the commons.     

Local Property Taxation in South Africa: Current Performance and Challenges for the Post-Apartheid Era

As part of the many changes in post-apartheid South Africa, few large non-racial local governments replace relatively small, racially defined ones. The new constitution reserves property taxation for local governments, making it the only major tax available to localities. Property taxation is being extended into previously untaxed areas, principally those of the former black local authorities. It is expected that pressures on this tax will increase as it is called upon to finance services for the larger population Preliminary assessment-sales ratio studies for a handful of localities indicate a wide range of assessment levels. Such circumstances could undermine the acceptance and legitimacy of the tax and, perhaps, of local government. More frequent valuation might raise both assessment levels and uniformity. Systematic, widespread ratio studies and a closer look at the manner in which values are estimated are needed.     

What Small Spatial Scales Are Relevant as Electoral Contexts for Individual Voters? The Importance of the Household on Turnout at the 2001 General Election

For many years, scholars of voting behavior have been thwarted in their attempts to identify micro spatial variations in turnout by data limitations. This has meant that most analyses have been ecological, which has implications for valid inference. Here, for the first time, a hierarchical approach is used to show the relative importance of several micro spatial scales, including the household, on voter participation. The findings highlight the importance of the household context. While those who live together often turn out together, the relative level of clustering within households as opposed to between geographical areas is found to be more important for two-person households compared to other households. Even after taking account of whether individuals are likely to self-select others from similar social backgrounds or with similar political attitudes, there is strong evidence of large and significant household effects on voter participation.     

产权内涵与国有企业产权改革基本问题讨论

去年以来,有关国有企业改革问题引发了一场新的争论。从产权内涵的角度理解,产权改革有利于实现资源优化配置,改善激励机制,提高生产效率,也有利于减轻国家承担的无限责任,降低系统性风险发生的可能性。事实上,我国产权改革不是某个人、集团的选择,而是改革进程中形势逼迫的结果。产权改革中出现的问题是由外部制度环境引发的,实行公开的、由利益相关者共同参与的产权改革是基本的方向和出路。     

Institutional Differences and Local Government Performance: Evidence from Property Tax Assessment Quality

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between institutional differences embedded in local governance structures and government performance in the specific context of property assessment. In order to provide deeper insight into why certain governance structures perform better than others, we focus on the impact of nested levels of institutions—constitutional-level and substantive-level rules of governance—beyond the conventional perspective of the form of government. Based on panel data of cities and towns in New York State between 1993 and 2010, our analysis indicates that, among other institutional arrangements, municipalities employing the council–manager form with appointed assessors are most likely to achieve higher levels of assessment quality (uniformity) of the residential property. This indicates that having politically independent (more career-oriented), low-powered appointed governance structures rather than politically risk-averse (more voter-oriented), high-powered elected counterparts are more likely to be effective at reducing risk in tax equity issues, thus providing better financial performance.     

Tax Equity Under Conditions of Fiscal Stress: The Case of the Property Tax

This paper takes a preliminary step toward specifying the relationshipbetween tax equity and fiscal stress by examining property taxassessment uniformity under conditions of fiscal stress. Thedeterminants of assessment uniformity are discussed, leadingto the development of a model of uniformity under conditionsof fiscal strees. The model is tested via cross-sectional regressionanalysis of state data no stress and uniformity. Stress is foundto influence unifomity, but the direction of that influenceis found to depend on the structure of the assessing system.     

Who Benefits from Targeted Property Tax Relief? Evidence from Virginia Elections

This study examines the market impact of targeted property tax relief, which is critical for understanding who exactly benefits from a widely used local policy. Specifically, we investigate this in the context of two statewide ballot measures in Virginia that provided property tax relief or heightened expectations for future relief intended to aid disabled veterans and seniors, respectively. Using residential multiple listing service microdata from Virginia, results from a regression discontinuity analysis show that once the 2010 tax relief measures passed on Election Day, property values rose sharply in response to the sudden increase in demand for homeownership among the targeted groups. We find that senior preferred housing and properties within areas with higher proportions of seniors and veterans experienced the highest price appreciation, while areas with fewer veterans or seniors saw little impact. The findings suggest that this type of policy provides an immediate benefit to current homeowners, thereby offsetting benefits for subsequent homeowners within the targeted groups. This effect represents an unintended consequence of targeted property tax relief as a policy tool more generally, as immediate capitalization into home prices subsequently increases the cost of housing for many individuals the relief was intended to help.     

地权诉求、宅基地流转与农村劳动力转移

当前城乡统筹发展实践中农民地权诉求常被忽略,而地权诉求是理解宅基地流转和劳动力转移的关键。本文基于5省11县2192份农户调查问卷数据,采用双变量Probit模型实证分析地权诉求对宅基地流转和劳动力转移的影响效应。研究发现,地权诉求对宅基地流转和农村劳动力转移具有显著影响,其中地权诉求强度具有正向激励作用,地权诉求越强的农户,其宅基地流转和劳动力转移意愿也越强。地权诉求结构作用显著,其收益性诉求起正向激励作用,而保障性诉求起负向激励(抑制)作用。宅基地流转和劳动力转移存在相互作用,而地权诉求是其共同影响因素。论文研究对未来的宅基地流转政策具有参考意义,通过充分理解和尊重地权诉求,构建与地权诉求激励相容的政策方案,共同推动农村宅基地流转和劳动力转移,可实现宅基地流转及其与劳动力转移的和谐性。     

Property tax in Indonesia: measuring and explaining administrative (under‐) performance

One of the arguments made by some Indonesian government officials in defence of continued central control over the property tax is that it has performed well under their authority and that its decentralisation would inevitably result in weaker operations and outcomes. The property tax has indeed grown remarkably well over the past 15 years. This growth, however, has been from a very low base, has been dominated by increased revenues from the mining sector and has been driven by a small number of sub‐national governments. Recently, only around 40% of local sector property tax potential has been realised under central control, given the existing tax rate and base. Property valuations are the most problematic aspect of administration but tax coverage and collections are also sub‐standard. While there may, in fact, be insufficient local government capacity to manage the property tax, even to current levels of performance, this problem could be solved by transferring the relevant central staff to local governments, as has been carried out in other newly decentralised sectors. But even before tax administration is devolved, local governments could at least be given some authority over the property tax rate, presently one of the lowest in the world. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the property value impacts of the dispersed subsidy housing program in Denver

This study tests the hypothesis that the acquisition of existing property by the public housing authority and its subsequent rehabilitation and occupancy by subsidized tenants significantly reduced the property values of surrounding single‐family homes in Denver during the 1990s. This assessment examined pre‐ and post‐occupancy sales, while controlling for the idiosyncratic neighborhood, local public service, and zoning characteristics of the areas in order to identify which sorts of neighborhoods, if any, experienced declining property values as a result of proximity to dispersed housing tenants. The analyses revealed that proximity to a subsidized housing site generally had an independent, positive effect on single‐family home sales prices. The most notable exception to this pattern occurred in neighborhoods more than 20 percent of whose residents were black. Proximity to dispersed public housing sites in these neighborhoods resulted in slower growth in home sales prices in an other‐wise booming housing market and suggest a threshold within “vulnerable” neighborhoods whereby any potential gains associated with rehabilitating existing units are offset by the increased concentration of poor residents. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

我国不动产登记制度存在的问题与完善对策

我国越来越重视对私有财产的保护,研究作为财产保护的不动产登记制度,具有十分重要的现实意义。我国民法学者认为建立不动产登记制度应当遵循统一法律依据、统一登记机关、统一登记效力、统一登记程序、统一权利证书的“五个统一”原则。作为不动产登记重要标的物的土地与房产,其权利状况存在差别,总登记、初始登记、变更登记的程序肯定是有差异的,不可能强制统一;由于不动产权利状况的差异,要统一权利证书也是十分困难的。在分析了我国不动产登记制度现状与存在的问题基础上,提出了“一提高、二并行、三统一、四规范”的新思路。