Significant Features of the Property Tax

Funding: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Summary: This multi-year undertaking between the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and GWIPP provides a rich compendium of data and information for policymakers, practitioners, elected officials, researchers, and journalists on the local property tax in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

It is inspired by and meant to replace, at least partially, the Significant Features of Fiscal Federalism report that the US Advisory Commission of Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) published annually before the Commission was disbanded in 1996.  The online database makes it easy to compare features of the property tax across states or to learn about the property tax in detail for one or more specific states.

The database currently provides features of the property tax spanning the years, beginning 2006 up through 2016.  These data are updated annually, with 2017 changes incorporated by December 2018.

Numerous articles have been prepared using the data base.  In addition, GWIPP and Lincoln have held two property tax roundtables. The first round table brought property tax scholars from across the country to Washington, DC in October 2007 to discuss the erosion of the property tax base.

The second roundtable, held in February 2009, examined the impacts of changes in the property tax on local autonomy.   GWIPP staff presented research papers at both roundtables. The edited volume from the first roundtable, “Erosion of the Property Tax Base: Trends, Causes, and Consequences,” was published in May 2009 and the edited volume from the second roundtable, The Property Tax and Local Autonomy was published in 2010.