Vertical equity in property taxation: a spatial analysis of proposition 13 in San Diego County, California

摘要

Proposition 13 created disparities in property taxation throughout the state of California after passage of the law in 1978. This paper examines connections between disparities in taxation of differing land use types, specifically residential and commercial, to the fiscal health of local governments. Demographic factors and spatial relationships in San Diego County, CA were also examined in relationship to fiscal health. Using county level parcel and U.S. Census data, spatial analysis techniques and regression analysis are used to examine the impacts of Proposition 13 through testing the hypothesis that the greater the tax burden disparity between residential and commercial property, the poorer the fiscal health of the community. The findings indicate a positive relationship between poverty level, unemployment, and housing cost burden to areas of high inequality in residential to commercial tax burden. Conversely, census tracts with high income, homeownership, and college degree showed a negative relationship to residential/commercial tax disparity and also to municipal fiscal health. The population variable of race (white, black, and Hispanic) showed the strongest relationships to both property tax equity and municipal fiscal health. Each of the dependent variables considered exhibited spatial dependence signifying that the spatial occurrence of the variables is not random and depends on the existence of those variables at neighboring census tracts.