Property Taxes

Property taxes are the mainstay of local governments and provide the major source of funding for schools. Each state's property tax system is different, with variations in the types of property taxable, and the ways taxes are levied. Policymakers can find more about these systems in A Guide to Property Taxes: An Overview. In spite of their importance in state-local revenue systems, property taxes are unpopular, and states provide property tax relief to citizens in a number of different ways. The types of relief have increased in the past few years, as discussed in A Guide to Property Taxes: Property Tax Relief. A number of states rely heavily on businesses and personal property to provide a large portion of property tax revenue. Sometimes, these taxes are not very straightforward or obvious. A Guide to Property Taxes: The Role of Property Taxes in State and Local Finances examines these issues.

Other NCSL information about property taxes on-line:

The Property Tax: Key Local Revenue Local governments and school districts depend on property taxes. Even though the proportion of property taxes in state and local tax collections has steadily declined since the 1940s, local governments and school districts still depend more on property taxes than on any other revenue source (Legisbrief, January 2005)
The Property Tax: More or Less?, a presentation at NCSL's 2004 Annual Meeting by Gary Cornia of Brigham Young University and Dwight Denison of New York University
Property Tax Swap: A new swap of property taxes for sales taxes in South Carolina, and replacement of property tax revenue with tobacco and business taxes in Texas, will become law in 2006 after actions by the state legislatures. (June 2006)
An article in State Policy Reports on state and local tax collections gives state and local property taxes per capita for FY 1997.
State and Local Value-Based Taxes on Motor Vehicles (1998)
Real Estate Transfer Taxes (May 2005)
Articles from State Budget and Tax News on property taxes:
- New Hampshire Imposes State Property Tax-Again (November 1999)
- Property Tax Reform Bandwagon: Next Stop Alaska? (July 2000)
- State Taxes on Real Property (May 2001)
See rankings of state-local property taxes.

For more information about property taxes, contact statetax-info@ncsl.org.
Updated September 2007.
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