The Levy Swap: How Washington’s Property Tax Reforms Shift the Cost Burden for Public Education

• In Event: State Politics and School Finance

Abstract

While local property tax revenues often create funding disparities among U.S. school districts, the property tax is a stable source of school funding relative to revenues from sales and income tax. Improving school finance policy thus requires closer attention to how property taxes impact local communities and how different types of property taxes interact. We use property tax data from Washington to highlight large, previously hidden disparities among both students and taxpayers. School districts enrolling higher percentages of students of color and low-income students, on average, levy higher tax rates, but generate fewer revenues per student. We recommend expanding the state’s tax base equalization to help put both school districts and taxpayers on more equal footing. 

Authors

• David S. Knight, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Pooya Almasi, Morgan State University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author