A Defense of the Much-Maligned Property Tax: Justin Fox

In the 1970s, big increases in house prices in many parts of the US brought big increases in property tax bills, followed by a tax revolt — represented most famously by California’s Proposition 13 in 1978 — with consequences that have reverberated ever since. Even-steeper house-price increases during the Covid-19 pandemic brought a less dramatic rise in property tax revenue nationwide, thanks in part to measures adopted during and after that 1970s tax revolt. But the tax increases were big enough in some places that another revolt has been brewing.

Consequences of the current revolt have so far included inflation-linked floating tax ...