Tax policy alone cannot solve the housing crisis but lawmakers who are focused on tax policy solutions have better options available than sweeping property tax cuts and caps: property tax circuit breakers, renter credits, vacancy taxes, land value taxes, and changes to existing property tax assessments can move the needle on the affordable housing crisis.
Rita Jefferson
Rita is a Local Policy Analyst who focuses on equity and fairness. Prior to joining ITEP, Rita worked for the Cook County Treasurer’s Office on research related to property taxation, tax collection, and municipal debt. She has also worked on issues including fines and fees, state block grants, and homelessness prevention.
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brief March 19, 2025 Housing Affordability and Property Taxes: How to Actually Move the Needle
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blog February 26, 2025 Learn from Prop 13 History to Avoid Repeating Past Mistakes
Worries about housing costs and property tax bills are leading people to check the history books for solutions, but there’s a danger that they’ll repeat past mistakes. If anti-tax lawmakers carelessly weaken property taxes as they did in the 1970s, as they did with California’s Proposition 13, they will undercut public finances, making municipalities, school districts, and other special districts worse off.
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brief February 5, 2025 The (Mostly Untapped) Power of Local Income Taxes
Local income taxes can be an important progressive revenue raiser, as they ask more of higher-income households and are connected to ability to pay. They can raise substantial revenue to fund key public services to make cities and regions better off.
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blog January 14, 2025 Policymakers Unwisely Propose Cutting Property Taxes in Favor of Sales Taxes
Lawmakers across the country are taking aim at property taxes with a new strategy: raising sales taxes instead. Doing so would create a regressive tax shift that puts unfair burdens on renters and reduces the strength of local government revenues.
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brief December 5, 2024 How Local Governments Raise Revenue — and What it Means for Tax Equity
Local taxes are key to thriving communities. One in seven tax dollars in the U.S.—about $886 billion annually—is levied by local governments in support of education, infrastructure, public health, and other priorities. Three fourths of this funding comes from property taxes, 18 percent comes from sales and excise taxes, and six percent comes from income taxes.
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blog October 17, 2024 2024 Local Tax Ballot Measures: Voters in Dozens of Communities Will Shape Local Policy
Next month, voters across the country will weigh in on many local ballot measures that will have a profound effect on the adequacy of our local tax systems and whether cities and communities can fund public needs. These are in addition to statewide ballot questions, many of which have local implications this year.