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>School finance and local incentives: Are property tax abatements effective and do they influence the distribution of the tax base across school districts?
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School finance and local incentives: Are property tax abatements effective and do they influence the distribution of the tax base across school districts?
A secular problem in American primary and secondary education has been the disparity in spending and education quality derived from differing tax capacity across school districts. Over the last hundred years, state governments, often compelled by court rulings, have sought to equalize tax capacity by offering aid to school districts with a relatively low property tax base and high education costs. At the same time, state and local governments have increasingly established property tax abatement programs and other incentives to promote economic growth and influence the distribution of the property tax base. This paper researches the consistency of economic development and education finance policies. It asks whether property tax abatements are effective at inducing investment and whether this investment is directed to low-property-wealth, high-cost school districts. The main findings are two. First, the analysis provides empirical evidence that abatements are effective. Second, the results show that, up to a point of congestion, school districts with higher levels of personal property net assessed value---which proxies for the industrial and commercial tax base---are more likely to receive personal property tax abatements. The evidence suggests that abatements are contributing to increase the gap between property wealthy and property poor school districts, thereby possibly exacerbating the problem that school finance policy seeks to relieve. Policy implications are discussed.
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