Restraining the Leviathan: property tax limitation in Massachusetts

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cutler, DM; Elmendorf, DW; Zeckhauser, R
• 署名单位: Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Federal Reserve System - USA; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(98)00079-6
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 313-334
• 关键词: tax limitations; proposition 2(1)/(2); agency loss; regret; overrides

摘要

Proposition 2 1/2, a ballot initiative passed in Massachusetts in 1980, sharply reduced local property taxes. We examine why voters supported Proposition 2 1/2, using data on votes for the Proposition and for overrides of it a decade later. We find two reasons for the Proposition's support: people perceived agency losses from the difficulty of monitoring government, and people judged government to be inefficient because their tax burden was high. By the 1990s, people either regretted the severity of the Proposition's constraints or felt that its mission was accomplished. Voters in communities with larger initial tax cuts supported significantly more overrides. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved. JEL classification: H1; H7; K0.