Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis
Property tax collections start downward trend. (USA Today, 3/12/2012)
Last year, property tax collections rose just 1.2%* — and actually declined 0.9% when adjusted for inflation, according to data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. That's the first time property tax collections have fallen below the inflation rate since 1995 and only the third time in 40 years.
If the downward trend continues, property taxes may actually bring in fewer dollars this year than last even before adjusting for inflation. That hasn't happened since the Great Depression.
*The numbers I found in table 1 here show a slight decline in constant dollars, which appears to be confirmed by this 9/27/2011 Bloomberg article. State and local property-tax receipts dropped 1.2 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the U.S. Census Bureau said today. That marked the third-straight decline.
And here's what the National League of Cities had to say, with emphasis added, about a year ago.
Property tax revenues in 2010 dropped by -2.0% compared with 2009 levels, in constant dollars, the first year-to-year decline in city property tax revenues in fifteen years. Property tax collections for 2011 point to worsening effects from the downturn in real estate values, projected to decline by -3.7%. (Closer to 0.5% according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers.)
And I'm sure you don't need to be reminded.
Related posts:
The property tax domino effect. (12/27/2010)
Wisconsin Department of Revenue releases equalized values. (8/13/2010)
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