The General Property Tax in State Finances

Excerpts from the report Introduction: In 1958, State and local governments levied $1.1 billion in taxes on farm real estate. This was almost double the amount levied 15 years earlier. An additional quarter of a billion dollars was levied on farm personalty, such as automobiles, farm machinery, and livestock. In recent years, taxes on farm property have been rising at an average rate of more than 5 percent annually. The rapid rise in farm real estate taxes, with no indication of an early slackening, raises questions concerning the causes that underlie this continuing uptrend. To understand these causes, it is necessary to know what place the general property tax occupies in the structure of governmental finances. What types of governmental units obtain revenue from the property tax? To what extent do they depend upon this source? What functions are supported from these revenues? The present report examines the general property tax as an element in State finance and attempts to explain why this tax has become less significant and to define the role that it now plays. State taxes on general property, of course, strike farm property, real and personal, along with other categories of taxable property.