The aging of the population and the financing of local governments

"This paper explores the residential property tax burdens faced by elderly homeowners in the United States. The results demonstrate that the use of annual data in income and property tax liabilities to calculate tax burdens overstates the regressivity of the property tax. The magnitude of the bias created by using annual income is determined by comparing tax burdens calculated from annual data with burdens calculated from tax liabilities and income data covering a 12-year period. The results indicate that while the residential property tax on the non-elderly is approximately proportional, the pattern of burdens on the elderly remains regressive."