Taxpayer Impacts of State-Wide Taxation for School Districts in California
Purchase Print Copy
| Format | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add to Cart | Paperback24 pages | $20.00 | $16.00 20% Web Discount |
California is under court order (Serrano vs. Priest) to revise the system of financing public elementary and secondary education. Initial analysis had predicted that a shift to state-wide taxation would result in greater educational resources at a lower tax cost for lower income families and fewer resources at a higher tax cost for wealthier families. However, that analysis overlooked the role of nonresidential property values in the tax base. This paper presents simulation results for California school districts of three alternatives: state-wide property taxation, district power equalizing property taxation, and state-wide income taxation for education. The results show that any alternative for taxation has the result of most families being “better off.” Property tax proposals shift the costs of education to industrial and commercial land uses, and the income tax alternative shifts the costs among families.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation Paper series. The paper was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1948 to 2003 that captured speeches, memorials, and derivative research, usually prepared on authors' own time and meant to be the scholarly or scientific contribution of individual authors to their professional fields. Papers were less formal than reports and did not require rigorous peer review.
This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.