GWIPP Research: Michael Bell
This page features research funded through GWIPP and performed by Michael Bell.
Title: Guidebook on Tax Expenditure Budgets for the Property Tax
Researcher(s): Michael Bell, David Brunori
Funding: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Start Date:July 2011
Status: Current
Summary: This project will create a guidebook for the development of property tax expenditure budgets. It will describe the various property tax expenditures currently in use, provide a literature review of of the impact/cost of the particular expenditure, and discuss the methodology for analyzing the costs of the expenditure. The guidebook will also provide a sample calculation of the costs of each expenditure. The guidebook will focus on the following expenditures: Preferential Assessment (assessment programs for agriculture and timber and green space/conservation); assessment limits; homestead exemptions; non profit exempt property; circuit breakers; classification; and economic development.
Researcher(s): Michael Bell
Funding: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Start Date: July 2006
Status: Current
Summary: This two-part project is a collaborative multi-year undertaking by Lincoln and GWIPP to promote research in the areas of property tax policy and administration. As a follow-up to the 2005-06 pilot project, a data collection team is compiling and classifying a wide range of material that characterizes property tax structures and processes in all fifty states to produce a "Compendium of State Property Tax Regimes." The compendium will be available as a data set, and researchers will be able to perform simple queries through an interactive web site. Key results will be presented in a series of tables, patterned after the biennial Significant Features of Fiscal Federalism , produced by the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) through 1994. Plans are being made to update the compendium annually.
Under the contract, GWIPP will produce the following research papers: A Calculation of Effective Tax Rates; A Broad-Based Property Tax: Calculations and Implications; A Broad-Based Property Tax: Calculations and Implications; Tax and Expenditure Limitations (TELs) and Their Impact; The Increasing Use of Preferential Assessments to Subsidize Specific Land Uses.
A State Property Tax Policy Roundtable will be scheduled for Fall 2007 in Washington, DC. Papers written by GWIPP research faculty will be supplemented by several commissioned papers, focusing on the topic “Erosion of the Local Property Tax Base: Trends and Consequences.”
Title: Property Tax Expenditures and the Health of Local Governments
Researcher(s): Michael Bell, Katrina Connolly
Funding: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Start Date: December 2010
Status: Completed
Title: Understanding New Jersey's State and Local Tax System
Researcher(s): Michael Bell, David Brunori
Funding: NEA Foundation
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Start Date: June 2009
Status: Completed
Summary: This project is a study of the New Jersey state and local taxation system. The study will be made up of two segments. The first segment will describe what are generally thought to be the components of an ideal state and local tax structure, examining various models used to describe the ideal mix of taxes and non-tax revenue. The study will review an extensive body of literature to describe the optimal structure of particular taxes and present what is generally thought to be the best way to structure 1) individual income taxes, 2) corporate income taxes, 3) sales taxes, and 4) property taxes. New Jersey’s tax system will be compared with these widely accepted notions of sound tax policy. The second segment of the study will examine particular aspects of the New Jersey tax system, including relative reliance on different types of taxes and non-tax revenue, relative tax levels, the mix of business and household taxes, as well as how New Jersey compares with states in the surrounding area with respect to tax rates.
Title: State and Local Infrastructure Financing
Funding: National Center for Real Estate Research, National Association of Realtors
Researchers: Hal Wolman, Michael Bell, David Brunori, Royce Hanson, Chanyong Choi, Lori Metcalf, and Bing Yuan
Start Date: August 2004
Status: Completed
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Summary: The report consists of four parts. The first part presents data on aggregate state and local infrastructure spending for the nation and for the fifty states individually. We define infrastructure to include highways (including streets and bridges), mass transit, air transportation, water transportation, water supply and sewerage. We collect and report spending trends for each category of infrastructure, including total spending by category and capital spending by category for the most recent year available (2002). The second part examines recent trends in federal intergovernmental assistance to state and local governments for infrastructure purposes. The third part is a literature review in order to develop a general understanding of the various financing mechanism used by state and local governments to finance infrastructure spending. The concluding part is an extensive literature review of the mechanisms available to state and local governments to undertake prioritization of infrastructure needs.
Product:
Working Paper 028 - State and Local Infrastructure Financing, Mike Bell, David Brunori, Royce Hanson, Chanyong Choi, Lori Metcalf, and Bing Yuan, November 2005.
Title: The Effect of State and Local Fiscal Policy on Local Economic Development
Researcher(s): David Brunori, Michael Bell, Hal Wolman (GWIPP), Joe Cordes, and Richard Green, School of Business (now at Lusk Center for Real Estate)
Funding: National Center for Real Estate Research
Start Date: August 2004
Status: Completed
Category: Economic and Industrial Development Policy Studies
Summary: Provide a synthesis and critique of current knowledge and research on 1) the factors driving local economic growth and development and 2) the effects of state and local fiscal policy upon local economic growth and development. The report will make clear where there is clear consensus, where there is disagreement, and where research is currently lacking.
Product:
Working Paper 026 - State and Local Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth and Development. Michael Bell, David Brunori, Richard Green, Hal Wolman, Joe Cordes, and Tanya Qadir, August 2005.
Title: Feasibility Study of Restoring the Property Tax and its Fiscal Environment and Structure
Funding: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Start Date: August 2004
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Status: Completed
Summary: A pilot project to explore the feasibility of a new annual publication, patterned after ACIR’s Significant Features of Fiscal Federalism, that would, at least partially, fill the void since it ceased publication. Prior to its demise in the mid-1990s, the US Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) published a widely used and acclaimed two volume annual report entitled Significant Features of Fiscal Federalism. The report was largely a compilation and organization of data on federal, state, and local revenues and expenditures, the institutional structure through which these fiscal flows occurred, and important changes in them. Significant Features has been sorely missed by both researchers and practitioners. No other publication has taken its place. If deemed feasible, the George Washington Institute of Public Policy (GWIPP) would then prepare a proposal for an annual version of such a report, to be funded and published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and disseminated jointly by Lincoln and GWIPP.
Title: The Property Tax: Its Role and Significance in Funding State and Local Government Services
Funding: National Association of Realtors
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Status: Completed
Summary: The project focuses on the incidence of the property tax and its significance in funding state and local government services. The purpose of the study is to help policy makers, researchers, and others interested in local government finance to better understand the role of the property tax.
Title: State and Local Fiscal Systems Face the Future
Funding: National Association of Realtors
Researchers: Hal Wolman, David Brunori, Michael Bell, Pat Atkins, Joe Cordes, and Bing Juan
Start Date: July 2005
Status: Completed
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Summary: The project will examine recent trends in state and local revenues and expenditures and the current condition of state and local finances. In particular, it will assess the likely impact of foreseeable or potential future economic, social, political and technological changes on state and local revenues and expenditures.
Product:
Working Paper 025 - State and Local Fiscal Trends and Future Threats, David Brunori, Michael E. Bell, Hal Wolman, Patricia Atkins, Joseph J. Cordes, and Bing Yuan, 2005.
Title: Fiscal Disparities among Local Governments in Metropolitan Areas: Their Extent and Causes
Funding: US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Start Date: August 2004
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Status: Completed
Summary: The project explores the extent to which fiscal disparities exist among local jurisdictions within different kinds of metropolitan areas and why these disparities exist. We are particularly interested in the extent of fiscal disparities among suburban jurisdictions as well as between suburban jurisdictions and central cities. We calculate disparities among local governments in a small, regionally representative set of metropolitan areas. We also explore the characteristics of metropolitan areas that are associated with greater fiscal disparities. Finally, we will discuss the policy implications of these findings.
Title: Intra-Metropolitan Area Fiscal Capacity Disparities and the Property Tax: The Washington DC Region
Funding: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Category: State and Local Fiscal Policy
Status: Completed
Summary: The study adapts a methodology developed by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, to calculate disparities in the revenue capacity of local governments in the Washington,DC area. It then estimates the effect a shift to a real property tax on land only would have on these disparities. We found that the major disparities were between suburban jurisdictions; Washington D.C., the core center city in the metropolitan area, had an average revenue capacity. When revenue capacity was recalculated assuming a real property tax on land only, we found this had a slight positive effect on ameliorating differences in revenue-rising ability.