| Empirical tax assessment data were used for this study to examine the relationship between assessment capping and homestead exemptions, applied as part of property tax administration, and Florida property tax equity during the years of 1995 to 2004. The source of empirical data for the study was the State of Florida's official computer archives of property tax records for the period that followed the 1995 implementation of a constitutional amendment popularly known as Save Our Homes. The accuracy of assessors' performance in estimating market values has been studied in assessment uniformity literature (Allen & Dare, 2002; Bowman & Mikesell, 1978; Case, 1978; Cornia & Slade, 2005; Goolsby, 1997; Sirmans, Diskin & Friday, 1995; Sunderman, Birch & Hamilton, 1990). However, during the past 30 years, various tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) were enacted by referenda or legislative action in many states, which removed the direct association between market value and tax liability. Because assessment accuracy is no longer synonymous with property tax equity as shown in this study, a new approach to tax equity measurement was needed. Thus, the study was focused on net assessed value, a correlate of effective tax liability that included administrative preferential assessment adjustments, as a potentially improved gauge of tax equity. New models were developed in the study for testing equity. A simulated experimental methodology was employed that satisfied the requirements of a between-subjects completely randomized factorial design (Koppel, 1991) to address the research questions. The findings revealed statistically significant (p < .001) evidence that both horizontal equity and vertical equity deteriorated in Florida between 1995 and 2004, and simulation using actual data indicated that a constitutional amendment proposed by the legislature in 2007 and approved by voters in January 2008 would result in even greater inequity. |
PDF Full Text Request