Tax Foundation - Publications > Overview

• Tax Watch, Winter 2009
  

  Tax Watch is the Tax Foundation's quarterly tax policy newsletter, presenting our economic research and analysis in a simple, non-technical format—ideal for the non-economist looking for a clear explanation of current tax issues.

  Highlights from the Winter 2009 issue include:

  • Recession Blues: Can Reforming Business Taxes Boost the Economy?
  • Highest Property Taxes: New Jersey and New York
  • Small Business Tax Hike May Be on the Way

  Click here for a free subscription to Tax Watch.

• New Census Data on Property Taxes on Homeowners
  

  Fiscal Fact No. 157

  Beginning in 2008, the Census Bureau is releasing three-year estimates of data for smaller communities, including data on homeowners' property taxes.

  Earlier this decade, the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) program began releasing annual estimates pertaining to demographics, housing and income for communities whose population exceeded 250,000. The Tax Foundation used this data to compare property taxation in all of the nation's large communities. The survey later expanded to include more places, using 65,000 as the minimum population, enabling the Tax Foundation to show how real estate taxes compare across many more counties.

  And starting this year, the Census will also publish data about smaller communities, those with populations between 20,000 and 65,000. The data will be presented as a three-year average, not a separate set of data for each year, so the Tax Foundation will compare them separately. 1,2 The ACS continues to provide annual estimates of hundreds of variables for places with populations greater than 65,000, and the Tax Foundation will continue to use that series to compare property taxes.

  The Tax Foundation has long published historical data on property tax collections compiled by the Census Bureau's Government Finances division. However, such data includes not only taxes paid by individual homeowners, but also property taxes paid by businesses, as well as some special types of property pertaining to minerals or fuels found mostly in a handful of states, such as Texas, Wyoming and Alaska. When people want to know where property taxes are the highest, though, they typically wonder about property taxes levied specifically on homeowners. This is where the ACS data is useful.

  The ACS relies on survey data collected from households, just as the Census collects most of its information. The survey data collected in the ACS, as well as in other Census household surveys such as the Current Population Survey (CPS), is used in many government functions, such as decisions on how to distribute spending geographically and the calculation of the official poverty estimates and labor market statistics, among others. In fact, the real estate taxes data featured here is actually used by some government agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, in determining spending.

  Furthermore, survey data drawn from households by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is used to determine cost-of-living adjustments to the billions of dollars that are spent each year in Social Security, as well as military pay. Therefore, arguments that these ACS data is unreliable because it is based on inaccurate household survey data would be an argument against much of the federal government's appropriation methodology, especially the $300 billion that is appropriated annually using ACS data. In other words, the data is solid.

  For a chart of real estate taxes paid on owner-occupied housing for each of the more than 1,800 counties with populations greater than 20,000 for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007, see the Tax Foundation web site: http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/24052.html for the complete table of rankings of median real estate taxes paid by dollar amount, and http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/24051.html for rankings by median real estate taxes as a percentage of the median home value and as a percentage of the median income for household-owning units.

  Below is a list of the top 20 counties ranked by two different measures: by actual dollar value and as a percentage of median home value.

  Table 1
  Top 20 Counties in Median Real Estate Taxes Paid
  2005-2007 Average
  (Population of 20,000 or More)

  County

  State

  Median Real Estate Tax Paid

  Rank

  Westchester County

  New York

  $7,908

  1

  Nassau County

  New York

  $7,726

  2

  Hunterdon County

  New Jersey

  $7,708

  3

  Bergen County

  New Jersey

  $7,370

  4

  Somerset County

  New Jersey

  $7,201

  5

  Essex County

  New Jersey

  $7,149

  6

  Rockland County

  New York

  $7,066

  7

  Morris County

  New Jersey

  $6,977

  8

  Union County

  New Jersey

  $6,727

  9

  Passaic County

  New Jersey

  $6,673

  10

  Putnam County

  New York

  $6,553

  11

  Suffolk County

  New York

  $6,502

  12

  Monmouth County

  New Jersey

  $6,360

  13

  Hudson County

  New Jersey

  $5,865

  14

  Lake Coun