ABSTRACT
The property tax has always been a major and heavily relied upon source of revenue for four of five types of local government—the exception being special service districts. This is abundantly clear from the analysis conducted in this chapter that covers the 1962–2017 period. Nevertheless, it is also evident from the analysis that the property tax proportion of both TR and OSR has been declining over time. This trend has been especially pronounced for county and municipal governments. Like what was seen for counties and municipalities, property tax revenue as a proportion of TR declined (but not as sharply) over time as well for school districts; yet, the percentage of OSR composed of property tax proceeds dropped only slightly. The least amount of change among these four types of local governments was for townships. While there was a drop-off in the proportion of TR and OSR that was comprised by property tax collections, the decline was modest at best. Then, there was one common trend across all five types of local governments—money derived from the property tax was still the largest part of their TTR, accounting for well of 50 percent of it.
