Equity and the Property Tax: A New Conceptual Focus

New measures of administrative inequity in the property tax — i.e., systematic as well as random biases in the assessment process reinforced by time lags — are developed and tested using data from the Portland metropolitan area. Coefficients of vertical and horizontal inequity are analyzed and guidelines for reform suggested. The actual regressivity of the property tax is broken down into intrinsic regressivity (due to the housing expenditure/income ratio) and administrative regressivity, with statistical estimates given of each component. Finally, the effectiveness of administrative reform is shown to depend on the range of house values within the tax jurisdiction.