The effect of property tax limitation measures on local government fiscal behavior

Previous evidence on the effects of tax and expenditure limitation measures has not been conclusive. Difficulties arise in characterizing differences in fiscal institutions across states, and estimating behavior in the absence of limitation measures. A recently enacted tax limitation measure limits the growth in local property taxes in some Illinois jurisdictions, but not in others. Such differential treatment of otherwise similar jurisdictions provides a natural experiment for estimating the impact of the tax cap on local government fiscal behavior. We find that the cap has been effective in that the fiscal behavior of capped jurisdictions differs from that of never-capped jurisdictions. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.