Are Property Taxes for Education Driving Sprawl?
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March 17th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
The premise that school districts are creating sprawl because of a desire for larger (and more expensive) houses to tax just does not convince me. Those houses are there simply because there is a market for them, plain and simple.
That said, THERE IS a CLEAR connection (in my mind) between schools and sprawl rooted in New York State policy: THE STATE PAYS AROUND 90% OF THE COST OF BUSING which makes
our large sprawling suburban districts possible to begin with. Can you imagine how restricting it would be to suburban development if parents had to transport their kids back and forth to school? . . . or if the school districts had to pay the FULL COST of the busing themselves. In this respect, State Taxpayers living in cities have been subsidizing the flight (and sprawl) to the suburbs for years.
March 18th, 2006 at 7:09 pm
I’m not entirely convinced either but I thought the report provides some insight into the market dimensions of sprawl. Insofar as suburban sprawl is at least partly the result of market forces, it reasonable to suggest that the property taxes and school districts are part of that balance sheet. The tax code and the way school districts are set up may eb part of the problem and part of the solution as well.
March 30th, 2006 at 12:26 am
Interesting. I don’t think it’s as simple as market demand – the market is constrained by local governments’ planning controls.
Love your blog by the way, and congrats on the birth of your daughter!!