Compensating Changes to the Property Tax Levy? An Empirical Test of the Residual Rule

Abstract

The residual view of the property tax assumes that local governments set their levies equal to the difference between budgeted expenditures and expected receipts from other revenues. This approach allows them to adjust the levy to achieve greater overall revenue stability potentially at the cost of tax predictability. This article presents a formal model of the residual rule and uses it to test whether this active approach to property tax administration describes observed fiscal behavior. This test is conducted using data from county governments in Georgia over a fifteen-year period. The results support the validity of the residual rule over an alternative model of passive tax administration.