Article Abstract:
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in its 1975 and 1983 Mount Laurel decisions that the use of zoning regulations to exclude low-income housing was an unconstitutional abuse of the police power of communities. Municipalities were required to zone some land for lower income housing and make construction of the housing financially viable. The legislature passed a law that allowed municipalities to bargain over the location of court-mandated lower income housing through Regional Contribution Agreements. A study of this behavior revealed that growing suburbs were more affluent municipalities whose obligations were based on a redistribution of poor people, not current residents, putting them in a strong bargaining position in relation to older central cities, less affluent municipalities with concentrations of lower income people and the inability to finance new low-income housing.
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Article Abstract:
A study examines the impact of transaction taxes in the context of a search model of the housing market. This analysis introduces taxes into Wheaton's (1990) search model to determine if taxes result in lock-in effects in a search context. Transaction costs are incorporated on both sides, the buyers and the sellers, of the housing market. Findings confirmed that transaction taxes generate welfare-minimizing lock-in effects. These effects were found to be more pronounced at low vacancy rates. The asymmetry created by the propensity of seller taxes to increase prices and buyer taxes to reduce prices explain the differences in the welfare effects of the two taxes. Finally, lock-in effects were demonstrated to be weaker with a buyer tax.
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Article Abstract:
Rates of taxation reflect the matching of companies to the communities in which they exist. Specifically, companies and communities may sort themselves in accord with the Tiebout-type model of competition among communities. Examination is made of what association exists between local property tax rates and the qualities of newly locating companies. Results suggest that property taxes change inversely with the amount of tax base that the newly locating companies provide. It is also found that the type of output produced by a firm and its production processes are associated with tax rate variations.
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