Abstract
Property tax tends to survey as one of the most disliked forms of taxation. This frustration towards the tax has led to tax revolts throughout the United States. In 1978 California, voters had Proposition 13 on the ballot that set a limit to rising property tax by capping it at one percent of value at acquisition. The aftermath of Proposition 13 involved a significant drop in local government revenue that limited the services that the government provides. Various forms of fees and taxes have filled the gap left by a lack of property tax revenue. The hateful sentiment towards property tax has continued and may be linked to a lack of knowledge about how the tax works and what benefits they individually see from it. In this thesis, I investigate the potential relationship between poor public opinion towards property tax and the level of knowledge in the community about the tax. I use survey data from the CalSpeaks 2017 Survey to research the relationship and interview data from property tax policy experts. Using property tax as a progressive tax as a dependent variable to gauge the respondents potential understanding of how property tax works, I compare demographic factors to see what patterns arise. My regression results demonstrate that most respondents do not believe the tax to be a progressive tax and affects all levels of income relatively the same. If the respondent is over the age of 65 or middle income they are very likely to not think of property tax as a progressive tax. The available literature and interview data suggests that it is likely that people have low understanding of property tax and that it does relate to the tax being one of the most disliked taxes but there are other factors. Based on my findings I offer policy recommendations that may help raise the level of knowledge of property tax and in-turn possibly change the public opinion of it. I recommend changing the way property tax is paid to make it less salient like other forms of tax. On the other hand, I also recommend making the tax bill more understandable and making the community more aware of what they are getting back in services from the property tax they have paid.