Research Brief: Cap and Gap: The Fiscal Effects of Property Tax Levy Limits in New York

The Rutgers SPAA Research Brief "Cap and Gap: The Fiscal Effects of Property Tax Levy Limits in New York" focuses on the tax limit in NY and seeks to answer three closely related research questions: 1) whether the tax limit has a constraining effect, or has put an effective cap, on NY school districts’ total current expenditures per pupil; 2) whether the tax limit may have differential expenditure-stifling effects on different district groups; and 3) which expenditure categories and subcategories bear the brunt of this constraint, that is, how districts under fiscal constraint make spending cuts across different functions.

The research brief was co-authored by SPAA Assistant Professor Pengju Zhang who specializes in state and local public finance, local government studies, education finance and policy, and quantitative analysis.

Read the brief here.