The worst tax?

The frequent scapegoat of rebellious taxpayers, yet essential for the functioning of modern local governments, the property tax has a long and controversial history. Fisher's richly detailed account reveals the fundamental difficulties confronting all past attempts at designing an equitable and efficient system of property taxation during the past two centuries.

The general property tax - a locally administered tax ostensibly levied at equal rates on all wealth - evolved out of the struggle for political and economic equality in the early American republic. It was, as Fisher shows, consistent with Jacksonian democratic principles that kept the tax power decentralized, limited, and close to home, while producing sufficient revenue to support state and local government even in thinly populated frontier states.

But as new states and their constitutions emerged throughout the nineteenth century, many citizens criticized the Jacksonian approach for its inconsistencies and inequities. Advocating principles long associated with Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists, these critics called for uniform taxes centrally administered by professional bureaucracies.

This tension between Jacksonian and Hamiltonian principles is an integral part of Fisher's story and remains unresolved as our local governments continue to cope with the conflict between their revenue needs and the desire for equitable taxation.