What does the phrase "property taxes" bring to mind for you? You may think of their cost, or the bureaucratic hassle they engender, or their inevitability for property owners. Or maybe you just find them so painfully uninteresting that you can barely summon the energy to finish reading this sentence. And yet you should continue reading, because property taxes have been quietly and powerfully worsening racism and wealth inequality for most of our country's history. How could that be possible? The key comes in how malleable the administration of that tax is in the hands of local officials. And property taxes have been manipulated in a way that has led Black people to suffer the most. Not only have their properties been overtaxed since the days of emancipation, they also got little to nothing in return, as illustrated in this guest essay by Andrew W. Karhl, an associate professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Virginia who focuses on land use and real estate. "Where Black neighborhoods began, paved streets, sidewalks, and water and sewer lines often ended," he writes. "Black taxpayers helped to pay for the better-resourced schools white children attended." The Biden administration has yet to effectively address the problem, which requires a fundamental re-evaluation of how taxes are distributed. Property taxes are still costly. They are still bureaucratic. And, Karhl writes, their costs aren't being shared fairly. That's a problem worthy of attention.
Here's what we're focusing on today:
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Thursday, April 11, 2024
Opinion Today: How property taxes fuel racial inequality
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