July 2, 2020; Washington Post
New research confirms for the umpteenth time that there literally is a tax on Blackness, in that tax assessors across the country regularly burden Black and brown homeowners with property tax bills that are higher than those levied on Whites.
Analyzing more than a decade (2005–2016) of sales and tax assessment data for 118 million homes in 75,000 local taxing entities, two economists, Carlos Avenancio-León and Troup Howard, found that Black households pay 13 percent more in property taxes each year than would a white family in a comparable situation. For brown households, the “assessment gap” is closer to 10 percent.
For the median homeowner of color, this gap translates to an extra $300 to $390 a year in property tax payments—a significant sum, considering the nation’s median Black household net worth is $13,000, with only $4,000 of that in liquid assets (pre-COVID).
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These findings don’t come out of the blue. During the Jim Crow era, white tax assessors in the South routinely overvalued Black-owned residences, both as a punishment for civil rights activities or simply as a hidden tax break for landowning white gentry. In 1966 in Edwards, Mississippi, for example, the board of supervisors retaliated against a Black-led boycott of white businesses by grossly inflating the assessed value of almost all Black-owned homes in the town, an action ultimately upheld by the US Supreme Court.
Recent newspaper and audit investigations in several cities have revealed racially disparate impacts in the local system for valuing properties. The Chicago Tribune discovered that, for years, the Cook County Tax Assessor’s Office had overvalued properties in wealthier and largely white communities, resulting in poorer people in neighborhoods of color paying more in taxes as a percentage of their home’s value. Studies in Philadelphia and New Orleans have also discerned disparate assessment practices that gave white homeowners a benefit and disadvantaged black homeowners.
But this study, published by the nonprofit Washington Center for Equitable Growth, documents that the racial assessment gap is a nationwide scourge, not just limited to a handful of jurisdictions. It quantifies the gap (10–13 percent) and provides two explanations for this systemic phenomenon, each accounting for about half of the assessment gap:
- Spatial sorting: Most Americans live in segregated neighborhoods, and though individual properties (with the same number of bedrooms or square footage) across different neighborhoods may have the same value, the communities in which these homes are situated have different market values based on amenities such as parks, good schools and well stocked grocery stores. White-owned properties in white neighborhoods appreciate more and more rapidly than do equivalent Black-owned properties in Black neighborhoods, but they continue to be valued the same for tax purposes. This disparity is compounded over time.
- Disparate property tax appeals. Using data from Cook County (Chicago), the researchers found that residents of color are one percent less likely to appeal their property tax assessments than whites, two percent less likely to win an appeal, and if successful, receive a reduction that’s two to three percent smaller.
Avenancio-León and Howard contend that assessors should base their estimates of a property’s market value on recent sales in smaller, more geographically precise areas, thus capturing neighborhood differences that translate to racial differences. This is a technical fix for the appraisal process.
But other academics, such as William Darity, Jr. and his colleagues at Duke University, argue that neither technical fixes nor changes in individual behavior—educational attainment, better financial decisions, more homeownership, saving more, or improving “soft skills”—will effectively reduce any racial wealth gap. For the gap to be closed, America must undergo a vast social transformation produced by the adoption of bold national policies, policies that will forge a way forward by addressing, finally, baked in inequities of unfettered extractive capitalism built on a legacy of slavery.—Debby Warren
Utafiti mpya unathibitisha kwa mara ya kumi kwamba kuna kodi kwa weusi, kwa kuwa wapimaji wa kodi kote nchini mara kwa mara wanawajibisha wamiliki wa nyumba weusi na kahawia na bili za kodi ya mali ambazo ni za juu kuliko zile zinazopigwa kwa Wazungu. Katika uchunguzi wa miaka kumi iliyopita wa mauzo na takwimu za kodi kwa nyumba milioni 118 katika vituo 75,000 vya kodi, wachumi wawili, Carlos Avenasio-Leon na Troup Howard, waligundua kuwa nyumba za weusi hulipa asilimia 13 zaidi ya kodi ya mali kila mwaka kuliko familia nyeupe katika hali sawa. Kwa ajili ya nyumba kahawia, <unk>assessment pengo<unk> ni karibu na 10 asilimia. Kwa wamiliki wa nyumba wa rangi, pengo hili hutafsiriwa kuwa $ 300 hadi $ 390 ya ziada kwa mwaka katika malipo ya kodi ya mali - kiasi kikubwa, ikizingatiwa kuwa wastani wa taifa la Black household net worth ni $ 13,000, na $ 4,000 tu ya hiyo katika mali ya kioevu (kabla ya COVID-19). Kujiandikisha kwa jarida la bure la NPR, na kupokea habari zetu za juu moja kwa moja kwenye sanduku lako la barua. Matokeo haya hayatokani bila kutarajia. Wakati wa enzi ya Jim Crow, wapimaji wa kodi weupe katika Kusini mara kwa mara walipunguza thamani ya makazi ya watu weusi, kama adhabu kwa shughuli za haki za kiraia au kama mapumziko ya kodi ya siri kwa wamiliki wa ardhi weupe. Mwaka 1966 katika mji wa Edwards, Mississippi, baraza la wasimamizi lilipiga marufuku biashara za wazungu zilizokuwa zikiongozwa na watu weusi kwa kuongeza thamani ya nyumba za watu weusi katika mji huo, hatua ambayo hatimaye ilikubaliwa na Mahakama Kuu ya Marekani. Uchunguzi wa hivi karibuni wa magazeti na ukaguzi katika miji kadhaa umefunua athari tofauti za kikabila katika mfumo wa ndani wa kutathmini mali. Gazeti la Chicago Tribune liligundua kwamba kwa miaka mingi, Ofisi ya Mtihani wa Kodi ya Kaunti ya Cook ilikuwa imepunguza thamani ya mali katika jamii tajiri na nyeupe, na kusababisha watu maskini katika vitongoji vya rangi kulipa kodi zaidi kama asilimia ya thamani ya nyumba zao. Uchunguzi uliofanywa huko Philadelphia na New Orleans pia ulionyesha kwamba watu weusi walipata faida na watu weupe walipata hasara. Utafiti huo, uliochapishwa na shirika lisilo la faida la Washington Center for Equitable Growth, unathibitisha kwamba tofauti ya kijamii ni tatizo la kitaifa, na si la maeneo machache tu. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""Kila moja ya sababu hizi ni sababu ya tofauti ya kipekee ya uharibifu wa mazingira, na ingawa mali za mtu binafsi (kwa idadi sawa ya vyumba vya kulala au upana wa mraba) katika vitongoji tofauti zinaweza kuwa na thamani sawa, jamii ambazo nyumba hizi ziko zina maadili tofauti ya soko kulingana na huduma kama vile bustani, shule nzuri na maduka ya vyakula.""" Mali za wazungu katika vitongoji vya wazungu zinathaminiwa kwa kasi zaidi kuliko mali sawa za weusi katika vitongoji vya weusi, lakini zinaendelea kuwa na thamani sawa kwa madhumuni ya kodi. Tofauti hiyo huongezeka kadiri wakati unavyopita. - Maombi tofauti ya kodi ya mali. Kwa kutumia takwimu kutoka Cook County, watafiti walipata kwamba wakazi wa rangi ni asilimia moja chini ya uwezekano wa kukata rufaa kwa tathmini zao za kodi ya mali kuliko wazungu, asilimia mbili chini ya uwezekano wa kushinda rufaa, na ikiwa imefanikiwa, kupokea kupunguzwa ambayo ni asilimia mbili hadi tatu ndogo. Avenancio-Leon na Howard wanasema kuwa wapimaji wanapaswa kutegemea makadirio yao ya thamani ya soko la mali katika mauzo ya hivi karibuni katika maeneo madogo, sahihi zaidi ya kijiografia, hivyo kukamata tofauti za jirani ambazo hutafsiri tofauti za kikabila. Hii ni kurekebisha kiufundi kwa ajili ya mchakato wa tathmini. Lakini wasomi wengine, kama vile William Darity Jr. na wenzake katika Chuo Kikuu cha Duke, wanasema kwamba wala marekebisho ya kiufundi wala mabadiliko katika tabia ya mtu binafsi - mafanikio ya elimu, maamuzi bora ya kifedha, umiliki zaidi wa nyumba, kuokoa zaidi, au kuboresha ujuzi wa "mbwa" - haitapunguza kwa ufanisi pengo lolote la utajiri wa rangi. """Kwa ajili ya pengo hilo kufungwa, Marekani lazima ifanye mabadiliko makubwa ya kijamii yanayotokana na kupitishwa kwa sera za kitaifa za ujasiri, sera ambazo zitaunda njia ya mbele kwa kushughulikia, hatimaye, ukosefu wa haki wa ubepari wa uchimbaji usio na kikomo uliojengwa juu ya urithi wa utumwa."""