Discrepancies between Ideal Characteristics of a Property Tax System and Current Practice in New York.

Legislatures and state constitutions can and do make a wide range of policy choices with regard to the role of the property tax in the finances ofthat state's state-local fiscal system and with regard to the structure of the property tax itself. In all states, the property tax is a tax on the capital value of privately-owned property, but states differ with respect to: • What types of property are subject to tax at all; • The definition of the value of the property subject to tax; and