Seth Payton

Valuing the benefits of the urban forest: a spatial hedonic approach

This paper measures the benefits of the urban forest by examining its effect on housing prices. A Geographic Information System is used to develop a measure of the urban forest, the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, from satellite imagery and to construct other variables from a variety of sources. Spatial hedonic housing price models for the Indianapolis/Marion County area are estimated. The models indicate that greener vegetation around a property has a positive, significant effect on housing price, holding everything else constant. This effect is dominated by measures at the neighborhood level. These findings indicate that property owners value the urban forest, at least in part, by the premium they pay to live in neighborhoods with greener, denser vegetation. These findings also indicate that public action to maintain and enhance the urban forest may be warranted. Planners and urban foresters can use these findings to inform public and policy debates over urban forestry programs and proposals.

The Implicit Price of Urban Public Parks and Greenways: A Spatial-Contextual Approach

This paper examines the value residents place on public parks in a mid-sized urban area. The analysis makes a direct contribution to the literature by examining the extent to which spatial and neighbourhood context is related to the house price premium or discount associated with public recreational opportunities, natural resource areas and urban greenways. The analysis shows that the value of public parks and greenways varies across space, neighbourhood context and park type. Community area fixed-effects are included to bolster the findings. The findings indicate that park and greenway investment should be planned and managed contextually in urban areas. Park planners can use these findings to inform public policy debates over park investment and, perhaps, support efforts focused on comprehensive neighbourhood planning.

The Impact of Property Assessment Standards on Property Tax Burden: An Examination of Systematic Bias in a Market Value Versus a Nonmarket Value Assessment Standard

Property tax is a tax on estimated values rather than on transactions—an important distinction from other taxes. Another distinction is that each state develops its own system for administering the property tax, including how properties are assessed. The consensus among scholars is that current market value assessment is the standard for achieving the most fair and equitable property tax burden. This study compares two disparate assessment standards in one urban county, analyzing potential determinants of systematic bias. The findings indicate that less systematic bias exists under the market value standard, but that the overall equity is only marginally better horizontally and tended toward a more regressive tax structure. A market value assessment standard may mitigate the inherent inequity (i.e., systematic bias) in a nonmarket value system. However, the inequities in the market value system, which may be less predictable, still must be monitored and addressed.

Intra- and inter-neighborhood income inequality and crime

One important factor in many macro-level theories of crime is income inequality. Although research generally shows that low levels of neighborhood income are associated with crime, research studies have been less clear on whether income inequality is a robust, independent predictor of crime, particularly in small area studies, and few studies have explicitly considered income inequality between neighborhoods, and those that do typically focus on homicide. The current study examines whether within and between neighborhood income inequality is associated with variation in violent and property crime. We employ geocoded Uniform Crime Report data from the Indianapolis police department and economic and demographic characteristics of the population from the American Community Survey for 2005–2009. Consistent with prior research, lower levels of income were associated with higher violent and property crime counts. Within-tract income inequality was also associated with higher Uniform Crime Reports violent and property crimes in most models. Results also showed that the ratio of tract income levels to neighboring tracts is associated with variation in crime. Thus, both local and nearby income inequality affect crime. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.

Fiscal Magic Outsourcing and the Taxing Power

Some state and local governments in the United States are increasingly outsourcing services through third-party surrogates. In some instances, outsourcing is used as a mechanism to raise revenue to cover current deficits or pay for goods that would otherwise require increasing taxes. We argue that certain forms of outsourcing have been used to mask accountability for the levying fees that are substantively indistinguishable from taxes and thus shift tax burdens. We call for additional research to examine the shifting cost burden associated outsourcing deals and the increased challenge of maintaining public fiscal accountability.

NEIGHBORHOOD FORECLOSURES AND PROPERTY TAX BURDEN: AN EXAMINATION OF CHANGE IN VALUATION STANDARD AND ASSESSMENT EQUITY

ABSTRACT: The quality of property tax assessment practices impacts the stability of local government revenue and the equity of property tax burden. This study examines the potential shift in property tax burden associated with concentrations of foreclosures while taking into account a procedural transition from a lagged market versus a current market valuation standard. The findings suggest that property tax administration matters, especially with a growing number of foreclosures. In the case studied, current market value assessments partially mitigate equity consequences of nearby foreclosure sales. It is concluded that foreclosures have a relatively small but significant negative effect on the change in assessed values of nearby properties. That shift mitigates the over-assessment associated with foreclosures under a lagged assessment standard. However, the analysis illuminates the continued complexity of achieving horizontal equity in the property tax base within or near higher concentrations of foreclosures after the transition to current market value assessment.