SHORT-TERM EFFECTS OF A 1990S-ERA PROPERTY-TAX LIMIT - PANEL EVIDENCEON OREGON MEASURE-5

Since the early 1990s, a number of states have imposed limitations on local public school revenues and expenditures. I consider the effects of this trend, which has been likened to the ''local property tax revo lt'' of the 1970s, on the provision of local public education. I use a comprehensive panel of school districts from Oregon and Washington, w ith annual data from before and after Oregon imposed its limitation in 1990. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, I find that Oregon st udent-teacher ratios have increased significantly as a result of the s tate's tax limitation. However; I find that the ratio of administrativ e to educational spending has remained unchanged, or may have even inc reased, in the wake of the tax limit, suggesting that the incidence of the tax limitation has been borne by instruction at least as much as by administration. I also investigate the distributional effects of th is limitation.