Yeah, I know I’ve been leaning on the guys down at JLF to provide insight into the real estate transfer tax. But John Hood sums it up so well:
The reality, by the way, is that communities with transfer taxes don’t get lower property taxes as a result. They just bear a higher total tax burden. You don’t get one instead of the other. You get both. This outcome should surprise no one, because the advocates are mainly trying to boost government spending, not reshuffle the tax code. They don’t much care about the structure, economics, and fairness of the tax code. They care about collecting as much revenue as possible without angering the public so much it votes them out of office.