Pennies from Heaven: Assessing the Impact of New York State's STAR Exemption on School District Property Taxation

New York State's School Tax Relief (STAR) program exempts a portion of homestead property values from school district property taxation. The inception of this program immediately preceded a period of increased school property tax levies and expenditures. Using a public choice theory framework, this applied research Capstone project attempted to determine whether STAR was a causal factor for school district tax increases. The extent to which individual level and regional differences influenced local variation in the tax price elasticity of demand was also examined.