Workshop on Property Tax Incentives and the Treatment of
Tax-Exempt Property

Co-sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Metropolis Strategies and the Civic Federation

Local governments are increasingly caught in a vise. On the one hand, they want to stimulate economic development through business growth from attraction and retention strategies that often rely on the use of tax incentives. On the other hand, they are worried about erosion of the tax base as special exemptions and the growth of nontaxable property reduces the tax base. In the workshop, we explored the role of property tax incentives in supporting business growth and the treatment of nonprofit entities in the tax base. Are there appropriate principles that might guide the use of tax incentives? Should nonprofits have some responsibility for paying into the property tax base, and if so, what might be a fair system for accomplishing this?