Cities Don't Always Have Higher Taxes Than Suburbs

The Brookings Institution just came out with a national map listing property taxes by county.  Before reading this, I would have thought that cities (other than cities like New York, Washington and Philadelphia which have hefty city income taxes) had higher property taxes than their suburbs.  

But this is sometimes not the case. For example, Jacksonville's property tax (0.9% of property value) is slightly lower than that of suburban St. Johns County (0.98%).  San Francisco's tax (0.59% of home value) is also slightly lower than that of suburban Marin County (0.68% of home value).   Denver's tax rate of 0.55% is lower than that of suburban Jefferson County (0.7%).

Even declining cities may sometimes be less taxed than their suburbs.  St. Louis's property tax (less than 1 per cent of home value) is below that of suburban St. Louis and St. Charles Counties (which are 1.2-1.3% of home value).  Although St. Louis does have a small city income tax (1% of income), on balance many taxpayers probably come out ahead in St. Louis.