This year’s budget was balanced in part through a property tax increase, the use of city reserves and American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding, and overly optimistic projections of uncertain and unlikely revenues – namely from parking fees and violations, casino revenue, and a hotel occupancy tax that was ultimately not approved by the state legislature. Several factors have contributed to the city’s financial shortfalls, including a major increase in police spending following a new police contract earlier this year and a heavy reliance, in recent years, on ARP funds to close the city’s budget gaps.

This report examines a long-term contributing factor that has been especially significant during the nearly twenty years Mayor Byron Brown has been in office: the city’s lack of attention to raising revenue in the form of property taxes, particularly on the city’s wealthiest residents and landlords. Though Brown has raised taxes four times in recent years, an analysis of property tax data suggests that the city’s largest and wealthiest taxpayers are actually paying far less in city property taxes now than they did in 2019. Many wealthy real estate developers are also benefiting from significant tax breaks on their properties.