Reference no: EM132331685

For problem 1, refer to the excel spreadsheet entitled "Assignment 3 problem 1 baseline."

JCR comments about color cells: a common technique is to color cells that can be modified (i.e. inputs that, if changed, won't "break" the model). The most common way I've seen this done is with blue background and yellow text. Please note, you are not expected to change anything about this model to answer the questions below. But, you may want to change these to see what's driving the model's results - make sure to save an original copy that you can refer back to for the assignment.

Problem 1 scenario

Crepe Myrtle County consists of two incorporated municipalities, the City of Roaring Rapids and the Town of Placidville. The County government administers welfare and public health programs for residents throughout the county; however, each of the two incorporated municipalities provides basic services (general government, police & fire protection, sanitation) to its own population. There are no unincorporated areas; every property owner in the county is a resident of either Roaring Rapids or Placidville, and all pay property taxes to two taxing jurisdictions (their municipality + the county). The city and the town serve as tax administration districts, meaning that each collects property taxes on behalf of itself for municipal purposes and on behalf of the County. For the sake of simplicity, there are just two parcels in the city and one in the town; in a real world example, there would obviously be many more tax parcels.

a. Explain in a sentence or two how each of the three taxing jurisdictions arrives at the "property tax levy" figure on line 32 of the spreadsheet. Hint (and in the excel formula): do "aids" and "other revenues" provide a sufficient amount of capital for spending?

b. Explain why, even though the tax bases of Roaring Rapids and Placidville are equivalent to one another (i.e. the sum total of land and improvements values are the same), the distributions of tax receipts to the County of Crepe Myrtle (cells L34 and N34) are different (answer this question with reference to the baseline scenario).

Hint: look at how these cells are calculated, then look at how their inputs are calculated. Eventually, you'll get to some figures about equalization and distribution - what's the key driver for those?

c. Support Crepe Myrtle County decides to purchase Parcel 2 in Roaring Rapids from its owner and turn it into a County park (i.e. it no longer gets taxed). Assuming that Property values in the city and town also remain unchanged (and spending by the city and town are unchanged), what would you expect would happen for tax for the remaining parcels in order to maintain spending levels?

Attachment:- Assignment problem baseline.rar