Voter Perceptions of the Cost of Government: the Case of Local School Expenditures in Louisiana

Voter perceptions of the burden from the two major indirect taxes (sales tax and nonresidential property tax) and from income generated from wealth held by the public sector are examined. Using two alternative median voter models, data on the finances of local school districts in Louisiana are used to estimate voter perceptions of the burden from each revenue source. The results suggest that Louisiana voters apparently perceive that they bear little of the burden from either the locally imposed sales tax or the school tax levied on property (other than the school tax levied on residential or commercial property). Furthermore, the empirical evidence also indicates that voters do not perceive that school expenditures financed from the income of wealth held by the public sector could have alternatively been used for tax reduction.