Partisanship and Property Tax Redistribution: Evidence From Repealing Colorado's Gallagher Amendment

Abstract

In November 2020, Colorado voters were asked to repeal the state's Gallagher Amendment, a constitutional redistributive policy in effect since 1983 that shifted the local property tax burden away from residential property on to nonresidential property. This study explores how partisanship predicts support for repealing Gallagher. Republican and Democrat platforms both entail sociotropic messages to support repeal, but following through on these political ideals carries a salient and nontrivial pocketbook cost to residential property owners. If voters aligned with one party or another are more likely to support repeal, it follows that these voters are more willing to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak. Using election precinct voting data, I find that Democrat-leaning voters were more likely to support repeal than otherwise similar Republican-leaning voters.