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Appendix to
Rising Inequality and Falling Property Tax Rates

by Mason Gaffney, 15 June 92

TABLE 10.1 Dispersion of Farm Sizes, U.S. and States, by Type
 

LSREV $L/A A/Fm $L/Fm $B/Fm $(L+B)/Fm
50 states .71 537 299 161 64.7 225
Mean deviation (MD) - - 177 70.9 15.7 -
MD/mean - - .59 .44 .24 -
Std. Deviation - - 319 102 23.2 -
CV - - 1.07 .63 .36 -34
LSREV $L/A A/Fm $L/Fm $B/Fm $(L+B)/Fm
Rural-urban states .70 708 213 151 64.4 215
Mean deviation (MD) - - 67.5 66.9 13.9 -
MD/mean - - .32 .44 .22 -
Std. Deviation - - 97.1 101 20.8
CV - - .46 .67 .32 -7
LSREV $L/A A/Fm $L/Fm $B/Fm $(L+B)/Fm
small urban states .70 3,186 106 337 143 480
Mean deviation (MD) - - 13.5 128 18.5 -
MD/mean - - .127 .38 .129 -
Std. Deviation - - 15.1 140 22.7 -
CV - - .143 .415 .159 -9
LSREV $L/A A/Fm $L/Fm $B/Fm $(L+B)/Fm
arid ranching states .78 201 879 201 56.3 258
Mean deviation (MD) - - 423 57.0 13.2 -
MD/mean - - .48 .283 .234 -
Std. Deviation - - 567 64.4 16.6 -
CV - - .645 .320 .295 -

Notes:

The nine arid ranching states are North Dakota, South Dakota,Nebraska, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico.(Arizona is surprisingly missing, because of its high $L/acre.)

The seven small urban states are Massachusetts, Rhode Island,Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and New Hampshire. (New Hampshire is surprisingly included, because of its small area and high $L/acre. Ideally, northern New Hampshire would be treated separately as rural, but then many other states should be split as well.)

The 34 "regular" states are all the others.

LSREV = land share of real estate value, i.e., $L/($L+B);

$L/A =land value per acre;

A/Fm = acres per farm;

$L/Fm = land value per farm;

$B/Fm = buildings value per farm;

$L+B/Fm = combined land + building value per farm.

TABLE 10.2. Top and Bottom Nine States Ranked by LSREV
 
State LSREV $L/Fm $L/A GR PTR $(L+B/AFA) M&E/LS A/Fm L/AFA Leased
Share		 Sales/$L
FL .85 452 1686 .847 .54 .88 .75 306 .75 .26 .23
AZ .84 630 542 .870 .44 .86 .55 4752 .72 .77 .31
NM .84 329 137 .782 .37 .84 .52 3230 .71 .48 .32
HI .83 366 1726 .962 .35 .85 4.57 353 .71 .51 .25
MT .80 304 180 .617 .85 .79 1.59 2451 .63 .32 .18
ND .80 229 279 .467 .96 .73 4.02 818 .58 .51 .23
WY .78 274 118 .682 .81 .77 .70 2314 .60 .42 .24
CA .78 476 2318 .875 .55 .86 1.11 368 .67 .58 .31
TX .78 215 570 .782 .56 .84 1.19 376 .66 .51 .22
State LSREV $L/Fm $L/A GR PTR $(L+B)/AFA M&E/LS A/Fm L/AFA Leased
Share		 Sales/$L
OH .59 91 702 .556 .95 .78 2.56 130 .46 .42 .33
OK .59 92 361 .649 .60 .79 .97 255 .47 .46 .43
NC .59 89 943 .621 .47 .81 2.94 95 .48 .49 .59
NH .58 183 1370 .547 .97 .86 1.85 134 .50 .14 .15
NY .58 126 704 .506 1.58 .75 1.52 223 .43 .22 .40
PA .57 118 945 .490 .80 .76 1.41 153 .43 .33 .40
ME .56 106 520 .528 1.17 .74 2.27 214 .41 .15 .70
DE .54 126 1299 .679* .44 .82 3.75 205 .44 .57 .85
WI .53 84 444 .436 2.13 .64 1.32 221 .34 .28 .72
State LSREV $L/Fm $L/A GR PTR $(L+B)/AFA M&E/LS A/Fm L/AFA Leased
Share		 Sales/$L

Notes:
LSREV = land share of real estate value, i.e., $L/($L+B)
$L/Fm = land value per farm
$L/A = land value per acre
GR = Gini Ratio, intrastate, by acres
PTR = property tax rate on real estate, de facto
$(L+B)/AFA = land + buildings as share of all farm assets
M&E/LS = machinery and equipment divided by livestock, dollar values
A/Fm = acres per farm
$L/AFA = land value as share of all farm assets
Leased share = fraction of acres in state under lease, and
Sales/L = sales (of farm output) per dollar of land value (est.). * 1982 data used for DE, for want of 1987 data.

Sources:
Data are from Bureau of the Census, 1987 Census of Agriculture,Vol. 3, Related Surveys, Part 2, Agricultural Economics and LandOwnership Survey (Washington, D.C.: 1989), as follows:

separate land and building values, p. 229, Table 70
other asset values, p. 61, Table 28
Gini Ratios calculated from data in Table 5, (p. 179)
tax rates, p. 181, Table 51
leased land, p. 5, Table 2
sales, p. 20, Table 8
$L+B, p. 61, Table 28. $L+B was converted to $L using the LSREV factor in Column 1. This is an estimate because the LSREV factor applies to owner-occupied farms, but the sales and $L+B data are for all farms. This approximation is necessary because fully coordinated published data are lacking.

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