Strict Property Tax Caps: A Case Study of Massachusetts\u27s Proposition 2 1/2, its Shortcomings, and the Path Forward

Strict property tax caps are statutory measures that limit municipalities from raising property taxes by more than a certain percentage each fiscal year. In addition, they place a ceiling on the total amount of real and personal property tax revenue a municipality can raise annually. Often spearheaded by voter initiative, strict property tax caps are championed by proponents as a way to limit taxes and increase civic participation. Conversely, detractors frame caps as artificial barriers that improperly constrain local governments in their taxing powers. Massachusetts voters approved a strict property tax cap, Proposition 2 1⁄2, in 1980. Proposition 2 1⁄2 provides that communities may increase taxes on real and personal property annually by no more than 2.5% of the total fair cash value of such property. Further, it states that the total annual property tax revenue raised by municipalities cannot surpass 2.5% of the assessed value of all taxable property in each community. In the three-and-a-half decades since Proposition 2 1⁄2 was adopted, many cities and towns have found that they cannot raise sufficient revenue to meet their communities’ needs because of the restrictions imposed by the cap. However, the statute does contain a side-step maneuver: a community can override its levy limit with a majority vote. This Note examines the total number of override votes—attempted and successful—from 1980 through 2010. In doing so, it assesses the impact Proposition 2 1⁄2 has had and is continuing to have on municipalities, namely the services local governments provide to their residents. The data indicates that the number of proposed override votes has increased over time, as communities have found that they are unable to meet their needs under the 2.5% increase limit. Further, the vote totals make clear that successful override votes happen more frequently in wealthier communities versus poorer communities. Based on this data, this Note argues that Proposition 2 1⁄2’s 2.5% levy cap is an unrealistic and artificial barrier. Strict property tax caps place arbitrary limits on the amounts municipalities can raise taxes, without regard to changes in inflation, the cost of providing services, or community needs. The Note concludes by suggesting potential alternatives moving forward

Dependence of the Fundamental Plane Scatter on Galaxy Age

The fundamental plane (FP) has an intrinsic scatter that can not be explained purely by observational errors. Using recently available age estimates for nearby early type galaxies, we show that a galaxy's position relative to the FP depends on its age. In particular, the mean FP corresponds to ellipticals with an age of ~10 Gyr. Younger galaxies are systematically brighter with higher surface brightness relative to the mean relation. Old ellipticals form an `upper envelope' to the FP. For our sample of mostly non-cluster galaxies, age can account for almost half of the scatter in the B band FP. Distance determinations based on the FP may have a systematic bias, if the mean age of the sample varies with redshift. We also show that fundamental plane residuals, B-V colors and Mg_2 line strength are consistent with an ageing central burst superposed on an old stellar population. This reinforces the view that these age estimates are tracing the last major episode of star formation induced by a gaseous merger event. We briefly discuss the empirical `evolutionary tracks' of merger-remnants and young ellipticals in terms of their key observational parameters.Comment: 14 pages, Latex, 2 figures, accepted by ApJ Letter

A Validated Software Application to Measure Fiber Organization in Soft Tissue

The mechanical behavior of soft connective tissue is governed by a dense network of fibrillar proteins in the extracellular matrix. Characterization of this fibrous network requires the accurate extraction of descriptive structural parameters from imaging data, including fiber dispersion and mean fiber orientation. Common methods to quantify fiber parameters include fast Fourier transforms (FFT) and structure tensors, however, information is limited on the accuracy of these methods. In this study, we compared these two methods using test images of fiber networks with varying topology. The FFT method with a band-pass filter was the most accurate, with an error of 0.71 ± 0.43 degrees in measuring mean fiber orientation and an error of 7.4 ± 3.0% in measuring fiber dispersion in the test images. The accuracy of the structure tensor method was approximately 4 times worse than the FFT bandpass method when measuring fiber dispersion. A free software application, FiberFit, was then developed that utilizes an FFT band-pass filter to fit fiber orientations to a semicircular von Mises distribution. FiberFit was used to measure collagen fibril organization in confocal images of bovine ligament at magnifications of 63x and 20x. Grayscale conversion prior to FFT analysis gave the most accurate results, with errors of 3.3 ± 3.1 degrees for mean fiber orientation and 13.3 ± 8.2% for fiber dispersion when measuring confocal images at 63x. By developing and validating a software application that facilitates the automated analysis of fiber organization, this study can help advance a mechanistic understanding of collagen networks and help clarify the mechanobiology of soft tissue remodeling and repair

Hypnotic suggestibility in dissociative and related disorders: A meta-analysis

Elevated responsiveness to verbal suggestions is hypothesized to represent a predisposing factor for dissociative disorders (DDs) and related conditions. However, the magnitude of this effect has not been estimated in these populations nor has the potential moderating influence of methodological limitations on effect size variability across studies. This study assessed whether patients with DDs, trauma- and stressor-related disorders (TSDs), and functional neurological disorder (FND) display elevated hypnotic suggestibility. A systematic literature search identified 20 datasets. A random-effects meta-analysis revealed that patients displayed greater hypnotic suggestibility than controls, Hedges’s g=0.92 [0.66, 1.18]. This effect was observed in all subgroups but was most pronounced in the DDs. Although there was some evidence for publication bias, a bias-corrected estimate of the group effect remained significant, g=0.57 [0.30, 0.85]. Moderation analyses did not yield evidence for a link between effect sizes and methodological limitations. These results demonstrate that DDs and related conditions are characterized by elevated hypnotic suggestibility and have implications for the mechanisms, risk factors, and treatment of dissociative psychopathology

A Bayesian non-linear method for feature selection in machine translation quality estimation

We perform a systematic analysis of the effectiveness of features for the problem of predicting the quality of machine translation (MT) at the sentence level. Starting from a comprehensive feature set, we apply a technique based on Gaussian processes, a Bayesian non-linear learning method, to automatically identify features leading to accurate model performance. We consider application to several datasets across different language pairs and text domains, with translations produced by various MT systems and scored for quality according to different evaluation criteria. We show that selecting features with this technique leads to significantly better performance in most datasets, as compared to using the complete feature sets or a state-of-the-art feature selection approach. In addition, we identify a small set of features which seem to perform well across most datasets

Little evidence for association between the TGFBR1*6A variant and colorectal cancer: a family-based association study on non-syndromic family members from Australia and Spain

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Genome-wide linkage studies have identified the 9q22 chromosomal region as linked with colorectal cancer (CRC) predisposition. A candidate gene in this region is transforming growth factor β receptor 1 (TGFBR1). Investigation of TGFBR1 has focused on the common genetic variant rs11466445, a short exonic deletion of nine base pairs which results in truncation of a stretch of nine alanine residues to six alanine residues in the gene product. While the six alanine (*6A) allele has been reported to be associated with increased risk of CRC in some population based study groups this association remains the subject of robust debate. To date, reports have been limited to population-based case–control association studies, or case–control studies of CRC families selecting one affected individual per family. No study has yet taken advantage of all the genetic information provided by multiplex CRC families

Little evidence for association between the TGFBR1*6A variant and colorectal cancer: a family-based association study on non-syndromic family members from Australia and Spain.

Genome-wide linkage studies have identified the 9q22 chromosomal region as linked with colorectal cancer (CRC) predisposition. A candidate gene in this region is transforming growth factor beta receptor 1 (TGFBR1). Investigation of TGFBR1 has focused on the common genetic variant rs11466445, a short exonic deletion of nine base pairs which results in truncation of a stretch of nine alanine residues to six alanine residues in the gene product. While the six alanine (*6A) allele has been reported to be associated with increased risk of CRC in some population based study groups this association remains the subject of robust debate. To date, reports have been limited to population-based case-control association studies, or case-control studies of CRC families selecting one affected individual per family. No study has yet taken advantage of all the genetic information provided by multiplex CRC families. Methods: We have tested for an association between rs11466445 and risk of CRC using several family-based statistical tests in a new study group comprising members of non-syndromic high risk CRC families sourced from three familial cancer centres, two in Australia and one in Spain. Results: We report a finding of a nominally significant result using the pedigree-based association test approach (PBAT; p = 0.028), while other family-based tests were non-significant, but with a p-value < 0.10 in each instance. These other tests included the Generalised Disequilibrium Test (GDT; p = 0.085), parent of origin GDT Generalised Disequilibrium Test (GDT-PO; p = 0.081) and empirical Family-Based Association Test (FBAT; p = 0.096, additive model). Related-person case-control testing using the 'More Powerful' Quasi-Likelihood Score Test did not provide any evidence for association (M-QL5; p = 0.41). Conclusions: After conservatively taking into account considerations for multiple hypothesis testing, we find little evidence for an association between the TGFBR1*6A allele and CRC risk in these families. The weak support for an increase in risk in CRC predisposed families is in agreement with recent meta-analyses of case-control studies, which estimate only a modest increase in sporadic CRC risk among 6*A allele carriers