Where Do Your Property Taxes Go?

As the dominant source of funding for the , the and the , property taxes are the lifeblood of this town.

Few know that better than school district officials, who have seen , a double whammy of sorts that has expenses rising and revenue drying up. The latest report from real estate information service DataQuick had the median home price in Marin dropping 10.5 percent in September from the same month a year ago.

So as property taxes no longer offer the promise of an always-rising funding source, let's look at where exactly your property taxes go.

This pie chart from the City of Mill Valley for the 2010-2011 fiscal year provides a breakdown of the distribution of local property taxes. It shows that education-related agencies receive approximately 54 percent of property taxes, though there are a plethora of agencies sharing those funds, from our local school districts, county districts and ERAF, or “educational revenue augmentation funds," which became education-specific funds for property taxes in 1992.