SarthakHaruray wrote:
Option B makes more sense than option C . Option B says that the amount of revenue that Altonville collected in property taxes has declined slightly over the last four years. Lets say that the yearly revenue of Altonville before the property rates started falling was 100 $ out of which 30$ came from property tax based on assessed property value. Now if the assessed value of the property was to fall so would the property tax. If this were to happen the percentage of yearly revenue coming from property tax would fall too right ?
We've discussed this
here, but let's take a closer look at (B) using your example in this post.
Here's (B) again:
Quote:
(B) The percentage of Altonville’s yearly revenue that comes from money collected in property taxes has declined steadily over the past four years.
To show why (B) can't be the answer, we need to consider what happened to the revenue collected from all the
other sources. In the four years in question, did the revenue from money collected from every other source except property taxes rise, or did it fall? Can you tell from the information in the passage?
To extend your example, let's continue saying that Altonville's revenue from taxes before property values started falling was $100, of which $30 came from property taxes. At this stage, 30% of Altonville's revenue comes from property taxes.
Now, let's say that the amount of revenue Altonville can generate from property taxes drops to $20
BUT Altonville's tax revenue from other sources drops from $70 to $30. Now, property taxes account for $20 of Altonville's $50 total income -- this comes to 40%. So, while the
total revenue generated by Altonville's property taxes has fallen, the
percentage of Altonville's total income that comes from the property tax has
risen.
Since we can't tell what happens to the revenue Altonville generates from everything other than property taxes, we can't tell which scenario has happened. Therefore, we cannot say that the statements in the passage support (B).
Compare this to (C):
Quote:
(C) The amount of revenue that Altonville collected from property taxes was lower last year than it was four years ago.
The passage tells us that the total value of property in Altonville has fallen. It also tells us that the
"percentage of assessed value that was paid as property taxes" did not change during this period.
If the percentage doesn't change but the initial amount you are taking that percentage from drops, the total dollar amount collected from property taxes each year will fall during the period in question. For example, if property taxes were 10% and the value of the property in Altonville drops from $100 to $50, then the amount collected in property taxes will drop from $10 to $5 per year.
(C) is the answer choice that is best supported by the information in the passage.
I hope that helps!