Researchers gathered data on all state, city, and property taxes in ten cities in three states to find whether tax limitation measures have changed the distribution of tax burdens among income classes. The ten cities--representing a range of tax rates, economic bases, income levels, demographic characteristics, and revenue systems--comprised Kansas City and Wichita (Kansas); Camden, East Orange, Montclair, and Newark (New Jersey); and Cerritos, Compton, Los Angeles, and Oakland (California). All three states had passed fiscal limitation measures in the 1970s. After discussing theories of the distribution of tax burdens (or tax "incidence"), the researchers constructed models allocating property and other tax burdens among five income classes. They then calculated the change in tax burden among the income classes and between renters and owner-occupiers caused by the fiscal restraints. Results indicate that tax burdens were reduced in all California and New Jersey cities; that the lowest income group had the highest tax burden both before and after tax limitation, and that tax burdens became more progressive in all cities except Montclair and Newark, chiefly because progressive state income taxes were substituted for regressive property taxes. (Author/RW)