Figure 2 illustrates the historical trend of TELs. As shown, specific property tax rate limits have been the most widely used limitations and general revenue limits the least used. A further examination of the data reveals that the percentage of cities subject to TELs (i.e., ‘‘TEL cities’’) jumped from 54 percent in 1970 to 92 percent in 1980 and remained at about this level until the present. In addition, most TEL cities were only restricted by one type of limitations in 1970, but by 2006 a significant number of cities were restricted by four types of limitations.