HERE'S WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT SITE VALUE TAXATION:
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Urban and Regional Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Commerce
of the United States, February 17, 1971:
"The policy statement of the Chanber of Commerce of the United States
says clearly and unequivocally that: "Disincentives that inhibit private
enterprise from helping to solve social and economic problems should be
eliminated."
"To implement this Chamber policy and give it specific application to
encouraging private enterprise to take a more active part in urban development
and so lessen the need and pressure for costly subsidies, the Urban and
Regional Affairs Committee recommends that the Chamber should take this same
strong and unequivocal stand for reforming the administration of the local
property tax. Such reform should include shifting the principal weight of the
property taxation off the owner-created value of the improvement onto the
community-created value of the location, i.e. to what land in that location
would be worth if the past and present owners had never done or spent anything
to improve it.
"We believe it obvious that heavy taxes on improvements inhibit and
often prevent private investment in improvements. Conversely we believe
heavier taxation of location values could put effective pressures on the
owners of underused or misused locations to put their property to better use
or sell it to someone who will.
"We believe that many businessmen have insufficient understanding of
the harm today's widespread misadministration of the property tax may be doing
in their communities.
Therefore, the Urban and Regional Affairs Committee urges that the
National Chamber devote all feasible resources to developing and using
information materials to inform its membership of the costs and the
alternatives to ineffective property tax systems."
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Fortune Magazine, Summer 1972, "Fortune Defends The Property Tax"
"The case against the property tax is generally overstated. Its
benefits are frequently overlooked and most of its shortcomings can be
corrected.
"Economists generally agree that low property taxes encourage
speculators to hold land off the market for appreciation, since the cost of
holding the land is insignificant compared with the potential gains. Between
1956 and 1966 land prices almost doubled -- rising from $270 to $520 billion.
"Realistic property taxation would compel the owners of undeveloped and
underdeveloped property to pay a fair share of the cost of services from which
their land derived its additional value.
"More controversial, but of inestimable importance, is the proposal,
endorsed by many economists, to shift the burden of real-property taxation
from improvements to land. Studies have shown that 40 percent of the market
value of ordinary real estate is traceable to land."
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U.S. House Subcommittee on the City 1980 report,
"Compact Cities: A Neglected Way of Conserving Energy:"
"One of the major causes of sprawl is the upside-down incentives of
state and local property tax systems which invite land speculation. In the
nations' 100 largest cities, nearly one-fourth of all the privately held land
is vacant. Taxes on idle (urban) land are typically low, making it profitable
to keep parcels unused while land values are rising."
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Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing 1991
final report,"Not In My Back Yard - Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing"
"In most places the real property tax is a tax imposed on the combined
market value and improvement of both land and buildings. The tax, however,
discourages land development and rehabilitation, because they increase the
value of the property and the tax that must be paid. An alternative solution
for communities is to impose low tax rates on structures and high tax rates on
(urban) land. This approach will raise the cost of holding land vacant (or
leaving structures on the land unrehabilitated), will not penalize land
development, and can result in more efficient land use, including increased
affordable housing opportunities."
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Summer 1993 Intergovernmental Perspective,
"Two-Rate Property Taxes and Urban Development"
"Property taxes can affect both the capital intensity and the timing of
development. For both of these reasons, there is cause to consider the split-
rate or
graded property tax that taxes land and structures at different rates. ...
Several
municipalities in Pennsylvania have implemented two-rate property tax systems.
There is plenty of reason to think harder about implementing such tax systems
because they hold the prospect for clear improvements over the traditional
single rate property tax."
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Missouri Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO, "Economic Issues
Concerning Public School Finance" resolution reaffirmed 1994 and
forwarded to National AFT convention where referred to
Executive Council (quoting in part):
"Public school employees are concerned about the two real estate taxes
that are a major source of local funding for public education: charges on
improvements (buildings) and charges on land (site); and
"Public school employees want public school districts that derive
revenue from the two real estate taxes to review their current methods of
taxing real estate and to seriously consider the proposition that real estate
taxes be levied on land exclusively, or at least that the land component of
the tax be levied at a higher rate than the buildings component; and
"Public school employees now receive their income from revenues from
taxes on both improvements and land. The value attached to the site is
created by the community through the public services, such as public schools,
made available to the citizens. This value is enjoyed by the owner of the
site by virtue of the land title conferred by the community. Land charges
are, therefore, a means of returning to the community, for the needs of the
community, value created by the community. Insofar as the land tax is
not commensurate with this value, the difference will be put to use by the
owner in speculation in land. This activity keeps sites from being developed,
raises land prices, encourages urban sprawl, is very inefficient economically,
and unnecessarily consumes open space and farm land; ...
"Resolved, that the AFT urge the establishment of permissive,
nonmandatory, pro-enterprise legislation to enable local governments or local
voters to adopt a two-rate real estate tax system; ..."
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Now click on one of these links:
OTHER METHODS OF ACHIEVING A FORM OF SITE VALUE TAXATION
LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS IN OTHER STATES
THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF TODAY'S PROPERTY TAX
HERE'S WHERE YOU CAN GET MORE INFORMATION
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