COMMON GROUND-USA OTHER METHODS OF ACHIEVING A FORM OF SITE VALUE TAXATION Historic Corporate Land Trusts Arden, Delaware. Arden, founded in 1900, is administered under three basic documents: the Deed of Trust, the Arden 99-year renewable lot Lease, and the charter of the Incorporated Village of Arden. Through the lease agreement, the county and school property taxes are converted into a land value tax. All revenues spent within the villages are also collected from land values only. All budgets are approved by annual referendum. (Ardentown and Ardencroft were founded in l922 and l950 respectively.) Private Land Trust School of Living, Cochranville, Pa. The private trust holds land primarily, and some renewable and non-renewable resources. Man-made improvements are usually owned by those leasing the land individually, co-operatively or corporately. The land is protected by the charter of the trust. Long-term leases are written between persons who wish to use the land and representatives of organizations holding the land in trust. In The School of Living, a Land Committee has the responsibility for administering the trust. Land Assessment Reform Province of British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1974 and headquartered in the city of Victoria, the British Columbia Assessment Authority manages l.218 million properties in the province. In each of the B.C. provinces' 23 assessment offices, the appraiser goes out and records information on the field card. Everything is assessed at 100%. Real estate through the huge province is reassessed annually, and land constitutes 43% of the total real estate value (1987 data). The headquarters office in Victoria has a land system and field card system. The land system is run in recent sales by tables. An inventory is kept on the land on data base, a weight code on similar property. The computerized land system can calculate new land values based on bits of information: size, topography, sales analysis. The computer also takes inventory improvements off the folio and calculates depreciation. There is also a sales system so that at the time the clerk keys in the sale has occurred, a report is produced to the appraiser who can take it and check it in the field. There are microfiche copies of all assessments rolls. The B.C. Assessment Authority does a sales/ratio study and its own internal audit. Special Assessment Districts In 1887 Cal. Rep. C.C. Wright got the California Legislature to enact an Irrigation District act, a legal device that enabled the farmers to "borrow" the sovereignty of the State to organize their water supply as a municipal function. The irrigation district could be organized by the vote of local citizens. Dams, canals, reservoirs, etc. would be paid by a tax on land values within the district boundaries. All trees, vines, structures, etc. on the land were exempt. The Wright Act was intended to aid small farmers. Small farms resulted because the land owners (the act broke the hold of the cattle ranchers and land speculators) were assessed for water development whether they used it or not. After a 1917 amendment, the Wright Act became known as the Irrigation District Act. Now click on one of these links: HERE'S WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT SITE VALUE TAXATION SOME STATES ALREADY HAVE LAWS PERMITTING SITE VALUE TAXATION LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS IN OTHER STATES THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF TODAY'S PROPERTY TAX HERE'S WHERE YOU CAN GET MORE INFORMATION Back to the Home page