Pennsylvania
The US state whose enabling law let cities tax land and buildings at different rates — making it the natural laboratory for evidence on land value taxation.
Overview
Pennsylvania holds a unique place in the history of land value taxation in the United States: state law has long permitted municipalities to tax land at a higher rate than buildings (split-rate taxation). This legal permission turned the state into the country's de facto laboratory for the policy.
The Natural Experiment
Because many Pennsylvania cities adopted two-rate taxes at different times and in different ratios — Pittsburgh (1913), Harrisburg, Scranton, Allentown, New Castle, and others — researchers could compare them against each other and against single-rate cities. This variation produced the strongest empirical evidence that the policy increases construction, notably Plassmann & Tideman's (2000) 15-municipality study.
Significance
Pennsylvania demonstrates that land value taxation is workable within an ordinary US property-tax framework, and it supplied most of the real-world data on which the modern case for LVT rests.
See Also
Sources
- Plassmann & Tideman (2000), 15-municipality Pennsylvania study — wiki summary
- Dye & England (2010), Lincoln Institute — wiki summary