From the Rochester (NY) City Newspaper, comes an article about a public presentation given on land value taxation. It points out that, "Most of the conversions to LVT in the US have occurred in Pennsylvania. Harrisburg and Pittsburg have converted to LVT, and their comebacks have been credited to the switch. Philadelphia is about to make the shift, which would make it the largest city in the US to convert to LVT."
A shift away from income and sales taxes (taxes on productive behavior) towards land value taxation would be a smart move in any place at any time, but current economic conditions make it an especially important move now.
There are a whole group of upstate New York cities which would benefit from this shift.
ReplyDeleteMy son refused to look at the college I'd gone to, because the small city in which it is located is so sad. He didn't question the advantages of the college, but couldn't stand the city!
In at least some of these cities, the folks who own the land don't live there; they live in the suburbs, and they're content to sit and wait for someone else to fix the problems and make their sites valuable.
This shift could motivate them to either put their sites to use, meeting whatever needs the market has -- be it commercial or residential; affordable, elderly, family, etc -- or sell it to someone who will, at a price that permits the buyer to have money to invest in improvements.
Harrisburg, and a number of smaller cities in PA, including some towns abandoned by steel companies, have made good use of this tool. It makes a lot of sense, and I hope upstate NY will take their experience to heart.