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The Hidden Taxable Capacity of Land: Enough and to Spare

A tax based on land value is in many ways ideal, but many economists dismiss it by assuming it could not raise enough revenue. Standard sources of data omit much of the potential tax base, and undervalue what they do measure. The purpose of this paper is to present more comprehensive and accurate measures of . . . → Read More: The Hidden Taxable Capacity of Land: Enough and to Spare

Al Rodda, RIP

Dear Georgist historians, and other good people

We have lost former Cal state Senator Al Rodda, senate leader and Georgist stalwart. Perhaps it was time: he lived his 3-score years and 10 plus 27 more, but he left footprints in the sands of time. Anyone caring to write him up, start with www.thebackbench.blogspot.com.

Al graduated . . . → Read More: Al Rodda, RIP

The Hidden Taxable Capacity of Land: Enough and to Spare

A tax based on land value is in many ways ideal, but many economists dismiss it by assuming it could not raise enough revenue. Standard sources of data omit much of the potential tax base, and undervalue what they do measure. The purpose of this paper is to present more comprehensive and accurate measures of . . . → Read More: The Hidden Taxable Capacity of Land: Enough and to Spare

New Life in Old Cities

Some cities have grown in notable spurts. Some of these cities were new; others have revived after decaying. Cities’ cells, like ours, metabolize and can refresh themselves constantly. Cities need not die like us. They can continue this cycle of renewal forever, when people remodel buildings and clear and renew sites. This can happen . . . → Read More: New Life in Old Cities

Equity Premises and the Case for Socializing Rent

The Harvard Registrar reports the most popular undergraduate courses now are “Justice,” “Principles of Economics,” “The Concept of the Hero,” and “Literature of Social Reflection.” The “Me Generation” is passing; Justice, Heroism and Social Thought are “In.” Are economists ready for this future? I think not: changes must be made. Classical political-economists were moral . . . → Read More: Equity Premises and the Case for Socializing Rent

Proposition 13: An Alternative Reform

What is the “message” of Proposition 1 3? Everyone was invoking it this past summer to fill his sails, but what was really blowing in the wind? Howard Jarvis had been fighting property taxation for a score of years with minimal success. Philip Watson, until recently more prominent, led two property tax limitation initiatives . . . → Read More: Proposition 13: An Alternative Reform

The Many Faces of Site-Value Taxation

There is a great interest stirring currently in Canada and elsewhere in tapping for the public revenues more of the economic rent of natural resources and/or the unearned increment of land values. “Economic rent”, not long ago a strange alien wording, has become common currency in Canadian discussion. Ontario has enacted a tax on . . . → Read More: The Many Faces of Site-Value Taxation

The Property Tax is a Progressive Tax

“The regressive property tax” has become a common block phrase among economists and in the popular press. President Nixon’s support for revenue-sharing is increasingly based on the need to protect the poor from heavy property taxes. Some prominent tax economists are favoring even sales taxes to make the tax system more progressive, by lowering . . . → Read More: The Property Tax is a Progressive Tax

Coordinating Tax Incentive and Public Policy: The Treatment of Land Income

This paper is an effort to pull together a systematic outline of one set of accumulated tax outrages, those bearing on land. I follow press releases, and scholarly and treasury and commission and task force – releases on the subject witha growing impression of incompleteness, of a ..tendqncy to 6ettle on one or two . . . → Read More: Coordinating Tax Incentive and Public Policy: The Treatment of Land Income

Policies and Practices Affecting Urban Land Costs as an Element of Housing Costs

Land is a major cost element of urban housing. Site values of improved urban lots are about 20 percent of the total value of new single unit dwellings. However, this ratio varies significantly between neighborhoods and regional areas in the United States. For example, for the third quarter, 1967, FHA data for proposed one-family . . . → Read More: Policies and Practices Affecting Urban Land Costs as an Element of Housing Costs