More economists than not believe that land rent has superior qualities as a tax base. Their failure to push harder for focusing more of the tax burden on land stems partly from a belief that “there is no money in it.” The following journalistic passage reflects this belief: “Authorization of the graded tax would be useless, however, unless the present freeze on local tax rates is rescinded. . . . A city would have to give up half its revenues from taxes on buildings to institute Pittsburgh’s two-level tax plan.”
In Daniel Holland (ed.), The Assessment of Land Value. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1970, pp. 157-212.
