The last 25 years have witnessed a fundamental change in state and local land policy, reflecting a revolutionary change in attitudes towards immigration and growth. Local governments used to compete to attract people, now it seems to exclude them In the battle of boosters versus knockers, the knockers have won going away. We have . . . → Read More: Changes in Land Policy: How Fundamental are They?
 Comments are closed  Publication  Economic History, Economic Science, Land economics -- urban, Politics, Property taxation, Tax policy, urban expansion 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 Comments are closed Address, Publication Land Rent, land value tax, Politics, Property taxation, Public finance, Tax policy, tax reform The many wasteful policies and procedures in federal water resources programs have been much analyzed by economists and other scholars. Agency benefit-cost practices have been found wanting. Benefit estimates have been biased upward and cost estimates downward. Environmental effects of projects, often adverse, are not weighted enough. I generally endorse the thrust of these . . . → Read More: The Water Giveaway: A Critique of Federal Water Policy Comments are closed Publication Land Economics - Water, Land economics -- Environment, Law, Leasing policy, Natural Resources, Politics, Water Taxes on land and buildings are important influences on land use, and are within the control of government. Real estate taxes are a major source of revenue to local governments (LGs) in the United States, as well as being a major cost of owning property. Currently under legal attack in the United States is . . . → Read More: Tax Reform to Release Land MANY, IF NOT ALL economists now agree that the fisc may tax away rent without impairing any economic function. It is only necessary that the tax be independent of landowner behavior. What is less widely understood is that not taxing rent obstructs its proper functioning. Untaxed landowners through the centuries have manifested a propensity . . . → Read More: Taxation and the Functions of Urban Land Rent Comments are closed Publication Capital theory, Land economics -- urban, Land Rent, Politics, Property taxation, Tax policy, urban development “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 One comment - (Comments are closed) Publication Economic Science, Inequality, land value tax, Politics, progressive, Property taxation, Public finance, Tax policy, tax reform, urban development, Urban Economics, welfare economics 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 . . . → Read More: Adequacy of Land as a Tax Base Comments are closed Publication Economic Science, Land Economics -- General, Politics, Property taxation, Public finance, Tax policy MOST OF OUR CENTRAL CITIES, as is now well known, are threatened by a vicious circle which is related to property taxation. As buildings become older, they tend to become fiscal deficits requiring more in cost than they return in taxes. As the central cities age, the buildings become old and fiscal-deficit generators. This . . . → Read More: A Tax Tool for Meeting Urban Fiscal Crisis Comments are closed Publication Deficits, Land economics -- urban, Politics, Property taxation, Tax policy, urban development, urban infrastructure Important as the physical environment is, the intellectual, social and psychological are more so. The greater gain of improving the physical world is improving the man who does it, the greater gain of achieving harmony of man and nature is achieving, through nature, harmony of man and man. In this case, the means may . . . → Read More: Welfare Economics and Environmental Quality Comments are closed Publication Economic Science, Inequality, Land economics -- Environment, Politics, welfare economics |