Re:Why a land-value tax is inevitable
by mr_cyborg on Saturday December 05, 2020 @04:55PM
(#25318791)
Thanks for this response. Disclaimer: I live in a city that is growing constantly and has many growing pains that are being worked through.
To me, it almost sounds like this type of tax puts more power in the hands of big developers, which is a challenge many municipalities deal with right now - striking the right balance with that. If they want to force someone to sell the remaining property in a block they’re trying to develop, wouldn’t they just need to make enough improvements that the city drives that person out with taxes?
I can’t help but think it could incentivize municipal governments seeking revenue to approve big projects without input from people living there, and incentivize people living somewhere to being actively anti-development.
AIUI, they see a few benefits:
- it will ensure someone holding onto empty land for future use will have to pay at the same "rate" as you do. They don't get a discount simply because they choose not to use the land. If you aim to collect the same total amount of revenue, this would lower your tax.
- Use of land would be better optimized if there was no disincentive to build an expensive (eg bigger/denser) building. IMO this is flawed in that local land use rules are the bigger issue compared to tax policy.