If you dramatically reduce taxes to labour and capital, it quickly becomes a very attractive place to move your business or earn an income. And that's the start of a development flywheel. Instead of taxing productivity, land taxes reabsorb the value generated by the community (positive externalities), which would otherwise flow into the pocket of the guy who owns a parcel of land in proximity to the public good. You then use these tax revenues to produce more public goods, which benefit everyone, and then suck up the value that accrues to the land. rinse and repeat.

I highly recommend grabbing a copy of land is a big deal. https://www.amazon.ca/Land-Big-Deal-wages-about-ebook/dp/B0B...

Doesn't it seem to you like ~50 years of decline are too much to erase with one tax law? Have you ever been to Detroit?

I take it the lack of response means No?

I think that certainly makes it harder. Never been to Detroit. Probably still more economic activity there than there was 200 years ago.

True of nearly every city on the planet.

Still less than 70 years ago, which is more relevant.