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If the Land Tax Is Such A Good Idea, Why Isn’t It Being Implemented?

strongtowns.org · 1,843 words · saved by 1 readers

Taxing land rather than improvements is a good idea whose time has come. Why aren’t more places already doing it? And how can you make the case for it in your city?

If the Land Tax Is Such A Good Idea, Why Isn’t It Being Implemented? Why is a piece of urban land worth something? The answer is mostly, "Because of what is nearby." The value of land is collectively, publicly created . But private landowners can appropriate this publicly-created value regardless of whether or not they put it to productive use. In other words, they don’t have to contribute to the good party going on around them. Speculation inflates land prices near existing infrastructure, thereby pushing development to cheaper (but more remote and less productive) sites. This destroys farmla

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