ICMA on LVT

ICMA (International City/County Managers Association) has published Walt Rybeck’s article about some of the advantages of taxing land value.  A good introduction for those generally familiar with local government issues but not with land value tax. Includes link to a video which summarizes the case.  Inconveniently, Harrisburg, PA is highlighted as a success for LVT.  It is, but other problems have overwhelmed it in recent months.

(And in the process of locating the video link, I found a couple about Walt’s late brother and fellow geoist, “Dental Farmer” Art Rybeck.)

Review of Lincoln’s new “LVT” book

LAND VALUE TAXATION: THEORY, EVIDENCE, AND PRACTICE
edited by Richard F. Dye and Richard W. England
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2009

“[E]conomists agree on a great many things, but tend only to discuss the things about which they disagree,” writes Lincoln Institute (of Land Policy) chief Gregory K. Ingram in the Foreword to this new book.  And if one is disinclined to conspiracy theory, that might be the reason that the Single Tax and its various derivations don’t get much attention in the academic world.

A book about experience with the Single Tax would, of course, be a short one, since we don’t have any  experience of a modern economy in which the only tax is one that collects virtually all the land rent. Rather, this work examines some cases in which land has been taxed at a higher percentage of value than buildings and other improvements.

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