We can have one without the other
By Edward J. Dodson / January 2020 As Americans contemplate whether and how to exercise their vote in this year’s elections, they have numerous important issues to consider. One vital issue is what, if any, legislative changes will the newly-elected Federal, State and even Local… Read More »The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good, even when it comes to Raising Public Revenue
by Frank de Jong Carbon levies are fraught with variables, a whack-a-mole game of cascading effects. But interestingly, I think they will reduce both housing costs and C02 emissions. If fossil energy was purely a house-like asset, i.e., the price reflecting the cost of production,… Read More »Rev up the Carbon Taxes
Yesim Sayin Taylor / October 21, 2019 The idea of imposing a “land value tax” in the District pops up from time to time. Rick Rybeck at Just Economics has been promoting land value taxes for as far as I could remember. Both the 2013… Read More »Land Value Tax: Can it Work in the District?
By Divya Singh In recent decades, significant increases in the rent-to-income ratios have worsened the affordability of living in cities across the world. A widely promulgated solution is to build more housing in cities. But if there is an excessive demand for housing in cities,… Read More »Property Tax Incentives for New Housing Spurred Gentrification in New York City
By Fred Foldvary Two economists at the University of California at Berkeley, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, have written a book, The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay. A review by William G. Gale in the Brookings web… Read More »What Do You Know About Taxes? Wrong!
By Frank de Jong The many organizations around the world that work to popularize the work of nineteenth-century American economist Henry George have three goals: a just society, a green society, and a prosperous society. Collectively, these organizations constitute an interconnected think tank advocating financing… Read More »What’s So Special about Henry George Anyway?
On October 25, 2019, the Minneapolis City Council approved the “Minneapolis 2040” plan. City officials produced it to guide the development of Minnesota’s largest city into the mid-21st century. The plan focuses on a variety of developmental areas, such as jobs, education, the environment, and… Read More »The Minneapolis 2040 Plan Is Unlikely to Provide Affordable Housing
The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation is pleased to announce the creation of the “Center for Property Tax Reform” (CPTR), a new, joint undertaking with our long-time collaborator, the Center for the Study of Economics (CSE) in Philadelphia. Those of you who know CSE, and its Executive… Read More »A Long-Time Partner, A New Partnership
In January of 2019, Thailand instituted a land and building tax. Two thirds of the thirty- three million property parcels had been appraised by mid-year, with the revenue intended to finance local (provincial) governments. Political pressures against the implementation of the tax, were intense in… Read More »Impacts of Land Taxes in Thailand
Restrictions on and regulation of land use are known as “zoning” in the United States and “planning” in the United Kingdom as well as in many other parts of the world. The legitimate purpose of these controls is to prohibit uses of land that are… Read More »The Economics of Land Use Controls
