The Tempo of Urban Tax Reform in New York.

The article focuses on the status of the urban tax reform in New York. The author remarks that New York has been spending more than it can afford for years and for various reasons is a very sick city, financially. In the city of New York as a whole, population is increasing and in a sufficient period of time a tax on buildings will tend to fall upon the users because the erection of new buildings will be checked until rents have risen sufficiently to make the ownership of buildings profitable. If an existing tax shall be removed, the ownership of a building will be more profitable until the competition of new buildings has forced a reduction of rents. A tax on land tends to fall upon the owner and only upon him who owns the land at the time the tax is imposed. The author remarks that outlook for reform of the city's public expenditures and of its administration of the present real property tax is not encouraging. Hence an effort to reform the tax structure as a whole must be made in a very complex situation, the voters must be educated to seek a total reform of public finance in the city, rather than merely a change in the tax source.