Can the Property Tax be Made to Work for Rather Against Urban Development?

The article discusses the features of the property tax and its role in urban development. The article states that a rational growth policy would remain beyond the reach unless the right kinds of property tax were adopted. Betting on land values is not an incidental but an increasingly dominant feature of the urban development scene. In the central business districts, the trade in land values often overshadows the exchange of goods and services. A new transportation facility spurs development when it joins relatively low land values with instantly higher productivity. The holders of land keep bidding up the asking price until the land, compared to the economic potential, is no longer cheap but expensive. Communities are deprived of their cohesiveness and their tax base assessment process. The maximum tax reduction is awarded to the owners of derelict, abandoned buildings. The power of a strong land value tax to set land use patterns in order, applies to every growth center, small or large, across the country, a point that has been largely overlooked by most of those who are searching for more unified metropolitan areas and for new workable national land policies.