A Remembrance of Arthur P. Becker
Richard W. Lindholm
[Reprinted from the American Journal of Economics
and Sociology,
Vol.39, No.1, January, 1980]
PROFESSOR ARTHUR P. BECKER, 60, died on November 17, 1978 in
Milwaukee. He was head of the economics department (1948-1963) and
professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for
the past 30 years. His doctorate was from the University of Wisconsin.
He is survived by his wife Bernita and six children - three sons and
three daughters.
I knew Art Becker as a colleague at Ohio State right after World War
II and since as a fellow land tax analyst. In 1948 Art moved back to
Wisconsin to head the new economics department at the University of
Wisconsin (Milwaukee). He brought Mason Gaffney to the department and
the center for the study of land taxation was born.
Professor Becker headed the Committee on Taxation Resources and
Economic Development (TRED), a group of fiscal economists. THED
through the holding of annual seminars and the publication of papers
and discussions presented and developed a scholarly and useful series
of over ten volumes published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
This "shelf" of property tax studies was made possible
financially by the support of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation of
New York and the Lincoln Foundation of Cambridge, Mass. Weld Carter,
the committee's executive secretary, and Professor Gaffney worked
closely with Becker and provided substantial intellectual and
organizing support. Becker edited and contributed to the TRED
publication titled, Land and Building Taxes.
Professor Becker was considered by academic, government and business
tax specialists to be the nation's leading property tax scholar. This
position was recognized when the National Tax Association selected him
to be chairman of the Association's property tax committee in the
early 1970s. The report of the committee is titled the Erosion of
the Ad Valoren Real Estate Tax Base. A basic recommendation which
is closely tied to Art's interest in the land tax calls for the levy
of user charges based on service costs on all real estate including
government and church-owned property.
A highlight of Professor Seeker's career was his paper before the
assembled delegates to the National Tax Association's 1976 annual
Conference held in Phoenix. He called for emphasis on supply
management policies even though they are regarded as largely
intractable. Unemployment was seen to arise not from a shortage of
demand but rather a shortage of supply. He called for channeling
capital and income into the hands of "those who contribute to
production."
A principal source of income going into the hands of non-productive
individuals and businesses was identified to be economic rent. The
drain imposed by land rents going into private hands was seen to
sharply reduce investment opportunities and to place a huge burden on
all active producers of economic goods and services. If a substantial
portion of these land rents arising in urban, rural, and natural
resource areas were paid as taxes the level of wage and profit taxes
paid by supply providers could be sharply reduced and efforts of these
productive agents stimulated. The removal of a substantial portion of
the dead hand of economic rent through taxation of land, with a sharp
reduction of taxes on producers would be a major step toward the
expansion of supply and would result in increased employment without
inflation. (1).
Seeker's study of the location of the impact in Milwaukee of shifting
to the finance of state and local activities through exclusive use of
Wisconsin's state income tax or exclusive use of the property tax must
be rated the basic analysis of this tax policy decision area. A
fundamental finding of the study was that "the concentration of
the ownership of taxable property makes the property tax more
progressive than do the effective rates of the state (Wisconsin)
individual income tax" (2).
This careful and detailed analysis of Art's goes on to demonstrate
that a shift of school financing to the state income tax and away from
the use of the local property tax would increase tax payments of ten
of the fourteen family income classes of Milwaukee. This study is
turning out to be a forecast of a new urban political-economic trend
demonstrated by the recent action in Pittsburgh where a 48 mill
increase in the land tax was selected over the alternative revenue
source, a new one and one-fourth percent wage tax.
Arthur Seeker's dedication to social science scholarship informed and
enlivened his teaching, his other major professional commitment. It
also made him a much sought after consultant - by this journal and by
other interests in various parts of the country. His cordial and
genial personality endeared him to colleagues, students and other
associates, in whose midst he leaves a lasting void. To his family,
his first love, we extend our deepest condolences.
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