The Committee on Taxation, Resources
and Economic Development
Wyn Achenbaum
[A history of TRED compiled by the author, October
2003]
The Committee on Taxation, Resources and Economic Development was
my grandfather's baby. He and his second wife, Jessie Tredway
Matteson Carter, labored long and hard to make it work, living
simply and working well into his 80's and her 70's.
This from Arthur Becker's acknowledgments for TRED 4:
"I wish to acknowledge the rare talents of Weld
Carter, executive secretary of the Committee on Taxation, Resources
and Economic Development. His understanding of the taxation of
natural resources is exceeded only by his sensitive regard for the
scholarly mind. His counsel to the committee and the editor of this
book has been inspired, as well as helpful."
TRED 1: Extractive Resources
and Taxation
TRED 2: Property Taxation -- USA
TRED 3: The Property Tax and
Its Administration
TRED 4: Land and Building Taxes: Their
Effect on Economic Development
TRED 5: The Assessment of Land
Value
TRED 6: Government Spending & Land
Values: Public Money & Private Gain
TRED 7: Property
Taxation and the Finance of Education
TRED 8: Property Taxation, Land Use & Public
Policy
TRED 9: Metropolitan
Financing and Growth Management Policies
TRED 10: The Taxation
of Urban Property in Less Developed Countries
TRED 11: Land Value
Taxation: The Progress and PovertyCentenary
TRED 1:
Extractive Resources and Taxation, edited by
Mason Gaffney
dust jacket: This volume springs from a conference of
experts in the field called to discuss the taxation of rent from
extractive natural resources. On the assumption that rent is a
suitable object for taxation, the problem posed to the group was how
to define rent when resources are extractive, and how best to tax
it. With an introduction and conclusion by the editor, this book
offers the opinions of fourteen other economists on extractive
resources and taxation -- ample ammunition for those concerned with
plugging loopholes in the tax laws for natural resources.
Of the three major divisions of this book, the first, on theory,
develops a basic conceptual framework for analyzing the working of
the market in regulating the timing of extraction and the effects of
taxation on intertemporal choices. The second part, on institutions,
deals with the effect of different tenure systems on economic use
and the relations of resource tenure and taxation to competition.
The final section concerns policy and draws on the first two parts
to suggest some tax and tenure policies best calculated to optimize
the timing of use of known resources and of exploration for
replacements.
The Editor's Introduction begins "The Importance of
Extractive Resources: Mankind signalizes the importance of
extractive resources in a number of traditional ways. Nations insist
on some political control of their own supplies of raw materials,
believing that these are limitational inputs vital to national
survival. Among oligopoly firms the same tendency prevails -- most
mills try to capture their own resource reserves, in spite of the
inflated capital requirements, because the free market in most ores
is not reliable and resource ownership is, or might become, a lever
of exploitation or control. This insistence on controlling one's own
supplies constitutes in the aggregate, indeed, an over-recognition
of the importance of extractive resources. It often fosters
premature development of excessive reserves: in mining and oil firms
the asset-output ratio is higher than in any other industry.
Federal stockpiling of strategic materials is another traditional
acknowledgment of the importance of exhaustible resources. Subsidy
for exploration is another. Social and legal pressures to retard
withdrawal of minerals and to discourage exports are yet others.
Every month or two produces its new jeremiad against rising
population and living standards, with intimations of Malthusian
doom.
Probably most economists would agree that those traditional
feelings are, on the whole, overwrought. But there are more sober
indicators of the true importance of exhaustible resources. One is
the higher wage level in the United States. The perennial question "How
can American firms compete with foreign firms which pay lower wage
rates?" has as part of its perennial answer that the marginal
productivity of American laborers is perennially elevated by their
more generous complement of raw materials.
Monopolization of strategic deposits of raw materials is one of
the more common means of controlling markets; and in World War II
federal priorities and rationing of raw materials were key levers in
control of the economy. Exhaustible resources are especially
susceptible to concentrated ownership because the workable,
accessible high quality deposits are limited. Again the long waiting
period between early exploration and ultimate liquidation of many
deposits favors concentration of ownership. Only a handful of the
ultra-affluent can afford to wait half a century between investment
and liquidation; and if we measure the extreme range from first
exploration to the last yield from a mine, more than fifty years
would be a realistic life. In extractive industries, an average
reserve-output ratio of twenty years would not be unusual. But that
is like an inventory that turns over only five times a century.
Within the industries the financial Titans tend to specialize in
carrying the financial burden of holding valuable resources, a
pattern of ownership that helps set the stage for market and social
control. In any complete list of giant corporations and giant
personal and family fortunes, mineral holders are conspicuous near
the top: oil and gas, coal and iron, and in Europe "chemicals"
are paramount; followed by copper, sulfur, lead and zinc, gold and
silver, molybdenum, bauxite, uranium, phosphate, potash, nickel, and
so on through the list of useful elements.
In public finance, special treatment of exhaustible resources
provides one of the major loopholes through which property income
escapes taxation. The value of the depletion allowance is a matter
of some billions of dollars each year. And in many local
jurisdictions the assessor is ill-equipped to put a property
valuation on subsurface mineral possibilities for property-tax
purposes.
The development of exhaustible resources is also a source of
economic instability. This, like the concentration of ownership,
follows from the long waiting period between early exploration and
final liquidation. Natural resources might be described as a capital
investment of unusual duration. The more durable a capital good, of
course, the more subject it is to the acceleration principle and
cobweb-type oscillations. Its value is sensitive to small changes in
interest rates. Economic instability, studied both empirically and
theoretically, is widely agreed to relate closest to investment in
durable assets. Added to this, natural-resource owners are prone to
form cartels, with their tendency to hold a price umbrella that
stimulates submarginal developments and leads, over a long swing of
perhaps a generation, to the development of excess capacity and an
ultimate boomerang that collapses prices and cartels.
Part I Theoretical Foundation |
|
Introduction |
|
1. A Functional Distribution Theory and Analysis of
Returns from Commodity Programs for Tobacco and Oil |
James A. Seagraves
Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics
North Carolina State College, Raleigh, North Carolina |
2. The Theory of the Mine Under Conditions of Certainty
|
Anthony T. Scott
Professor of Political Economics, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia |
3. Depletion and Economic Theory |
Orris C. Herfindahl
Senior Research Associate, Resources for the Future,
Washington, D. C. |
4. Resource Exploitation and Optimum Tax Policies: A Control
Model Approach |
John D. Hogan
Staff Economist, Northwestern Mutual Life Company,
Lecturer in Economics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Lecturer in Managerial Statistics, Marquette University
|
Part II Economic Institutions |
|
Introduction |
|
5. Resource Control and Market Power |
David D. Martin
Professor of Economics, Graduate School of Business Economics,
Indiana University |
6. Resource Control as a Basis for Market Power: The Case of
Timber |
Walter J. Mead
Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara
|
7. Optimization and Taxation in an Open-Access Resource: The
Fishery |
Giulio Pontecorvo
Professor of Business Economics and Coordinator of Doctoral
Studies, Columbia University Graduate School of Business
|
8. Toward a Disposal Policy for Federally Owned Oil Shales
|
B. Delworth Gardner
Professor of Business Economics, Director of the Center for
Social Science Research on Natural Resource Problems, Utah State
University |
9. Mine Taxation in Developing Countries |
Warren Roberts
Professor of Political Science, Wabash College |
Part III Policy |
|
Introduction |
|
10. Natural Resource Taxation: Resource Allocation and
Distribution Implications |
Henry Steele
Professor of Economics, University of Houston |
11. Percentage Depletion, Expensing of Intangibles, and
Petroleum Conservation |
Stephen L. McDonald
Professor of Economics, University of Texas, Austin |
12. Taxing and Exploiting Oil: The Dakota Case |
Gene Wunderlich
Chief, Resource Institutions Branch, Resource Development
Economics Division, Economic Research Service, United States
Department of Agriculture |
13. Economic Theory and Resource Policy |
Irving Morrissett
Associate Professor of Economics, Graduate School of Industrial
Administration, Purdue University |
14. Economic Criteria for Optimum Rates of Depletion |
William Vickrey
Professor and Chairman, Department of Economics, Columbia
University |
Editor's Conclusion |
Lewis C. Gray |
Appendix: Rent Under the Assumption of Exhaustibility
|
|
TRED
2 Property Taxation -- USA, edited by Richard W.
Lindholm, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1967, 315 pages.
Dust Jacket: There is currently a revival of
interest in the United States in the way the property tax has
functioned in the past and how it is now operating. Moreover,
developing nations are turning to the property tax to meet their
fiscal needs. The contributors to this volume consider old and new
economic theories and administrative procedures of property
taxation. Approaching the subject in a number of ways and
considering both practical and theoretical aspects of the topic, the
contributors point out that many current administrative practices
and legal provisions of the property tax are anachronistic and in
need of reform. Their analyses demonstrate, however, that --
particularly if site value is emphasized as the tax base -- the
property tax possesses great potential for economic planning and
revenue raising. Summarizing many facets of the way the property tax
functions, they make constructive suggestions for reform and
improvement of the tax to meet present-day demands.
Preface: This is a period of revival of interest
in the way the property tax has been applied in the United States
and in the way in which the tax may develop in the United States and
in other nations of the world. This publication is intended as a
contribution to the growing effort to understand how the property
tax does work; what can be done to make it work better in the United
States; and what should be avoided by new nations interested in
developing a strong property tax. In an attempt to realize this
goal, a group of some of the world's most knowledgeable persons on
the subject of property taxation in the United States were brought
together to present papers and to make comments on broad and narrow
aspects of this subject.
This book presents the proceedings of the conference, Property
Taxation -- USA, which took place on the campus of the University of
Wisconsin -- Milwaukee during the period June 14-16, 1965. Fourteen
of the participants presented detailed examinations of a selected
aspect of property taxation in the United States. In this volume,
these very informative analyses are divided into three groups, and
each group is preceded by an introductory section by the editor.
Part I is titled "Some Fundamental Considerations;"
Part II is titled "Business and Industry;" and Part III is
titled "Special Problems." The contributions of all the
conference proceedings has been to permit the reader to approach as
closely as possible to becoming an actual participant while keeping
the quantity of reading to a reasonable level.
The backgrounds of the conference participants cover a wide range
of property-tax experience. All aspects of the taxation of property
in the United States. In working toward this goal, some important
trends are identified, and old and new theories of property taxation
are examined to determine their usefulness in reform and improvement
of the tax. In most cases, the papers are based on experience with
the subject under consideration but cover some theoretical aspects
of the subject as well. They also identify policy implications of
the facts and analyses presented. Persons interested in the
introduction and administration of improved tax systems in the low
per-capita-income developing nations of the world will find the
papers and the summary of the informal discussions to be mines of
useful advice and information.
The well-publicized weaknesses of the property tax are described,
and, when the sources of these weaknesses are explored in paper
after paper, a general program for basic property-tax reform
emerges. The fundamental reform which appears to be required is the
re-emergence of the property tax as a major source of state
revenues. These receipts would be used by the states as centrally
collected revenues of local governments or as receipts to support
state expenditures.
Two other basic policy positions evolve less sharply from the
papers, but they are clearly discernible. The first is that a
general property tax is much less acceptable than one based largely
on land value. The second is that the impacts of income-tax
developments in the United States have not been recognized, or have,
at best, been considered only intermittently in property-tax
legislation.
As the reader goes through these collected papers he will, I am
certain, find himself saying (even as I did) that the taxation
heritage of the United States -- based on sound democratic
principles -- has been permitted to become heavily encrusted with an
overlay of special-interest legislation. It is time these accretions
were scraped off so that the clean lines of the original may be
seen. When the original purposes and methods of reaching them are
revealed, the property tax becomes much more attractive to
businessmen, to economists, to tax specialists, and -- most
important of all -- to taxpayers in general.
The property tax was developed as a general, state-wide tax, and
its evolution into a special district and municipal tax was most
unfortunate and requires remedy. In the United States, the property
tax just does not possess great, unique advantages as a revenue e
source within a small geographical area. Actually, many of the
small, independent property-taxing jurisdictions are not required
for effective local control of government, but are an example of
property-tax encrustation through special-interest legislation.
Before the days of the income tax, the property tax was aimed at
ability to pay, and many of its current shortcomings arose from
efforts to reach income directly. This effort is no longer required.
The development of the income tax as the major revenue source of the
federal government and the emergence of the federal government as
the nation's major tax-gatherer -- plus the wide use of the income
tax by state and local governments -- have largely eliminated the
original need to justify the property tax by attempting to base it
on ability to pay. Individual justice could now be attained if the
property tax were based on cost of benefits enjoyed by the property.
Social justice could be achieved if the tax took into account
society's general expansion in numbers and productivity. Recognition
of the property tax's strength in helping society to benefit
generally from the land and resource values it is creating seems
currently to be growing.
The conference and this book owe much to the stimulus and support
of the Committee on Taxation, Resources and Economic Development and
the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. In addition, the participants
were assisted in making their contributions by the organizations
with which they are associated. The School of Business
Administration of the University of Oregon was particularly helpful.
Richard W. Lindholm, Eugene, Oregon, March, 1967
Part I -- Some Fundamental Considerations |
|
Introduction |
Richard W. Lindholm
Professor of Finance and Dean, School of Business
Administration, University of Oregon |
1. Property-Tax Development: Selected Historical
Perspectives |
Arthur D. Lynn, Jr.
Professor of Economics and Associate Dean of Faculties, The
Ohio State University |
2. Past and Future Growth of the Property Tax |
Benjamin Bridges, Jr.
Economist, Social Security Administration |
3. Conflict between State Assessment Law and Local Assessment
Practice |
John Shannon
Senior Analyst, Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental
Relations |
4. Henry George: Economics or Theology? |
Reed R. Hansen
Professor of Economics, Washington State University |
Part II -- Business and Industry |
|
Introduction |
Richard W. Lindholm |
5. Taxation of Agriculture |
Raleigh Barlowe
Professor of Agricultural Economics and Chairman, Department of
Resource Development, Michigan State University |
6. The Taxation of Business Personal Property |
Earl E. Burkhard
Personal Property Taxation Consultant, New York |
7. Property Taxation of Intangibles |
Harold M. Groves
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin |
8. Some Aspects of the Ad Valorem Taxation of
Railroads |
Lynn A. Stiles
Senior Economist, Federal Reserve Bank, Chicago |
9. Property-Tax Inducements to Attract Industry |
Paul E. Alyea
Emeritus Professor of Public Finance, University of Alabama
|
Part III -- Special Problems |
|
Introduction |
Richard W. Lindholm |
10. Property-Tax-Rate Limits: A View of Local
Government |
Irving Howards
Director of the Bureau of Government Research, University of
Massachusetts |
11. Payments from Tax-Exempt Property |
Joan E. O'Bannon
Assistant Professor of Economics, Agnes Scott College |
12. Exemptions of Veterans' Homesteads |
Bernard E. Sliger
Professor of Economics and Dean, Office of Academic Affairs,
Louisiana State University |
13. Property-Tax Concessions to the Aged |
Yung-Ping Chen
Assistant Professor of Economics, University of California (Los
Angeles) |
14. Broader Lessons from the History of Lake Superior Iron-Ore
Taxation |
Clarence W. Nelson
Head of Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank, Minneapolis
|
Part IV -- Conference Hour Discussions |
|
Introduction |
Eli Schwartz |
Conference Hour Topics |
|
Economic Neutrality of Property Taxation
|
|
Assessment Ratios |
|
Intensity of Use of the Property Tax
|
|
Future Role of the Property Tax |
|
Tax Shifting and Burden |
|
Support of Education |
|
State-Wide Property-Tax Rate |
|
Household Tax Exemption |
|
Investment and Land-Value Taxation |
|
Taxation of Extractive Industries |
|
Tax-Exempt Government and Non-Profit Institutional
Property |
|
Conference Hour Participants |
|
Eli Schwartz, Editor |
Professor of Finance, Lehigh University |
Israel M. Labovitz, Coordinator |
Senior Specialist in Social Welfare, Legislative Reference
Service, Library of Commerce |
Morris Beck |
Associate Professor of Economics, Rutgers, The State
University (Newark) |
Arthur
P. Becker |
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee)
|
John Henry Denton |
Statewide Coordinator of Real Estate Program, University of
California (Berkeley) |
Werner W. Doering |
Property Tax Division of the State of Wisconsin |
Karl Falk |
Professor of Economics, Fresno State College of California
|
Mason Gaffney |
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee)
|
Jewell J. Rasmussen |
Head, Department of Economics, University of Utah |
William S. Vickery |
Professor of Economics and Chairman, Department of Political
Science, Columbia University |
Bernard L. Barnard [this name is added in my grandfather's
handwriting] |
|
TRED 3:
The Property Tax and Its Administration,
edited by Arthur D. Lynn, Jr.
Dust Jacket: In the United States today, the
twenty-five billions dollars a year returned by the property tax is
exceeded only by the federal income tax as a source of governmental
revenue.
The scholars, state officials, and the professional appraiser who
are contributors to this volume address themselves to questions of
public policy, practicality, and equity in the property levy. They
raise hope for (and set limits on) the value of electronic data
processing in accurate assessment, while reserving an essential role
for the human assessor.
Guarded optimism is expressed for possible state legislative
reform required qualified assessors at the local level, full
disclosure of assessment ratios, reduction in number of assessment
districts, and review of tax-exempt property.
Self-assessment, with penalties of fines or forced selling at the
self-assessed price, is proposed as a substitute or supplement to
administrative assessment systems and as a transitional device in
newly developing countries until an effective property tax
administration is established.
After examining the property tax as a tool for implementing public
policy in the urban fringe areas of the continental United States,
one expert recommends the use of limited tax deferrals. Hawaii's
Land Use Law, a measure designed to control state-wide land use to
maintain environmental quality under conditions of rapid economic
expansion, is analyzed in its relation to the property tax.
This thorough, constructive coverage of the property tax will be
valuable to economists as well as to officials of state and local
government. Editor Arthur D. Lynn, Jr., is Professor of Economics
and Law and Associate Dean of Faculties at Ohio State University.
Preface Both economy and polity have often been
influenced by economic and institutional cycles. So also has the
property tax. This ancient levy and opinion about its quality have
moved through many different phases. The tax base has expanded and
contracted. The relative use of the tax has waxed, waned and waxed
again. Its public image, as well as its evaluation by specialists,
has varied considerably over time.
The property tax has been roundly condemned from time out of mind.
Some experts have predicted that, unless greatly and, indeed,
promptly, improved, this fiscal institution is destined for early
oblivion. Others -- apparently thinking the existing pattern
unresponsive to changing circumstances -- anticipate no significant
change in present property tax arrangements. Despite such
conflicting judgments, it is not unreasonable to expect that some
form of the property tax will remain as an important fiscal
arrangement for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, questions both
about barriers to change and about improvement possibilities are of
continuing significance.
This book contains the papers presented and the summarized
discussion recorded at a conference on the property tax and its
administration conducted by the Committee on Taxation, Resources and
Economic Development (TRED), an association of academic economists
concerned with natural resource taxation. The conference was held at
Kenwood Hall, the continuing education center of the University of
Wisconsin -- Milwaukee, from July 6 through July 8, 1967. The
participants considered whether and to what extent administrative
patterns and problems, including the assessment process, are
obstacles to change in property tax arrangements and ...
[3 pages omitted -- but it would be nice to
have them.]
Part I An Overview |
|
1. The Institutional Context of Property Tax Administration
|
Arthur D. Lynn, Jr.
Professor of Economics and Law and Associate Dean of Faculties,
The Ohio State University |
2. Is the Property Tax Conceptually and Practically
Administrable? |
Harold M. Groves
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin |
Part II Administrative Organization |
|
3. Potential for ORganizational Improvement of Property
Tax Administration |
Kenneth C. Back
Finance Officer, Government of the District of Columbia
|
4. The Effect of Electronic Data Processing upon Property Tax
Administration |
John D. Cole II
Vice President, Cole-Layer-Trumble Company |
5. Improved Property Tax Administration: Legislative
Opportunities and Probabilities |
Paul V. Corusy
Executive Director, International Association of Assessing Officers
|
Part III Assessment Procedures |
|
6. An Evaluation of Self-Assessment under a Property Tax
|
Daniel M. Holland and William M. Vaughn
Professor of Economics and Department of Economics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technologysin |
7. Valuation of Property Interests for Ad Valorem
Taxation of Extractive Industry and Agricultural Realty: Problems
and Solutions |
Anthony G. Ferraro
Director of Appraisals, Colorado Tax Commission -- State of
Colorado |
8. Assessment of Land in Urban-Rural Fringe Areas |
Frederick D. Stocker
Professor of Business Research, The Ohio State University
|
9. Some Observations on Property Tax Valuation and the
Significance of Full Value Assessment |
Henry Aaron
Economist, Council of Economic Advisors |
10. Assessment Standards: Highest and Best Use as a Basis
for Land Appraisal and Assessment |
A. M. Woodruff
Chancellor, University of Hartford |
Part IV Administration and Evolving Property Tax
Policy |
|
11. Property Tax Administration and Hawaii's Land Use Law
|
Shelley M. Mark
Director, Department of Economic Development and Planning --
State of Hawaii |
12. Property Taxation: Policy Potentials and
Probabilities |
Ronald B. Welch
Assistant Executive Secretary, Property Taxes, State Board of
Equalization, State of California |
Conference Discussion |
|
Conference Discussants |
|
Paul E. Alyea |
Emeritus Professor of Finance, University of Alabama |
Lynn F. Anderson |
Assistant Director, Institute of Public Affairs, University of
Texas |
M. Mason Gaffney |
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin --Milwaukee
|
Peter House |
University of Wisconsin --Milwaukee |
Richard W. Lindholm |
Professor of Finance, University of Oregon |
Carl McGuire |
Chairman, Department of Economics, University of Colorado
|
Albert Pleydell |
President, Management Services Associates, Inc., and
President, Robert Schalkenbach Foundation |
William S. Vickrey |
Chairman, Department of Economics, Faculty of Political
Science, Columbia University |
Elsie M. Watters |
Director, State-Local Research, Tax Foundation, Inc. |
TRED 4
Land and Building Taxes: Their Effect on Economic
Development, edited by Arthur P. Becker. 308 pages
University of Wisconsin Press, 1969
Preface: While there seems to be general agreement
that the property tax plays a significant role in economic
development, there is far less agreement on the nature and
importance of that role. Concern has been rising as to whether the
property tax (and especially the real estate tax) acts as a possible
deterrent to continued progress in economic development in general
and to urban development in particular. Lack of knowledge about the
property tax in the face of this rising concern has prompted the
Committee on Taxation, Resources and Economic Development to direct
and encourage scholarly attention to the problem.
The primary purpose of the present volume is to help fill this
scholarly gap by inquiring into the nature and operation of the
components of the real estate tax and how they are related to
economic development. Experts in the dual disciplines of the
property tax and economic development have shared in the inquiry,
and their contributions have been brought together in this volume.
Part I presents a theoretical analysis of taxes on land and
buildings and of their broad effect on economic development. Various
micro and macro aspects of these taxes are considered in terms of
their general impact on the economy. Next, their impact on certain
economic problems of development is examined. Taxes on land and
building values are analyzed in terns of their effect on the
maintenance and rehabilitation of housing, urban renewal,
metropolitan growth and planning, and investment in multiple-family
housing.
Part II consists of five case studies which attempt to relate the
economic development of various countries to their taxes on land and
buildings. Political, economic, and social realities that influence
the course of economic development in various states and countries
often require the adoption of tax institutions considerably removed
from what one might regard as ideal. Nevertheless, the different
approaches to taxing land and building values in each country are
interesting and often instructive.
This book is based primarily on papers delivered at or stimulated
by the conference, "The Property Tax and Economic Development," which
took place on the campus of the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee,
during 13-15 June 1966. The chapters by Ernest A. Englebert, Albert
B. Henley, and Arthur L. Grey, Jr., are based on unpublished papers
delivered at earlier conferences, but were included in this volume
because they strengthen and complement the other chapters. They have
been brought up to date where it was found necessary to do so and
have also been integrated with the other papers. John Strasma was in
Chile at the time of the conference and therefore was unable to
present his paper in person. It fit so well with the others,
however, that it was included in Part II.
Arthur P. Becker, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February
1969.
Part I Theoretical Aspects of Taxing Land and Buildings
|
|
Introduction |
|
1. Principles of Taxing Land and Buildings for Economic
Development |
Arthur P. Becker
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee
|
2. The Influence of the Property Tax on Investment and
Employment |
J. A. Stockfisch
Senior Research Associate, Member Research Council, Institute
for Defense Analyses |
3. Reforming the Real Estate Tax to Encourage Housing
Maintenance and Rehabilitation |
James Heilbrun
Assistant Professor of Economics, Columbia University |
4. Urban Renewal and Land Value Taxation |
Arthur L. Grey, Jr.
Chairman and Professor of Urban Planning, College of
Architecture and Urban Planning, University if Washington
|
5. The Political Aspects of Real Estate Taxation in Relation
to Metropolitan Growth and Planning |
Ernest A. Engelbert
Professor of Political Science, University of California, Los
Angeles |
6. Property Taxation and Multiple-Family Housing |
Max Neutze
Senior Fellow in Charge, Urban Research Unit, The Australian
National University |
Part II Land and Building Taxes: Five Case Studies
|
|
Introduction |
|
7. Land Value Taxation by California Irrigation Districts
|
Albert T. Henley
Jones, Griswold & Henley, Attorneys-at-Law, San Jose,
California |
8. Property Taxes and Land-Use Patterns in Australia and New
Zealand |
A. M. Woodruff and L. L. Ecker-Racz
Chancellor, University of Hartford / Assistant Director,
Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental; Relations |
9. Property Taxation in Chile |
John Strasma
Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Chile
Project, Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin |
10. The Valorization Tax in Colombia: An Example for
Other Developing Countries? |
William G. Rhoads and Richard M. Bird
Chief of Public Finance, Economic Mission of the United States
in the Republic of Colombia, Agency for International
Development / Associate Professor of Economics, Institute for
the Quantitative Analysis of Social and Economic Policy,
University of Toronto |
11. A Study of Land Taxation in Jamaica |
Daniel M. Holland
Professor of Finance, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Conclusion |
|
Obtaining a Copy |
Libraries: |
New: Schalkenbach Foundation link |
Bibliofind: |
Reviews |
|
TRED
5: The Assessment of Land Value edited by
Daniel M. Holland
Dust Jacket: The American practice of taxing the
improved value of properties is being increasingly criticized as not
suited to the needs of contemporary society. Much has been claimed
for a site value tax as an alternative to the present property tax,
and support for it appears to be growing. This latest TRED volume
explores the feasibility of implementing such an alternative.
Proponents of the site value tax see it as an aid in encouraging
construction and in alleviating distorted development patterns, such
as suburban sprawl and inner city decay. Critics, however, claim
that site and improvement values have become so inseparably blended
that the tax would be impossible to implement. Moreover, they argue,
were land alone the base, an inordinately high rate of taxation
would be required. Here, twelve students of public finance,
assessors, and planners -- all recognized experts in their fields --
consider whether modern assessment practice is capable of assessing
land values with sufficient accuracy to make site value tax
administrable. They also address themselves to legal and
transitional problems which would develop in changing to a site
value tax and consider the prospects for revenue adequacy under such
a tax.
The Assessment of Land Value will be of interest and
assistance to scholars in economics, business, public finance and
administration, political science, planning and urban affairs, and
to practicing lawyers, municipal and county administrators,
planners, assessors, bankers, developers, and others concerned with
the role of property taxation in social development.
1. Can Land be Assessed for Purposes of Site Value Taxation?
|
Ursula K. Hicks
Formerly University Lecturer in Public Finance, Oxford
|
2. Defining Land Value for Taxation Purposes |
William S. Vickrey
Professor of Economics, Columbia University |
3. Land Value Taxation in Light of Current Assessment Theory
and Practice |
Kenneth Back
Director of Finance and Revenue, Government of the District of
Columbia |
4. Reckoning with Imperfections in the Land Market |
John M. Copes
United Nations Adviser on Land Valuation and Taxation,
United Nations Development Programme, Trinidad |
5. Preparation and Use of Land Value Maps |
Donald R. Beach
Deputy Director of Property Valuation, State of Arizona
|
6. Estimating Residential Land Value by Multivariate Analysis
|
Paul B. Downing
Assistant Professor of Economics, University of California at
Riverside |
7. A Computerized Assessment Program |
Ted Gwartney
Assessor, City of Hartford, Connecticut |
8. Legal Problems and Obstacles in Assessing Land for Site
Value Taxation |
Arthur D. Lynn, Jr.
Professor of Economics and Public Administration, The Ohio
State University |
9. Adequacy of Land as a Tax Base |
Mason Gaffney
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee
|
10. Transition to Land Value Taxation: Some Major
Problems |
C. Lowell Harriss
Professor of Economics, Columbia University |
Conference Summary |
David Black |
TRED 6:
Government Spending & Land Values: Public Money & Private
Gainedited by
C. Lowell Harriss (1973)
Dust Jacket: Billions of tax dollars are spent
annually on government subsidy programs which are designed to help
certain groups, areas, and industries, and contribute to the general
welfare. Despite the good intentions of legislators, however,
analysts point to evidence that the programs are not only burdensome
for the taxpayer but often intend to do their intended jobs. Critics
find that major benefits go not to those whom the programs are
designed to help, but to others who can "capitalize" on
them.
One major feature of the subsidy benefit pattern -- unintended but
predictable -- is the capitalization of land values. The value of
land will increase when the benefits, chiefly money income, are
enhanced by government subsidization. When the land is sold, the
benefit of a subsidy which seems likely to continue will be captured
by the seller. Thereafter, tax funds that continue to subsidize a
program will not fully benefit those for whom they were presumably
intended, but the seller will have made a capital gain.
A classicc example can be drawn from the experience of
federal farm programs. Taxpayers and consumers have been spending
billions annual to aid some farmers. In practice, of course, these
programs have often -- and intentionally -- reduced farm output and
raised consumer prices. The consumer-taxpayer is thus dealt a double
blow, in effect subsidizing an increase in his own food prices. Yet
the operating farmer, burdened with a higher land price, fails to
get the full benefits of the programs established for his welfare.
In farm programs, as in some other subsidy programs, the expected
annual benefits are capitalized into higher land prices. Then, after
land prices have gone up to reflect these benefits, the annual
payments to farm operators in effect support the higher land prices.
In effect, the seller of land realizes the benefits of government
subsidy into perpetuity. A somewhat similar pattern is to be
expected in other public spending programs, including those
concerned with urban renewal, where benefits are localized. The
pattern shows that farm programs do not raise wages of low-paid farm
labor, that urban projects do not rid cities of slums, and that the
taxpayer-consumer bears the burden of both.
This volume explores, and at least attempts to define, the extent
to which land values tend to capture the benefits of subsidies and
other government spending through capitalization. It includes papers
by proponents as well as critics. The contributors, who include some
of the nation's leading economists, discuss the nature and effects
of farm and housing programs, commodity price supports,
transportation outlays, land preservation projects, water resource
development, and urban renewal programs. Their work will be of more
than routine interest to economists, political scientists, lawyers,
political officeholders and government officials, planners, and all
others who seek to unravel the complex fabric of
multi-billion-dollar government spending programs.
Introduction |
C. Lowell Harriss |
Part I Introduction and Theory |
|
1. The Economics of Federal Subsidy Programs |
Jerry J. Jasinowski
Research Economist, The Joint Economic Committee |
2. The Capitalization of Property Taxes and Subsidies
|
Raymond L. Richman
Professor of Economics, Graduate School of Public and
International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh |
Part II Housing and Agricultural Subsidies |
|
3. Federally Subsidized Housing Program Benefits |
Henry B. Schechter
Senior Specialist in Housing, The Library of Congress |
4. Capital and Current Expenditures in the Production of
Housing |
Richard F. Muth
Professor of Economics, Stanford University |
5. The Incidence of Benefits from Commodity Price-Support
Programs: A Case Study of Tobacco |
Robert F. Boxley and William D. Anderson
Agricultural Economist and General Attorney,
Natural Resources Economics Division, United States Department
of Agriculture |
6. The Benefits and Burdens of the United States Sugar Quota
System |
Roy A. Ballinger
Agricultural Economist, United States Department of Agriculture
|
Part III: Transportation, Water, and Other Factors
Affecting Land Value |
|
7. Transportation Outlays: Who Pays and Who Benefits?
|
Martin O. Stern and Robert U. Ayres
Senior Staff Member and Vice President,
International Research and Technology Corporation |
8. Estimating the Benefits of Stream Valley and Open Space
Preservation Projects |
Robert E. Coughlin and Thomas R. Hammer
Vice President and Research Associate,
Regional Science Research Institute |
9. Land Value Increments as a Measure of the Net Benefits of
Urban Water Supply Projects in Developing Countries: Theory
and Measurement |
Royl W. Bahl, Stephen P. Coelen, and Jeremy J. Warford
Professor of Economics and Graduate Student, Syracuse
University;
Economist, International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development |
10. Capitalization of the Benefits of Water Resource
Development |
Darwin W. Dalcott
Professor of Economics, University of Kansas |
Part IV: Urban Renewal: A Seminar
|
|
11. The Distribution of Benefits and Costs of the Federally
Subsidized Urban Renewal Programs |
Arthur P. Becker
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee
|
TRED 7: Property
Taxation and the Finance of Education, edited by
Richard W. Lindholm
Dust jacket: No single tax as aroused so much
heated or widespread public controversy in the past decade as the
property tax, which is the major single source of support for public
elementary and secondary education.
In this volume, more than twenty experts -- including tax
economists, a lawyer and a professor of education administration --
present their reasoned views on the strengths and weaknesses of the
property tax system, while comparing it with other possible revenue
sources. Together, they develop a comprehensive theory and
philosophy of the use of the property tax and land value taxation to
finance public education.
The contributors give thorough consideration to the impact of
recent court decisions in California, Texas and New Jersey on the
use of the property tax to finance education, and they present three
special studies of the specific problems of the Boston, Baltimore
and Chicago systems.
The entire problem of the relation of the property tax and the
land value tax to taxpayer ability to pay is analyzed in depth. The
contributors give full consideration to alternative sources of
educational support, and they examine the strengths and weaknesses
of a uniform statewide property or land value tax. Their work makes
clear their belief that the structure and administration of the
property tax can be improved in virtually all areas of the country,
but that we are not yet prepared to abandon the property tax as a
major educational support source.
This, the first book to explore this problem fully, will be of
immediate and lasting value to everyone concerned with this crucial
area of public policy. Legislators will depend on this material to
act with confidence in deciding on basic education finance policies.
School superintendents will welcome it for its new insights in the
light of recent developments in other regions. Government officials
and tax lawyers will depend on it for its reliable summary of
current knowledge and its informed opinions. Finally, this book will
be called upon to serve in many college and university courses
dealing with both taxation and education.
Preface: The costs of education provided
for the young people of America has skyrocketed because of the
greater numbers in the basic education age bracket and the rapidly
rising costs of instruction. One result of this situation has been a
greater increase of property tax collections than was generally
considered twenty years ago. Rising costs have caused local property
tax collections to increase more rapidly than personal income.
For many years the data have clearly demonstrated a close
association in many sections of the nation between property tax
rates and school financing requirements, and the lack of a close
association between the value of taxable property and school revenue
needs. State education foundation programs and related state revenue
allocation schemes have been adopted to reduce the obvious
inequitableness of the situation. It is very generally realized
these programs have failed to do the equalization of the economic
burden of public education that is required under the general
understanding of equal treatment clauses of many state
constitutions. As a result, court decisions, citizen protests, and
the findings of numerous studies have examined new approaches to the
finance of education. It has become one of America's major areas for
social-political-economic examination aimed at change.
This book presents the papers and discussions of a conference
titled Property Taxation and the Finance of Education, that
was held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Wisconsin, during the period October 20-22, 1972. The conference's
purpose was to examine what has been learned in this general area
through special studies, legal considerations, and theoretical
economic analyses.
Twenty of the participants presented papers that carefully
considered important aspects of the finance of education. Although
the emphasis is on finance and American procedures, consideration is
given to expenditure effectiveness and foreign experience.
The four groupings of papers and discussions have been made to
assist the reader in where to place his original emphasis.
Understanding of the problem requires the interaction and
combination of many types of information. Therefore,
compartmentalization and a given organization can only be offered as
one approach to understanding.
The first grouping used is titled "Theoretical and General
Considerations." The papers and discussions of Part I give
perspective to the problem through provision of background materials
of a historical, international, theoretical and political character.
The Conference Review Hour tackles the question of the relationship
between financing and the purpose of education.
Part II, titled "Statewide Approaches" examines the
general character of the property tax as a source of education
financing funds. Attention is concentrated on the use of uniform
statewide taxes. Although some emphasis is given to statewide taxes
other than a property tax, it is the property tax, and particularly
site value taxation, i.e., taxation of land, that receives the major
attention. The Conference Review Hour is largely concerned with the
location of the economic burden of the property tax.
Part III, "Legal Adjustments and Restrictions,"
considers the legal adjustments that court decisions are requiring
and the restrictions that may be placed on taxation procedures used
to finance education. The experts and the states have been chosen to
assure consideration of a variety of legal and legislative
situations. The Conference Review Hour examines the relation of
local control to statewide financing.
Part IV centers on school finance developments in metropolitan
areas and is titled "Metropolitan Area and City Fiscal
Environment." Again, revenue sources other than a
property tax are considered, but this time the desirability of
alternatives is related to local conditions. Consideration is given
to spending decisions for education arising from the local election
process. The Conference Review Hour considers a variety of topics,
including the taxable base of the income tax and the local
government needs of older people.
The moderator of the Conference Review Hour was Professor Daniel
M. Holland, editor of the National Tax Journal. Professor
Eli Schwartz of Lehigh University has edited the materials presented
at the Conference Review Hours. The editor wishes to than all of the
participants for their wonderful cooperation and to ask forgiveness
for all inconveniences his efforts caused.
The Conference and this book owe much to the stimulus and support
of the Committee on Taxation, Resources and Economic Development
(TRED) and the John C. Lincoln and the Robert Schalkenbach
Foundations.
Richard W. Lindholm, Eugene, Oregon, November 1,
1973
Part I Theoretical and General Considerations
|
|
1. Financing Education in the United States: Selected
Historical Perspectives |
Arthur D. Lynn, Jr.
Professor of Economics and Public Administration, The Ohio
State University |
2. Financing Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Soviet
Union |
Harold J. Noah
Professor of Economics and Education, Teachers College,
Columbia University |
3. Financing Methods and Demand for Education |
Peter Bohm
Associate Professor of Economics, University of Stockholm
|
4. Pitfalls and Policy Analysis in School Finance Reform
|
Anthony W. Cresswell
Assistant Professor of Educational Administration, Northwestern
University |
5. Less Developed Nation Education Need |
James L. Green
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia |
Conference Review Hour |
|
Part II Statewide Approaches |
|
6. Finance of Education with a Statewide Land Tax |
John Riew
Professor of Economics, Pennsylvania State University |
7. Looking at Tax Choices in Statewide Finance of Education
|
Douglas Y. Thorson
Professor of Economics, Bradley University |
8. Hawaii and Oregon: Graded Property and Land Value
Taxation |
Richard W. Lindholm
Professor of Finance, University of Oregon |
9. The Future of the Property Tax in Education Finance
|
George M. Raymond
Professor of Regional Planning, Pratt Institute |
10. The Finance and Allocation of Educational Resources
|
Ronald E. Grieson
Assistant Professor of Economics, Queens College |
Conference Review Hour |
|
Part III Legal Adjustments and Restrictions |
|
11. Competition between Local School and Nonschool Functions
for the Property Tax Base |
Seymour Sacks; Ralph Andrew, Paul O'Farrell, and Jerry Wade
Professor of Economics, Syracuse University |
12. California and the Finance of Education: Alternatives
in the Wake of Serrano v. Priest |
W. Craig Stubblebine and Ronald K. Teeples
Associate & Assistant Professors of Economics,
Claremont Men's College |
13. Fiscal Reform in New Jersey: Proposals Affecting
School Finance and Property Taxation |
Morris Beck
Professor of Economics, Rutgers University |
14. Property Taxation, Full Valuation, and the Reform of
Educational Finance in Massachusetts |
Daniel L. Rubinfeld
Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Michigan
|
Conference Review Hour |
|
Part IV Metropolitan Area and City Fiscal Environment
|
|
15. Social, Political and Economic Analysis of the Finance of
Education in the Baltimore Area |
William H. Oakland
Professor of Economics, The Ohio State University |
16. The Impact of Changes in Local Property Taxation and
School Finances on Metropolitan Development |
Robert N. Schoeplein
Associate Professor of Economics, University of Illinois
|
17. Land Value Taxation and the Finance of Education in
Metropolitan Areas |
Terrie Jean Gale
Social Science Analyst, Congressional Research Service, Library
of Congress |
18. Local Impacts of Alternative Methods of Financing
Education |
Charles Waldauer
Professor of Economics, Widener College |
19. Budgetary Outcomes in a Referendum Setting |
Noel M. Edelson
Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania
|
Conference Review Hour |
|
Conference Summary and Synthesis |
Richard W. Lindholm
Professor of Finance, University of Oregon |
Conference Hour:
Arthur P. Becker |
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee
|
Harvey E. Brazer |
Professor of Economics, University of Michigan |
Joseph S. DeSalvo |
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee
|
Paul B. Downing |
Associate Professor of Economics, University of California --
Riverside |
Karl Falk |
First Federal Savings & Loan Association, Fresno,
California |
Daniel R. Fusfeld |
Professor of Economics, University of Michigan |
William S. Vickrey |
Professor of Economics, Columbia University |
M. Mason Gaffney |
Director, British Columbia Institute for Economic Policy
Analysis, University of Victoria |
Carl W. McGuire |
Professor of Economics, University of Colorado |
Richard Rossmiller |
Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee
|
Jonathan A. Rowe |
Tax Reform Research Group, Washingon, D.C. |
Ferdinand P. Schoettle |
Professor of Law, University of Minnesota |
John Shannon |
Assistant Director, Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental
Relations, Washington, D. C. |
TRED 8:
Property
Taxation, Land Use & Public Policy edited
by Arthur D. Lynn, Jr.
Preface: One reviewer of an earlier volume in the
TRED series noted that the group had once again "rushed in
where angels fear to tread." Such may again the the case here
where, despite the natural and obvious limitations that a relatively
brief conference imposed upon both the breadth and depth of
consideration possible, property taxation, land use, and public
policy are explored in order to ascertain at least in a preliminary
fashion the impact of the interrelationship of property taxation and
land use patterns upon present and prospective public policy.
Recent years have witnessed a growing national debate about
appropriate public policy designed to enhance the quality and style
of life in a technological society. One conference, which considers
only a particular subset of that debate, can at best make only an
incremental contribution to the range of understandings conducive to
formation of the consensus necessary for effective agreement about
appropriate public policy. Nonetheless, given that caveat dictated
by what might be termed becoming modesty, we are convinced of the
cumulative value of such contributions to the process of long-run
policy determination.
Property taxation has been much considered by TRED as well as by
many other observers and analysts. The tax has been roundly
criticized time out of mind, and certainly the phrase natura non
facit saltum is descriptive of the process of adjustment and
improvement of this ancient levy. Nonetheless, positive development
occurs. Ronald Welch recently noted five significant changes in the
property tax during the past four decades. These included its
virtual elimination as a source of state revenues, a relative
decline as a source of local government general revenue, a
substantial increase in total revenue dollars produced, a tendency
to become less general in coverage due to the development of both
increased exemptions and additional classification of property
categories for ad valorem tax purposes, and finally, distinct
improvements in property tax administration.* His summary comment
serves to remind us that change occurs even if sometimes only at a
glacial rate. Even so, concern continues about the effect of the tax
upon land use and resource allocation as well as the character and
results of the tax in terms of received criteria such as economic
neutrality and distributional equity. Similarly, while
classifications or exemption have often accorded preferential
treatment to farm land, household personalty, and business
inventories, significant analytical and policy questions remain
concerning possible partial or complete untaxing of improvements and
the classification of land for ad valorem tax purposes.
While property tax change has progressed at a rather slow and
uneven pace, a congeries of other developments have generated
increased interest in both urban and rural land use policy,
especially the former. Many concerned with land use improvement
potentials have concluded from their examination of the evidence
that land use planning must be strengthened and improved, especially
at the state level. In this connection, the possibility of
adjustment of the property tax base from land and improvements to
heavier taxation of land has received renewed attention not merely
in terms of traditional justifications but also in relation to the
presumed land use effects of such a policy change. Accordingly, it
seemed appropriate for the Committee on Taxation, Resources and
Economic Development (TRED) to consider the impact of the
interrelationship of property taxation and land use patterns upon
public policy, including but by no means limited to the potential
untaxing of improvements.
[remainder omitted; much of it summarizes the table of contents.]
Part I A Current Appraisal |
|
1. Property Taxation and the Political System |
Glenn W. Fisher
Regents Professor of Urban Affairs, Wichita State University
|
2. Property Taxation: A Reappraisal of Burden,
Incidence, and Equity and their Policy Implications |
George F. Break
Professor of Economics, University of California--Berkeley
|
3. Responses to Rodriguez: More Reform or Less?
|
John M. Payne
Professor of Law, Rutgers University Law School |
4. Property Tax Administration: Current Conditions and Future
Possibilities |
Kenneth Back
Director of Finance and Revenue, Government of the District of
Columbia |
Part II Land Use Effects |
|
5. Municipal Expenditures and the Composition of the Local
Property Tax Base |
Helen F. Ladd
Department of Economics, Wellesley College |
6. Toward Full Employment with Limited Land and Capital
|
Mason Gaffney
Professor of Economics, University of Victoria |
7. Property Taxation, Land Use, and Environmental Policy: The
Alaska Case |
Douglas N. Jones
Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress |
8. Property Taxation, Land Use, and Rationality in Urban
Growth Policy |
Frederick D. Stocker
Professor of Economics and Public Administration, The Ohio
State University |
Part III Public Policy Alternatives |
|
9. Property Tax Redesign Options: Productive or
Counterproductive? |
C. Lowell Harriss
Professor of Economics, Columbia University, and Economic
Consultant, Tax Foundation, Inc. |
10. Property Taxation: Federalism and Federal Policy
|
John Shannon
Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations |
11. Property Tax Reform and Public Policy Reality |
Dick Netzer
Dean, Graduate School of Public Administration, New York
University |
Summary Discussion and Evaluation of Policy Alternatives
|
Daniel M. Holland, Provocateur; Eli Schwartz, Editor
Professor of Finance, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
TRED 9: Metropolitan
Financing and Growth Management Policies, edited by
George F. Break
Dust Jacket: What, if anything, should be done to
control the rate of urban growth or to direct it into particular
activities?
How should zoning laws be changed to achieve the most efficient
patterns of urban land use?
How great is the risk that a move toward areawide metropolitan
government would increase local government expenditures and tax
burdens?
How real are the fears that higher local taxes will repel business
enterprises and thereby frustrate the efforts of hard-pressed city
governments to raise more money?
How can the property tax be improved and what will be the effects
of different measures designed to do so?
How would different families be affected by a shift from local
property to local income taxation or by the assumption of more state
responsibility for the financing of particular local government
programs?
What impact does the federal income tax have on local land use and
development, and which federal tax reforms should local officials
especially push for?
This book addresses some of the most heatedly discussed of
contemporary urban issues and problems, centering around policies
and practice of metropolitan financing and growth management.
Included are examinations of the experience in Oregon (which, in
1973, became the first state to adopt statewide regulations on land
use), as well as in Toronto, Boston and Milwaukee. The three
chapters on property tax reform will be of special interest to those
who have long questioned the theory and implementation of this, the
nation's major source of support for primary and secondary public
education.
Introduction |
George F. Break
Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
|
Part I Growth Management |
|
1. Local Taxes and Intraurban Industrial Location: A Survey
|
William H. Oakland
Professor of Economics, The Ohio State University |
2. Property Taxation and Land Use Control Policies in Oregon
|
Richard W. Lindholm
Professor of Finance, University of Oregon, Eugene |
3. Federal Tax Policy and Land Conversion at the Urban Fringe
|
George E. Peterson
Director of Public Finance, The Urban Institute |
Part II Metropolitan Finance |
|
4. Three Aspects of Urban Land Use Regulation |
Peter Mieszkowski
Professor of Economics, University of Houston |
5. The Effect of Property Taxes on the Capital Intensity of
Urban Land Development |
Donald C. Shoup
Associate Professor of Public Administration, The Maxwell
School, Syracuse University |
6. Toronto Metropolitan Finance: Selected Objectives and
Results |
Gail C. A. Cook
Executive Vice President, C. D. Howe Research Institute,
Montreal |
7. Urban Property Taxation in Less Developed Countries: Fiscal
and Growth Management Dimensions |
Roy W. Bahl
Professor of Economics and Director, Metropolitcan Studies
Program, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University |
Part III Property Tax Reform |
|
8. Property Tax Exporting and Differential Incidence of the
Homestead Exemption |
Larry D. Schroeder and David L. Sjoquist
Associate Professor of Public Administration, The Maxwell
School, Syracuse University, and
Associate Professor of Economics, Georgia State University
|
9. Estimating the Impact of Full Value Assessment on Taxes and
Value of Real Estate in Boston |
Daniel M. Holland and Oliver Oldman
Professor of Finance, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
Professor of Law and Director of the International Tax Program,
Harvard Law School |
10. The Burden on the City of Milwaukee and Its Residents of
the Real Property Tax Compared with the Individual Income Tax
|
Arthur P. Becker and Hans R. Isakson
Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee
and Assistant Professor of Real Estate and Urban Economics,
University of Georgia |
Summary Discussion and Evaluation |
Henry O. Pollakowski, Provocateur and Editor
Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Washington
|
TRED 10: The
Taxation of Urban Property in Less Developed Countries,
edited by Roy W. Bahl
Dust Jacket. Taxes on property are the single most
important source of locally raised tax revenue for urban governments
in less developed countries. Moreover, since central and state
governments have generally preempted the sales and income tax bases,
and since urban government expenditure needs to continue to press,
it seems likely that the role of rban property taxes will become
even more important.
Yet with this importance and potential, surprisingly little is
known about the practice of urban property taxation in less
developed countries. Comparative norms are not available, and there
has been little information compiled about successful and
unsuccessful experiences, despite a rich history of experimentation
with urban property taxation in developing countries, particularly
with the use of the tax to influence the use of urban land.
The objective of this volume, and the TRED conference from which
it came, is to take a step toward filling this gap in our knowledge
about the practice and impacts of urban property taxes in less
developed countries. This volume will be of interest and value to
economists, political scientists, historians, and all scholars and
students whose interests include the problems of developing
countries. Planners, managers, and other professionals in government
and industry will also find much of value here.
Introduction |
Roy W. Bahl
Professor of Economics and Director, Metropolitan Studies
Program, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University |
Part I Current Practice |
|
1. The Practice of Urban Property Taxation in Less
Developed Countries |
Roy W. Bahl |
Part II Distributional Considerations |
|
2. The Relevance of the New View of the Incidence of the
Property Tax in Less Developed Countries |
Charles E. McLure, Jr
Vice President, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.,
Professor of Economics, Rice University |
3. The Incidence of Urban Property Taxation in Colombia
|
Johannes F. Linn
Economist, Urban and Regional Economics Division, World Bank
|
4. Adjusting the Property Tax for Growth, Equity and
Administrative Simplicity: A Proposal for La Paz,
Bolivia |
Daniel M Holland
Professor of Finance, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Part III Land Use Effects |
|
5. The Effects of Land Taxes on Development Timing and Rates
of Change in Land Prices |
Roger S. Smith
Professor of Economics and Dean, Faculty of Business
Administration and Commerce,
University of Alberta, Canada |
6. "Land Readjustment" as an Alternative to Taxation
for the Recovery of Betterment: The Case of South Korea
|
William A. Doebele
Professor of Advanced Environmental Studies in the Field of
Implementation, Harvard University |
7. Land Taxation in Taiwan: Selected Aspects |
C. Lowell Harriss
Professor of Economics, Columbia University, Economic
Consultant, Tax Foundation, Inc. and Associate, Lincoln
Institute of Land Policy |
Part IV Administrative Considerations |
|
8. Some Administrative Aspects of Site Value Taxation: Defining
"Land" and "Value"; Designing a Review
Process |
Oliver Oldman and Mary Miles Teachout
Professor of Law & Director and Research Associate of the
International Tax Program, Harvard Law School |
9. The Elasticity of Property Taxes on Site Value and Improved
Value |
Oliver Oldman and Ching-mai Wu
Professor of Law & Director and Instructor in Economics,
the International Tax Program, Harvard Law School |
10. A History of Jamaica's Experience with Site Value Taxation
|
O. St. Clare Risden
Commissioner of Valuation, Jamaica, West Indies |
11. Site Value Rating in Johannesburg, South Africa |
John McCulloch
City Valuer of Johannesburg, South Africa |
Part V Concluding Discussion |
|
12. The Taxation of Urban Property in Less Developed
Countries: A Concluding Discussion |
Carl S. Shoup
McVickar Professor Emeritus of Political Economy, Columbia
University |
TRED 11
Land Value Taxation: The Progress and PovertyCentenary,
edited by Richard W. Lindholm and Arthur D. Lynn, Jr.
Dust jacket: In these days of economic doubt and
turmoil, the writings of the classical economists are being
reexamined with more than ordinary interest. A century ago, the
American economist Henry George published his best-known work, Progress
and Poverty.
George's ideas, although they created a stir at the time, never
found a place in the mainstream of American economic thought as they
did, for instance, in Australia and New Zealand. American
democratic-capitalism, rather, was later built on the aggregate
economic thought of John Maynard Keynes and a long string of
successors who followed macro-type economic analysis and had no fear
of government deficits. The country's current economic problems have
not, however, found solutions in Keynesian economics. Perhaps,
suggest the contributors to this volume, it is time to reexamine the
revolutionary philosophy of Henry George.
George offered an answer to Marxism that has never been accepted
widely in other developed or developing countries. Each of this
volume's contributors -- both seasoned economists and young
experimental economists -- adds to an understanding of why the
George alternative to both Keynes and Marx has never been really
accepted, and what promise it holds for resolving some of today's
problems.
This is the first book to assess the potential of George's land
taxation philosophy to eliminate inflation, balance governmental
budgets, increase investment and productivity, and expand
opportunities for employment in both developed and developing
economies. Sections by Alan Prest and Kenneth Boulding are essential
for a basic understanding of the Georgian perspective. Mason Gaffney
and Matthew Edel provide a historical understanding for George's
lack of acceptance in the past, while sections by Arlo Woolery,
Richard Lindholm, and Roger Sturtevant show how George's land tax
concepts can be applied to local government in the United States.
George's theory stems from his interest in the maximum utilization
of resources and his observation that among the foundations of
production land is unique because the supply does not change with
price shifts. He observed that, while the cost of land rises as
population grows and production increases, the increased income from
the land does not, and cannot, result in a meaningful expansion of
supply.
He saw, too, that while governments needed more money to provide
necessary services for growing populations, other forms of increased
taxation had serious negative effects. Taxes on wages reduced the
efficiency and availability of labor, while taxes on capital reduced
investment. Higher taxes on land, however, could be collected
without reducing the returns to labor and capital. In addition, land
taxes could encourage full use of land potential.
This thorough reexamination of Henry George, and of the potential
value of his thought to the economic problems of the 1980s, will be
of immediate interest not only to practicing economists and
educators, but also to all those who are searching for bold and
well-reasoned answers to many of our most disturbing economic
problems, world, national, state, and local.
Preface: The year 1979 was the centenary
year of Progress and Poverty, the first and most important
work of that unique American analyst and philosopher, Henry George.
Accordingly, it is appropriate to consider anew George's particular
role in American tax thought. This book reports the papers and
summarizes the discussions held at the 1978 Conference of the
Committee on Taxation, Resources and Economic Development (TRED).
The discussions here included take a careful look at the writings
and conceptual positions of Henry George (1839-1897); they explore
the usefulness of George's philosophy in dealing with the modern
forms of the problems he considered a century ago.
The papers included were prepared by both general philosophical
and specialized tax economists, as well as by practicing tax
administrators from both Europe and the United States. Although the
preparers of papers and their several discussants represent a broad
spectrum of tax and economic thought, a general, if tentative,
consensus develops. It is that George's land tax possesses
significant utility as a source of government revenue, especially
for local government. Therefore, wider use of land value as a tax
base merits the attention of policy makers.
The United States continues to be a country of great progress with
substantial pockets of poverty a century after George wrote of this
in Progress and Poverty. George advocated wide and
substantial use of a tax on land, combined with sharply reduced
taxes on earnings and economic endeavor, in order to alleviate
poverty and stimulate progress. Yet his followers have enjoyed only
modest political, practical and academic success. Currently
spiraling land prices, general inflation, and the shortage of
investment produce economic conditions that suggest a reappraisal of
tax incentives and disincentives. The analysis of this book and the
conference that it represents, Land Value Taxation in Thought
and Practice, will give added insight and confidence to those
considering tax system design and the place of land as a tax base in
that context. Both the 1978 conference and this book owe much to the
stimulus and support of both the members of the Committee on
Taxation, Resources and Economic Development and the Lincoln
Institute of Land Policy. As the late Harold Groves once remarked,
Henry George's contribution contains elements of truth that are of
enduring importance. It is appropriate to recall this fact a century
after the publication of his major work.
Richard W. Lindholm, Eugene, Oregon
Arthur D. Lynn, Jr., Columbus, Ohio
November, 1980
Part I The Basics of Henry George's Philosophy
|
|
Introduction |
|
1. A Second Look at Progress and Poverty |
Kenneth E. Boulding
Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado
|
2. An Introduction to Henry George |
Weld S. Carter
Antioch, Illinois |
Comment Centered on Land Speculation |
|
Part II Land Taxation Revenue Potential |
|
Introduction |
|
3. Land Value Tax Revenue Potentials: Methodology and
Measurement |
Shawna P. Grosskopf and Marvin B. Johnson
Department of Economics, Southern Illinois University;
Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Wisconsin
-- Madison |
4. Defining and Measuring Land Value -- A Progress
Report |
Mary Miles Teachout
Harvard Law School |
5. American Land Tax Roots: Plus Experimentation in
Oregon |
Richard W. Lindholm and Roger G. Sturtevant
College of Business Administration, University of Oregon,
Eugene |
6. Land Value Taxation: Administrative Feasibility --
Retrospect and Prospect |
Ronald B. Welch
Sacramento, California |
Comment Centered on Land Valuation |
|
Part III Impact of the Use of Land as a Tax Base
|
|
Introduction |
|
7. Henry George and Tax Reform -- 100 Years Later |
George F. Break
Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
|
8. United Kingdom Land Taxation in Perspective |
Alan R. Prest
Department of Economics, The London School of Economics
|
9. Two centuries of Economic Thought on Taxation of Land Rents
|
Mason Gaffney
Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside
|
10. The Fairhope, Alabama, Land Tax Experiment |
Arlo Woolery
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Massachusetts
|
11. Capital, Profit and Accumulation: The Perspectives of
Karl Marx and Henry George Compared |
Matthew Edel
Department of Urban Studies, Queens College |
Comment Centered on Economic Reform and Future TRED Topics
|
|
Discussants |
|
Kenneth C. Back |
Finance Department, Government of District of Columbia
|
Roy W. Bahl |
Metropolitan Studies Program, The Maxwell School, Syracuse
University |
Arthur P. Becker (deceased) |
Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee
|
Charles C. Cook |
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Massachusetts
|
William S. C. Deyll |
Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
Karl Falk |
Fresno, California |
Philip Finkelstein |
Center for Local Tax Research, New York, New York |
C. Lowell Harriss |
Department of Economics, Columbia University |
Daniel M. Holland |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Arthur D. Lynn, Jr. |
School of Public Administration and Department of Economics,
The Ohio State University |
Carl W. McGuire |
Department of Economics, University of Colorado |
Dick Netzer |
Graduate School of Public Administration, New York University
|
H. Clyde Reeves |
Frankfort, Kentucky |
William S. Vickrey |
Department of Economics, Columbia University |
Hartojo Woignjowijoto |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Amazon, 4/8/2001:
TRED 5: The Assessment of Land Value by Daniel Holland (Hardcover
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TRED 9: Metropolitan Financing and Growth Management Policies
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TRED 4: Land and Building Taxes: Their Effect on Economic
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Fiscal Federalism and the Taxation of Natural Resources : 1981
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