Property Tax Reform, at the state level:

In 2007, Governor Spitzer assembled a Commission on Property Tax Relief in New York State, known as the Suozzi Commission. They've been taking testimony around the state. On 4/23, there will be another hearing. WealthandWant is pleased to present a collection of papers related to their work, by Bill Batt. If your state is considering property tax reform or you would like to understand the reform that can transform the conventional property tax into a tool to invigorate the local economy (not to mention its anti-sprawl effects), here's a great collection of relevant material. Share them with your elected representatives!

• Property Tax Commission White Paper, for the NYS Commission on Real Property Tax Relief • pdf version
• A Sound Property Tax Solution
• On the Futility of a Tax Cap — Former Governor Spitzer [New York] and other governors have been responding to real estate interests' desire for lower taxes with suggestions of property tax caps. But the benefits of such caps are very limited, and the offsetting problems created by reliance on other kinds of taxes are dangerous — even when the economy is at its healthiest. This short paper points to the problems with tax caps. • pdf version
• Two Property Tax Relief Measures: Land Value Taxation to Stabilize and Deferral as Provisional Tax Relief • pdf version
• Explaining the Virtues of a Land Value Tax for Those Who Never Had Economics 101 • pdf version
• Generational Equity in Housing: Property Tax Considerations • pdf version
• Comments on the Middle Class STAR Rebate Program, to the Assembly Standing Committee on Real Property Taxation •
• Property Tax Relief Measures: Answers to the "Poor Widow " Argument — How should we, as a society, respond when some senior homeowners' property taxes exceed their ability to pay? Is there a better answer than general "property tax relief," "property tax caps" or "targeted rebates?" Yes! • pdf version
• Saving the Commons in an Age of Plunder • pdf version

and Bill's follow-up to the 4/23 testimony and remarks by committee members: Can a [Property Tax] Circuit Breaker Ever Really Work?

• Testimony before Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Rules Hearing

for more of Bill Batt's papers, check out this page

A new "essential document" — the first in quite a while:

Gavin Putland wrote an article entitled Still on the Mountaintop: Economically Rational Racism, which was picked up by OpEd News. The article is available here both as a 6-page PDF file and in html, with links to the themes on this website which speak to related issues. I found it moving and thought provoking. Not only does it speak to issues of race, but it makes some important points with respect to immigration. It speaks to infrastructure spending, schools, bubbles and bursts, Old Testament land laws...

In the Promised Land of the Old Testament, there was no land speculation and no possibility of speculative bubbles, because you couldn’t sell land in perpetuity. According to the 25th chapter of Leviticus, every 50th year was to be a Jubilee, and you could only sell a lease on the land up to the next Jubilee. As the time remaining on the lease was always getting shorter, the lease was always falling in value, so you couldn’t make a capital gain on it. Nowadays, if we somehow don’t consider ourselves bound by the commandment that “The land shall not be sold for ever” (Leviticus 25:23), we need another method of preventing speculation. Land-value taxation not only discourages speculation, but also reduces inflationary pressure, allowing a reduction in the natural rate of unemployment, so that members of the dominant ethnic group face little risk of unemployment and have little to gain by trying to offload that risk onto some minority.

Alternatively, America can retain the present inflationary taxes, and the Fed can fight the inflationary pressure by creating unemployment, the burden of which will continue to fall disproportionately on Blacks. Meanwhile the opportunity to make capital gains on land, together with the lack of pressure to earn income from it, will maintain a permanent artificial demand for land, exacerbated by periodic speculative bubbles. The artificial demand will inflate rents and prices of residential land, which is a necessity of life, and for which workers will have to pay out of wages that have been depressed by the competition for scarce jobs, eroded by income tax, and devalued by indirect taxes. This is the Ownership Society, the caricature of the Promised Land offered by those who call themselves conservatives.

But let’s conclude on a more conciliatory note. In the present recession, which has been triggered by a collapse in land prices, land-value taxation would reverse the collapse — not by re-inflating a temporary speculative bubble, but by inducing investment in infrastructure that permanently enhances the utility of the land. So maybe it takes a recession to induce a conservative appreciation of land-value taxation as a substitute for existing taxes. Maybe that’s one way in which “only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”

Check out the new sibling to this website, the LVTfan blog!

Something to think about: Exxon set a new quarterly profit record of $39 billion. How much did they pay in royalties for the oil they drilled within the boundaries of the US? And to whom did they pay it? How much did they pay in corporate income taxes? Which is a fairer way to raise the revenue we need?

Wealthandwant is not enthusiastic about corporate or individual income taxes, but thinks we should be considering who is entitled to the royalties on our natural resources, and how those royalties should be calculated. Should individuals be entitled to royalties on natural resources? Tribal groups? States? The federal government? Corporate shareholders? Or all of us, as Alaska sees it?

Should we tax profits, or would we be smarter and more just to simply collect royalties on the natural resources that are removed from under our soil?

Check out Henry George's ideas on YouTube ... eight films, each from 8 to 10 minutes ... if you care about poverty, taxation, local services, wealth distribution, privilege, privatization, justice, sprawl, long commutes, conserving energy, reducing GG, public transportation ...

Progress & Poverty 1 • Progress & Poverty 2 • Progress & Poverty 3 • "Housing Bubble" is Really a Land Bubble • Exclusive Use of Land, the Law of the Conqueror • Value of Land is Created by the Community • Land Value and Free Lunch, Part 1 • Land Value and Free Lunch, Part 2

These come from the Henry George School of San Francisco, and succinctly explain many of the ideas on which this website provides detail.

And if you've arrived here because you googled "Henry George" after watching those videos, you might start with the links here. There's also a link to a page for printing out hardcopy bookmarks, if you're inclined to share the videos with others.

Boortz's "FairTax" proposes to get rid of income taxes, wage taxes, estate taxes and other federal taxes. Wealthandwant agrees with that goal — but we see a very different means to get there, a far more fair, just and desirable approach.

What's wrong with the so-called FairTax? Start here, and follow the links.

What is the better alternative? Taxes which meet the canons of taxation; taxes which are direct. Taxes on finite and scarce resources, whose efficient and effective use benefits all of us (and those taxes won't fall on the users). Land value taxation. Land includes a lot of things which currently aren't taxed at all — and which are held by corporations who didn't create them, and whose benefits therefore largely accrue to a small class of large shareholders. User fees.

Untax wages! Untax buildings! Untax sales! Create a just society and an economy in which all of us can prosper, without free lunches, without windfalls, without privilege. Reverse the perverse incentives inherent in our current system, and inherent in the FairTax. Wealthandwant points to a better way.

Where do we get the money required to build, maintain and upgrade America's infrastructure? The answer is under our feet. The logical source, largely untapped in some of its richest lodes, is in the value of our best land and our natural resources. Is it sufficient? It will go a long way to funding this very necessary spending, without hurting the economy. See infrastructure, financing infrastructure, land includes, natural resources, privatization for some starting points.

Property tax caps — why intelligent states and communities should avoid them. Reform the property tax, by all means, but don't cap it. See the reform that shifts us from perverse incentives to logical, desirable ones. ... read more

Wealthandwant themes relating to issues of the day ... Iraq ... foreclosures ... homeownership ... income inequality ... wealth inequality ... environment and pollution ... ending poverty ... walkable, affordable, compact cities ... taxes — and they're all connected — find the common thread!

 

New on the site:

• Perry Prentice's special issue of House & Home magazine: Land — This 45+ year old issue of a trade journal for America's builders is devoted to the subject of land — important for builders, important for communities, important for every single human being — then, today and forever. "Sprawl," and how to deal with it and avoid it, was one of the topics. So was tax reform. Worth your time!
• Bill Batt: A Sound Property Tax Solution •
• Bill Batt: Two Property Tax Relief Measures: Land Value Taxation to Stabilize and Deferral as Provisional Tax Relief • pdf version
• Bill Batt: Explaining the Virtues of a Land Value Tax for Those Who Never Had Economics 101 • pdf version
• Bill Batt: Generational Equity in Housing: Property Tax Considerations • pdf version
• Bill Batt: On the Futility of a Tax Cap Former Governor Spitzer [New York] and other governors have been responding to real estate interests' desire for lower taxes with suggestions of property tax caps. But the benefits of such caps are very limited, and the offsetting problems created by reliance on other kinds of taxes are dangerous — even when the economy is at its healthiest. This short paper points to the problems with tax caps. • pdf version
• Bill Batt: Property Tax Commission White Paper, for the NYS Commission on Real Property Tax Relief • pdf version
• Bill Batt: Comments on the Middle Class STAR Rebate Program, to the Assembly Standing Committee on Real Property Taxation •
• Bill Batt: Saving the Commons in an Age of Plunder • pdf version
• Bill Batt: Property Tax Relief Measures: Answers to the "Poor Widow " Argument — How should we, as a society, respond when some senior homeowners' property taxes exceed their ability to pay? Is there a better answer than general "property tax relief," "property tax caps" or "targeted rebates?" Yes! • pdf version
• Bill Batt: Testimony before Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Rules Hearing
• Gems From George (a/k/a The Economics and Philosophy of Henry George 1839-1897: Being Memorable Passages from his Writings and Addresses). This is a collection of quotes from various writings and speeches, collected under specific themes.
• Charles B. Fillebrown: A Catechism of Natural Taxation, from Principles of Natural Taxation (1917). This consists of 66 questions and answers, and was the result of a series of meetings that gained the agreement of a wide spectrum of economists of the day.
• Louis F. Post: Outlines of Louis F. Post's Lectures, with Illustrative Notes and Charts (1894) This was a hardback book, of about 100 pages. It consists of 3 parts: the main thread of his lectures, extensive notes which amplify the lectures, and a "frequently asked questions" appendix. Post used rent charts which may be of interest to many readers.
• Henry George: The Condition of Labor (1891) — this is Henry George's response to Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, Rerum Novarum, in the form of an open letter, in pdf format (44 pages) and in html format (with links to themes). Rerum Novarum is still a major source for Roman Catholic social thought. And consider the fact that more of us than ever before should consider ourselves Labor — not in the organized labor sense, but in the sense that we work for wages, salaries, etc. and depend on our labor earnings in order to live.
• The Labor Question — an abridged version of Henry George's The Condition of Labor (above), available in two formats: full-page PDF (21 pages) and bookletized PDF (32 pages - suitable only for printing!)
• Robert Henry Browne: Abraham Lincoln and the Men of His Time (1901) — extended excerpts from this two-volume book. Lincoln clearly saw the effects of land monopoly, and saw the need to end it.
• Bill Batt: Comment on Parts of the NYS Legislative Tax Study Commission's 1985 study: “Who Pays New York Taxes?” — a retrospective on a 1985 study, with 2007 insight
• Peter Barnes: Capitalism 3.0 — including a proposal for an American Permanent Fund, a global carbon trust, and many other recognitions of the importance of the commons
• John Cowan: Geolibertarianism in Rhyme — and the commons extends into certain kinds of intellectual property as well ...
• Dave Wetzel: Who Should Get the Land Rent? — should it be the landholders, or all of us?
• Bill Batt: Equity in Assessment Practices — getting the assessments on real property right, to promote fairness to all
• Bill Batt: Solution to School Finance Equity Dilemma in NY State: A Response to the Court of Appeals Decision to Provide about $4 – 6 Billion to the Underfunded School Systems — how do we best finance education for all our children, without harming the economy? The Campaign for Fiscal Equity has brought the question to the fore in New York State, but every state has the issue.
• Henry George: The Common Sense of Taxation (1881)
• Fred Foldvary: The Ultimate Tax Reform: Public Revenue from Land Rent (2006) — a persuasive response to the president's call for suggestions for reforming our federal tax system
• Charles Root: Not a Single Tax! (1925 brochure)
• Henry Ford, 1942 interview: Henry Ford Talks About War and Your Future and his endorsement of Henry George's approach
• Judge Samuel Seabury's Address commemorating the 100th anniversary of Henry George's birth (World's Fair, NYC, 1939)
• Albert Jay Nock's Henry George: Unorthodox American
• Leo Tolstoy
• John Dewey's 1933 radio address: Steps to Economic Recovery
• Elbert Hubbard: Little Journeys to Homes of Reformers: Henry George
• Clarence Darrow: How to Abolish Unfair Taxation (1913 speech) and The Land Belongs To The People (1916)
• Upton Sinclair: The Consequences of Land Speculation are Tenantry and Debt on the Farms, and Slums and Luxury in the Cities

Peace, Justice and Economic Reform — Nic Tideman • pdf
How to Revive a Dying City — Mason Gaffney
Land and Justice — Lindy Davies
An Introduction to Henry George — Weld Carter
Economics in Support of Environmentalism — Mason Gaffney

The Lies of the Land: How and Why Land Gets Undervalued — Michael Hudson • pdf
Real Estate and the Capital Gains Debate — Michael Hudson and Kris Feder
Estimating Land Value — Ted Gwartney • pdf
Are You a Real Libertarian, or a Royal Libertarian? — Dan Sullivan • pdf
Henry George and the Reconstruction of Capitalism — Robert Andelson • pdf

For Want of a Landlord: A Thanksgiving Parable — Mason Gaffney • pdf
The Uncertain Future of the Metropolis — Walter Rybeck • pdf
The Fallacy of the "Three-Legged Stool" Metaphor — Bill Batt • pdf

The People's Land — Winston Churchill • pdf
Land Price as a Cause of Poverty — Winston Churchill • pdf
Slavery — A.J.O. • pdf

A Synopsis of Henry George's Progress and Poverty — Al Katzenberger
Thou Shalt Not Steal — Henry George • pdf
Thy Kingdom Come — Henry George • pdf
How to Help the Unemployed — Henry George • pdf
Property Tax - Cause of Unemployment — Herbert Bab • pdf
This World is the Creation of God — Henry George • pdf
True Christianity and My Own Religious Beliefs — Joseph Fels • pdf

The Earth is the Lord's — Robert Andelson • pdf
From Wasteland to Promised Land (synopsis) — Robert Andelson and James Dawsey • pdf

On Earth as it is in Heaven — Mason Gaffney and others, writing about Bill Vickrey

Where Do We Go From Here? — The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

more documents

News and Notes:

Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

“The free market is the only mechanism that has ever been discovered for achieving participatory democracy.” — quote in NYT obituary, online November 16, 2006.

"Yes, there are taxes I like. For example, the gasoline tax, which pays for highways. You have a user tax. The property tax is one of the least bad taxes, because it's levied on something that cannot be produced — that part that is levied on the land. So some taxes are worse than others, but all taxes are bad." — interview, San Jose Mercury News, Nov 5, 2006

Wealthandwant.com disagrees with that last statement (praising with faint damns): land value taxation is not merely the least-bad tax, it is also the best tax. why?

21st Century Issues —

Tag, and other children's games — Tag doesn't worry me, but musical chairs does. see why!

300 million population — is population increase a problem, or a good thing? Who benefits? Does anyone lose? Why? How might it be changed into a win-win situation? see how!

Wealth, Poverty, Asset Poverty, Income Distribution, the Cost of Living — updated to include 2006 data for Virginia and Pennsylvania

How much does it cost a young family to live at the "all one's basic needs met" level?

• How does that level compare to the Federal Poverty Guideline?
• How many of us are living below that level? And how many of our children are living below that level?
• What does life cost in America's lowest-cost counties?
• What sort of compromises do those with incomes below that level have to make?

Wealthandwant has answers — and, more important, we have questions!

The Wealth Questions — This is a work-in-progress, but there's enough in place to explore already. Check back for updates!

New data on Wealth Distribution, from the Federal Reserve Board Survey of Consumer Finances (Currents and Undercurrents: Changes in the Distribution of Wealth, 1989–2004), with some additional calculations that shed more light on the underlying dynamics.

Go directly to the aggregated tables | detailed tables | introduction | guided tour | Currents and Undercurrents in html | Currents and Undercurrents PDF (original) | SCF Definitions | wealth: median, mean and wobegon

Rent, Wealth and Want in the News ...