I got to the former Assessment Commissioner of BC, who happens to be a long-time friend of mine.
He tells me that there is a single rate on land and improvements, but agrees that there should be no levy on improvements - it should all be on land.
Land-value you didn't create. It is a community created value that attaches to your site. For the community to take it back seems fair.
Your improvement value, you did create. It increases if you make your house batter. This seems stupid to penalize you because you are a good home-owner.
Art was a friend of mine living on the outskirts of Toronto. He was livid after a visit from the assessor. The assessor looked around his basement and counted the faucets, pointing out to Art that more faucets meant a higher assessment.
It really is potty.
The taxes that fine you for improving the site should be removed. The land-value that measures what the community is doing for you should be completely collected.
When this change is made, most home-owners pay less - that's as many as 95%.
People who pay more are downtown land-speculators and suchlike. When your tax is the same whether you have a slum or a good building on the site - there is economic pressure to get rid of the slum and erect a better building.
That's good!
Harry ----------------------------------------------------------
Stephen wrote:
Harry Pollard wrote: > One way to get all those desirable things accomplished is to get rid of the > property tax and replace it with a land value tax. This squelches land > speculation, ...
Hmmm. Here the property tax is based on land-value. My property tax = (the market value of my property) X (a mill-rate set by City Hall). Does this mean that here the property tax IS a land-value tax?
Stephen Straker
**************************************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 -- Fax: (818) 353-2242 http://home.attbi.com/~haledward ****************************************************
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