[RP TownTalk] land value tax oversold

[David Hiles]

My messages to this list are being moderated because I was judged to 
have violated the posting standards.
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LVT Straw Man* gets up off the floor, dusts himself off and says,

"I disagree that the LVT is being oversold.  I don't remember saying 
that a land tax policy would influence a non-taxed landholder like the 
University of Maryland.  And sorry, the LVT is not a club for beating 
up certain real estate investors.  The LVT is simply one of several 
tools available to shift the development balance towards a less vacant, 
more dense, more interesting and successful landscape.  Like the Mixed 
Use Town Center process, except on auto-pilot.

Riverdale Park is a community where the long-vacant town center is a 
big deal. Some members of our community recently tried using 
anti-developer graffiti as an economic development initiative.  
Redevelopment is not a morality play, but just an exercise in applied 
economics.  The LVT productively "tweaks" the incentives in the right 
direction.  I think the LVT and community marketing are things that 
should be used together. Why not use multiple tools?

Being happy that the Cafritz property is undeveloped greenspace in our 
town near a major mass transit stop is a legitimate personal choice.  
Translated into public policy, such a choice imposes costs on our 
community and encourages sprawl. Having lots of fallow property in our 
town means that the tax burden for basic services falls more heavily on 
all of us who own developed property.  It also means that our services 
are not as good as they could be if we were more fully developed. It 
means there are fewer customers for those shops we want in the town 
center.  We are greatly affected by other people's convenience in terms 
of the highways and rail lines which cut through our small town.  The 
LVT is a means for capturing some of that benefit for our community.

Consultants from the Maryland Land Tax Project may be available for a 
presentation on how the tax could work in our community and how to deal 
with some of the implementation issues raised in this discussion. If 
requested by a town official, such a presentation could be held at the 
town hall.  Some problems have solutions.


I think that at this point, the burden of proof falls on the defenders 
of the unsuccessful status quo** strategy for economic development and 
taxation."


*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man]


**Laurence J. Peter (Peter Principle) "Bureaucracy defends the status 
quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status."
Peter Senge (1999) "...collaboration is vital to sustain what we call 
profound or really deep change, because without it, organizations are 
just overwhelmed by the forces of the status quo."


WE are who we have been waiting for.
http://riverdalepark.blogspot.com/