[RP TownTalk] More on Harrisburg

[Jack R. Jones]

Dear TT,

For those who would like to learn more from those on the empirical front

Here is a letter from Mayor Reed of Harrisburg PA copied off of the 
site http://www.earthrights.net/docs/success.html

There is another site below with views of Seven Nobel Economic 
Laureates, a bit on Johannesburg U of SA and why it did not become a 
ghost town when the gold mines played out Mason Gaffney, Professor of 
Economics at UC Riverside tells why.

  Mayor Stephen Reed of Harrisburg sent the following letter to 
Patrick Toomey, businessman, civic activist, and member of the Home 
Rule Commission of Allentown (10/5/94):

"The City of Harrisburg continues in the view that a land value 
taxation system, which places a much higher tax rate on land than on 
improvements, is an important incentive for the highest and best use 
of land in already developed communities, such as cities.

In our central business district, for example, our two-tiered tax 
rate policy has specifically encouraged vertical development, meaning 
highrise construction, as opposed to lowrise or horizontal 
development that seems to permeate suburban communities and which 
utilizes much more land than is necessary.

With over 90% of the property owners in the City of Harrisburg, the 
two-tiered tax rate system actually saves money over what would 
otherwise be a single tax system that is currently in use in nearly 
all municipalities in Pennsylvania.

We therefore continue to regard the two-tiered tax rate system as an 
important ingredient in our overall economic development activities.

I should note that the City of Harrisburg was considered the second 
most distressed in the United States twelve years ago under the 
Federal distress criteria. Since then, over $1.2 billion in new 
investment has occurred here, reversing nearly three decades of very 
serious previous decline. None of this happened by accident and a 
variety of economic development initiatives and policies were created 
and utilized. The two-rate system has been and continues to be one of 
the key local policies that has been factored into this initial 
economic success here."

Here are a few of the improvements mentioned in the Harrisburg 
promotional literature2:

* The number of vacant structures, over 4200 in 1982, is today less than 500.

* With a resident population of 53,000, today there are 4,700 more 
city residents employed than in 1982.

* The crime rate has dropped 22.5% since 1981.

* The fire rate has dropped 51% since 1982.

These results are especially noteworthy when one considers the fact 
that 41% of the land and buildings of Harrisburg cannot be taxed by 
the city because it is owned by the state or non-profit bodies.

www.urbantools.net/lit/york/YorkReportMarch2003.PDF

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:-2bzmYO0NMIJ:www.urbantools.net/lit/york/YorkReportMarch2003.PDF+mayor+reed+land+value+tax&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

PS This stuff was hot off the press even after I started talking LVT 
in Riverdale (no Park then).

-- 
"We have met the enemy, and he is us!" Pogo Possum
http://theriverdaleobserver.blogspot.com