.

The "land tax" solution becomes increasingly attractive as local governments seek new ways to meet increasing costs.

A land tax is a charge against the value of land. Land is much easier to evaluate, than buildings. Two lots side by side -- one with a house and one without -- probably have about the same value, so the owners would pay the same amount of tax.

Secondly, a land tax taxes things that the community creates. For example, if a city has a good fire department, or good sewers, land wilt derive value from these things. If there is good transportation in the neighborhood, this wilt add to land value. If people are building nice homes in the neighborhood, land prices will reflect this. All of these things create land value.

In general, land values are not created by land owners; they are created by the activities that late place close enough to the site to create an effect. Land values are created by the community.

So a land tax is a charge made by the community against land values created by the community. The tax can be viewed as rent charged by the community for the use of the value it created.

Currently, we do not tax this way, unless we subscribe to the idea that we owe the government rent for the privilege of owning houses; or that they own our labor, and they, mercifully, Jet us keep some of our wages so we can eat!

We tax capital and labor, but we have no moral claim to them. We tax them only because we can use the government's coercive power to do so. Kari Marx thought that government ownership of capital would create a workers' paradise. Serfdom and slavery were based on government ownership, or individual ownership, of other people's labor. We can all wax eloquent about how evil those systems are, but we turn around and use some of their basic tenets in our tax system -- and feel morally justified in doing so!

As we tax houses and other buildings heavily, we penalize their construction and maintenance. As we tax sales, we penalize commerce. As we tax utility usage, we penalize warmth, communication and light. Why must we tax the good things we want to see more of?

The effect of these taxes contributes to slum, sprawl, and suburbs. Dunlap and Morton cheer every time Peoria raises taxes. Effectively, we are paying people of means to leave the city. We pay the poor to stay here, Across America, a few cities have completely succumbed to this cancer. Many are diseased. The disease is advancing here.

Will a land tax help? Well, for starters, every place it has been tried, specifically in Pennsylvania, it has caused more construction. The land tax has made it more expensive to keep productive land out of production, and has made it less expensive to use it well. Most residential properly experiences a tower tax bill as a result. It makes life a little easier for businesses who pay better wages, but a little tougher for those who can afford only minimum wage. No longer is there a penalty for keeping your house up or a subsidy for letting it run down.

Taxes can create great economic effects. Let's try one that encourages growth. One that will help build the city. One that will get more people employed and will raise its own tax base. We've tried everything else. It's time to try the land tax.