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To continue with the charrette on Monday, August 27: Joshua Vincent, about whose talk I posted earlier this month, went on to say that Maryland has its faults, but it does have a good assessment system. Ted Gwartney, a prominent real estate assessor and a Georgist, says so. In Pigtown, known more formally as Washington Village, every property except one would save money with a switch to a land-only property tax.
Bill Batt spoke up to say that “value capture” is becoming known, around bus stops, for example. Rick Rybeck, who is a transportation specialist, same up to answer. He said that “value capture” is used for non-LVT fees and taxes, so he prefers “land value return and recycling.” Developer impact fees are sometimes referred to as value capture, but are really the opposite.
Joshua Vincent spoke about “local courtesy” — that is, if a Maryland town wants a law authorizing giraffes in the street, and the local delegate introduces a bill to permit the town to have giraffes in the street, the other delegates will usually vote for this local bill. But when they wanted LVT in Baltimore, and a local delegate introduced legislation to enable that, the bill didn’t pass.
Big developers get subsidies for housing projects, and become dependent on rent seeking. The guy in Pigtown who fixes up his house doesn’t get a subsidy. Developers fought back against affordable housing trusts.
Polly Cleveland asked why developers would oppose land value taxation, which would seem to promote development. Rick Rybeck answered: Actual builders benefit from LVT. “Developers” often make money by land speculation; they buy land, and wait for a change in zoning or other factors to make it more valuable.
To be continued, and I’ll try to post entries from the August 2018 conference more often.
Bill Batt spoke up to say that “value capture” is becoming known, around bus stops, for example. Rick Rybeck, who is a transportation specialist, same up to answer. He said that “value capture” is used for non-LVT fees and taxes, so he prefers “land value return and recycling.” Developer impact fees are sometimes referred to as value capture, but are really the opposite.
Joshua Vincent spoke about “local courtesy” — that is, if a Maryland town wants a law authorizing giraffes in the street, and the local delegate introduces a bill to permit the town to have giraffes in the street, the other delegates will usually vote for this local bill. But when they wanted LVT in Baltimore, and a local delegate introduced legislation to enable that, the bill didn’t pass.
Big developers get subsidies for housing projects, and become dependent on rent seeking. The guy in Pigtown who fixes up his house doesn’t get a subsidy. Developers fought back against affordable housing trusts.
Polly Cleveland asked why developers would oppose land value taxation, which would seem to promote development. Rick Rybeck answered: Actual builders benefit from LVT. “Developers” often make money by land speculation; they buy land, and wait for a change in zoning or other factors to make it more valuable.
To be continued, and I’ll try to post entries from the August 2018 conference more often.
