You'll find more on this topic on the page about
California's Proposition 13.
Many states have regulations which cap assessment
increases or cap property tax rates. These are generally
promoted as tax relief for the "little guy" (or the poor
widow) but end up providing even larger benefits for
those who own the best-located properties (usually
commercial or waterfront locations) which tend to have
the fastest appreciation.
The result is that either the owners of the
slower-appreciating properties bear a disproportionate
share of the property tax, or the municipality or state
must turn to more damaging taxes like sales taxes or
taxes on work, both of which damage the economy.
But property tax caps sound so appealing that people
vote for them, without considering the kinds of effects
they will have in just a few years.
4. Local, state, and national
applications
Georgist policy can be applied at any level: local,
state, or national. To some extent it is even applied at
a world level, through the U.N., with its concept of
"common heritage" applied to oceanic resources of the
deep seabeds.
Georgist tax policy can also be applied at
any tax rate, low or high. A low rate does a little good;
a high rate does a lot of good.
In this Century, strenuous efforts
have been made to box the property tax into the local
level, where local particularism tends to cap the
rate. In England, this policy is identified with
the half-brothers, Austen and Neville Chamberlain.
Neville was so successful that in 1938 he was forced to
face Adolf Hitler without any armed support, with the
disaster at Munich. In America the Federal government
last taxed land in the Georgist manner during the Civil
War. After 1913 it taxed the income from land, but in
recent years the income tax has degenerated into a
payroll tax primarily. In tandem with the other payroll
tax it has become a primary cause of our depressed labor
market.
In 1920, about half of all state revenues (not
counting local) came from state property taxes. These
tended to focus on land, rather than capital, much more
than now. Both the state and Federal governments could
tax land again, any time the voters send that message.
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