J. Wilson

"Farm Security" expresses concern about security for farmers against subdivision and urges a stable rating strategy. Site value rating would meet these requirements. This delays urban sprawl by encouraging optimum use of already serviced land. It also encourages genuine farming, since improvements such as buildings are not subject to municipal rating. If planning provisions are required, it ensures that any resulting enhanced site values are taken for community purposes, rather than for private profiteering. The Mail 13/08/1998

Palmerston North

The introduction of CIV rating has not been welcomed going by our poll lanst week 85% of those who responded are in favour of retaining land value rating, 15% want CIV introduced. The Guardian 25/07/1990 Proposals for a change to CIV based rating systems have been dumped. Evening Standard 14/09/1990

Tokomaru to Manakau Councils

More than 850 ratepayers have so far gathered at packed meetings and while many have strongly opposed CIV rating, not one ratepayer has spoken out in favour of the change. The Cronicle 02/06/1990

Horowhenua Council

Not one speaker from the crowd (town hall/ratepayers) of about 500 supported the proposed move (to CIV). The Cronicle 29/05/1990

Dunedin City

Crowds swlled to over 1,000 to hear Rates Crisis Committee speakers tell the council in an emotion-charged meeting that the rating system must be changed. Otago Daily Times 16/08/1995

Habitat II Action Agenda

A Community Land Trust leasehold system may be the most beneficial way to secure land tenure for squatters and landless people. United Nations Center for Human Settlements

The Common Wealth

The unimproved value of Australia’s privately controlled land and resources currently stands at almost $2 trillion. A rental charge on this of 7.3 % would yield $140 billion – enough to finance current government commitments. Mind you, we already pay site rents and taxes out of our wages. This proposal simply replaces existing taxes on labour and exchange by diverting site rents from the private to the public coffers, and leaving wages in the hands of those who produce them. Consider the benefits of such a change; It would allow us to abandon a system that, paradoxically, penalises employment, enterprise and thrift by taxing them. The resulting resurgence in industrial and commercial activity would see wage levels rise and involuntary unemployment disappear. Its incidence is progressive, equitable and just. It is unavoidable. Sites can’t be hidden or spirited offshore. It is immune to cyberspace profit and currency manipulation. It would undermine the "cash economy" With an annual rentable value replacing "selling price", land speculation would be impossible. Poorly utilised land, currently hoarded by speculators, would be forced onto the market, increasing its availability for residential, commercial, industrial or agricultural purposes. Existing patterns of occupation and security of tenure would be unaffected; Options Australia - December 1999 Tony O'Brien

The growing wealth gap

The booming economy has been a bust for millions of Americans. Most households have lower inflation-adjusted net worth now than they did in 1983, when the Dow was still at 1,000...Since the 1970s, the top 1 percent of households have doubled their share of the national wealth to 40 percent. The top 1 percent of households have more wealth than the entire bottom 95 percent... The top 1 percent of households have nearly half of all financial wealth (net worth minus net equity in owner-occupied housing), says economist Edward Wolff of New York University. Wealth is further concentrated at the top of the top 1 percent. The richest 0.5 percent of households have 42 percent of the financial wealth...the net worth of the household in the middle (the median household) fell from $54,600 in 1989 to $49,900 in 1997. Median financial wealth fell from $13,000 in 1989 to $11,700 in 1997...The percentage of households with zero or negative net worth (greater debts than assets) increased from 15.5 percent in 1983 to 18.5 percent in 1995—nearly one out of five households. That’s nearly double the rate in 1962 when the comparable figure was 9.8 percent—one out of ten households. The net worth of the poorest fifth of households averaged –$5,600 in 1997. That’s down from –$3,000 in 1983. Many households are deeper in debt. Debt as a percentage of personal income rose from 58 percent in 1973 to 76 percent in 1989 to an estimated 85 percent in 1997. Between 1983 and 1995, the median household net worth dropped 11 percent and the bottom 40 percent lost an incredible 80 percent. The top 1 percent, meanwhile, gained 17 percent. Between 1995 and 1998, S&P 500 stocks had an annualized return of 30 percent. Most of it went to the top 10 percent of households. Almost 90 percent of the value of all stocks and mutual funds owned by households is in the hands of the top 10 percent. According to Edward Wolff, an estimated 42 percent of the benefits of the increase in the stock market between 1989 and 1997 went to the richest 1 percent alone. The bottom 80 percent of households split 11 percent of the gains. Fueled by low mortgage interest rates, the U.S. homeownership rate hit a record 66 percent in 1998, but for people under age 55, the rates were actually lower in 1998 than in 1982...As the New York Times reports (January 10, 1999), for each dollar in tax savings from the mortgage-interest deduction “going to the average taxpayer making $200,000 or more, the average taxpayer in all lower income groups combined saves just 6 cents.” ...For the fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, the mortgage deduction will add up to about $53.7 billion. That’s $23 billion more than total 1998 federal spending by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (under $31 billion). The mortgage deduction costs 23 times as much as the credit for low-income housing investment ($2.3 billion). While tax subsidies for affluent homeowners remained high, federal funding for low-income housing was cut by 80 percent from 1978 to 1991, adjusting for inflation. By Holly Sklar, Chuck Collins, & Betsy Leondar-Wright

Herbert Spencer, (1820-1903)

Equity, therefore, does not permit property in land. For if one portion of the earth's surface may justly become the possession of an individual, and may be held by him for his sole use and benefit, as a thing to which he has an exclusive right, then other portions of the earth's surface may be so held; and evetually the whole of the earth's surface may be so held; and our planet may thus lapse altogether into private hands. Observe now the dilemma to which this leads. Supposing the entire habitable globe to be so inclosed,it follows that if the landowners have a valid right to its surface, all who are not landowners have not right at all to its surface. Hence, such can exist on the earth by sufferance only. They are all trespassers. Save by the permission of the lords of the soil, they can have no room for the soles of their feet. Nay, should the others think fit to deny them a resting-place these landless men might equitably be expelled from the earth altogether. If, then, the assumption that land can be held as property, involves that the whole globe may become the private domain of a part of its inhabitants; and if, by consequence, the rest of its inhabitants can then exercise their faculties-can then exist even-only by consent of the landowners; it is manifest, that an exclusive possession of the soil necessitates an infringment of the law of equal freedom. For, men who cannot "live and move and have their being: without the leave of others cannot be equally free with those others. The world is God's bequest to mankind. All men are joint heirs to it... Our civilisation is only partial... co-heirship of all men to the soil is consistent with the highest civilisation... and... equity sternly commands it to be done. Social Statistics-The Right to Land 1851

Land price continue to fall in Japan except for Central Tokyo

According to Japanese government land prices fell for the 14th consecutive year in Japan: Residential land prices across Japan decreased an average of 4.6% in 2003, continuing the trend of a 5.7% in 2003. Commercial land prices fell 5.6% continuing the fall of 7.4% in 2002. the pace of decline was reduced this year with major towns in Japan Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka showing a pace of decline of only 3.2% against 5.8% in 2003 for commercial areas. However, land in the 5 central wards of Tokyo (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku and Shibuya) have seen an increase of 0.8% Eric Perraudin http://www.japanconsult.com/

Economics: Australian Edition

Pure land rent is in the nature of a "surplus" which can be taxed without affecting production incentives. Chapter 28 p.595 Paul A Samuleson Massachusetts Institute of Technology Keith Hancock, Robert Wallace - Flinders University South Australia

USA Bankruptcy's 2005

Bankruptcies have ballooned, now running 1.46 million a year. Los Angeles Times, 4 March 2005. p.A1

Local Government Board

The Board recommends that there be a clear division between the role and functions of the Council and the Executive and that this be given legislative force by inclusion in the Local Government Act. In establishing this division the legislation should include a broad definition of the role and functions of coucillors that...the responsibility for approving the budget, setting rates and charges and monitoring the overall financial performance remains with the councillors. Report 1995/06/21

Alan Jones

It's hard to believe that in a financially literate society, which we increasingly are, the best we ever seem to be able to talk about on the tax front is tax cuts. And yet again talk about it all this week. The Prime Minister hinting about more tax cuts in the May budget. Do politicians not listen to the electorate, or understand it. It's not tax cuts the public want, but overwhelming tax change. There are more than 10,000 pages to a Tax Act that's unreadable. There are regulations on regulations. Veritable fortunes are spent defining net taxable income before the Tax Office decides how much is to be taxed. The legal challenges to the tax system cost everybody the earth. The GST was meant to be a reform. It's a shambles. A recent survey of New South Wales small business found an average of 25 per cent of the principal's time was spent on tax compliance issues. The GST has created an accounting nightmare, nearly doubling if not quadrupling the tax work for the accounting profession. Then it's hurt a large bulk of the population, the elderly, by reducing the spending power of their savings. You've got tens of thousands of Australians signing up for laptop-operated foreign bank accounts...The battler in Struggle Street, the wage and salary earner who can't afford accountants and lawyers and is hunted down if he misses one tax beat, he pays/they pay, the battlers, 104 billion a year in tax. That's personal tax. Company tax...think for a moment of all those companies that come to mind .... they pay 41 billion in tax. It's not just that the Tax Act is unreadable. The whole system is incomprehensible. In January the former High Court Chief Justice Sir Harry Gibbs said that laws relating to income tax were a disgrace and getting worse. He said "The legislation is absurdly voluminous compared to our own earlier legislation and with other tax systems ... and the volume increases rapidly from year to year." He went on "Much of it's obscure to the point of being incomprehensible...it gives the ATO unacceptably wide discretionary powers ... many practising accountants no longer try to unravel the mysteries of the legislation by reading its provisions. Rather they rely on various documents and rulings of the ATO." Well how on earth in this climate, that's a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia...how on earth can you be talking about tax cuts. The whole system has to be changed. There's tax on income, tax on savings, tax on profit. We should tax none of them. But then there's payroll tax, stamp duty, land tax, gambling tax, vehicle tax, vendor tax, superannuation tax, petroleum tax, excises which are also tax, and then a GST. And individuals pay 80 times as much tax as foreigners. Foreigners own 90 per cent of our industry. We pay bureaucrats big money. What alternative tax models are they putting to the Government? 16 March 2005 2UE

Arthur Andersen

Australia’s current income tax system imposes relatively high levels of tax on foreign-sourced income. This discourages locally-based companies from expanding abroad and adds to the pressures on Australian businesses to relocate offshore. Philip Anderson and Alf Capito, 2000/9/5

Kaiser Committee

And the Presidents committee on Urban Housing is urging a similar tax study "with particular emphasis on the potential beneficial effect of shifting more of the relative burden from improvements to land. Heavier taxation of site values has the apparent advantage of discouraging speculative withholding of land from development and of enabling the public to recoup more easily the benefits it bestows on local land owners through improvements like roads and sewers.

Douglas Commission

Douglas Commission on Urban Problems is unanimously recommending that state governments vigorously explore the desirability and feasibility of placing new or differentially higher taxes upon land values.

Alfred E. Kahn

Absolute tax justice: shifting all taxation from production to land titles is a radical form of justice not easily won. (advisor to former President Richard Nixon)

Anon

Our society can put a man on the moon but is unable to put a man in a house.

James Michener

No nation can avoid land reform. All it can do is to determine the course it will take: bloody revolution or taxation. (General McAthur's economic aid)

Voltair

The fruits of the earth are a common heritage of all to which each person has equal rights. (1694-1778)

Carl F. Shaw

God did not designate brokers to sell land to the inhabitants of the world. Land was made for all of us without the need to buy from agents.

John Tallmaage

History is seldom written from the point of view of the land itself, for to do so is to challenge our hallowed notions of progress.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

But what of the land ? It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed and not bought. It may be used and not owned. We are tenants and not possessors.

Dundee

You see, the land does not belong to the Aboriginees, they belong to it. Crocodile Dundee

Henry George

For justice ot be done between men it is not neccessary for the State to take the land; it is only neccessary to take its rent.

Oliver W. Homes

Man's mind stretched to new ideas never goes back to its original shape.

Lewis Carroll

It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else you must run at least twice as fast. Alice in Wonderland

A BASIC INCOME

If the state does not assume its proper function as a landlord, it will more and more assume its improper function as an industrialist. Sir Daniel Hall

Economic History of the American People

The movement of the Constitution was not unnaturally supported by those men of property and position who found their wealth threatened and their economic opportunities lessened under the Articles of Confederation. Holders of depreciated public securities, speculators in western lands, merchants and shipbuilders whose trade was adversely affected by the unfriendly commercial legislation of European nations, manufacturers who wished protection against stay laws and paper money - all these desired a strong central government to safeguard their interests. According to John Adams, 'the Federal Constitution was the work of the commercial people on the seaport towns, of the slave-holding states, of the officers of the Revolutionary Army, and the property holders everywhere-(these interests finally secured its adoption in 1789 by a narrow margin. Bogart p.224 1946

UK Budget 1909

Agitation for land reform culminated in Lloyd George submitting a budget to the House of Commons in 1909. The budget called for a nationwide valuation of land, the first step leading to a shift in the tax base. Some 5000 land valuers were put to work to do this. The tax rate proposed was to be just 0.2% on the land’s market value. In addition there was to be a 20% charge on all increases in land value. Plenty of discussion and often vehement argument and vitriol went on prior to this. Churchill wrote that practically the whole of the Commons session for that term was devoted to the budget. “The most arduous session on record,” he called it. “Debate went for over seventy parliamentary days and nights; there were 554 divisions upon specific points of principle and difference.” Opponents had some success in watering down the bill, as it passed through the commons. And even though some would say the final bill was riddled with exemptions and other complications, the bill still proved too much for the House of Lords. After lengthy debate, the (Land) Lords took the unprecedented step of denying, (by veto), the passage of the budget bill. A constitutional crises arose. Churchill had this to say of their actions; “The House of lords, in rejecting the Budget which provides for the national expenditure of the year, are refusing, for the first time since the Rebellion, aids and supplies to the crown, and by that fact, and by their intrusion upon finance they commit an act of violence against the British constitution. There is no precedent of any kind for the rejection of a budget bill by the House of Lords in all the long annals of the British Parliament, or before that, in the still more venerable annals of the English Parliament” Rumour has it that in 1909, the Lords car park was, for the very first time, not big enough. A newly elected House of Commons set about ensuring that the Lords would no longer have the powers of veto. This new bill only passed the House of Lords after the King threatened to create as many peers as were necessary to ensure it did pass. As for the land valuation and various land taxes, their implementation was deliberately delayed until the eve of the first world war. With the Nation’s attention now focused in this direction, the valuations were shelved, then later killed off with the return of a conservative government after the war.

Winston Churchill, (1874-1965)

It is quite true that the land monopoly is not the only monopoly which exists, but it is by far the greatest of monopolies - it is a perpetual monopoly, and it is the mother of all other forms of monopoly. Nothing is more amusing than to watch the efforts of our monopolist opponents to prove that other forms of property and increment are exactly the same, and are similar in all respects to the unearned increment in land. The People’s Land The best way to make private private property secure and respected is to bring the processes by which it is gained into harmony with the general interests of the public. We are often assured by sagacious persons that the civilisation of modern States is largely based upon respect for the rights of private property. If that be true, it is also true to say that respect cannot be secured, and ought not, indeed, to be expected, unless property is associated in the minds of the great mass of the people with ideas of justice and of reason. It is, therefore, of the first importance to the country- to any country- that there should be vigilant and persistent efforts to prevent abuses, to distribute the public burdens fairly among all classes, and to establish good laws governing the methods by which wealth may be acquired. The best way to make private property secure and respected is to bring the processes by which it is gained into harmony with the general interest of the public. When and where property is associated with the idea of reward for high gifts and special aptitudes displayed or for faithful labour done, then property will be honoured. When it is associated with processes which are beneficial, or which at the worst are not actually injurious to the commonwealth, then property will be unmolested; but when it is associated with ideas of wrong and of unfairness, with processes of restriction and monopoly, and other forms of injury to the community, then I think that you will find that property will be assailed and will be endangered. I have made speeches by the yard on the subject of land value taxation, and you know what a supporter I am of that policy.

Ray Conwell

Australia's taxation laws are almost incomprhensible and farcical. Dep Commissioner for Taxation 1990

Paul Ormerod

Economic thinking out of touch with real world, says forecaster Economic thinking in the West was out of tough with the real world and forecasting was prone to serious error, Professor Paul Ormerod of the Henly Centre forecasting organisation told the meeting Little in standard economics text books was known to be true. The ability to predict events was “a fundamental test of the validity of any scientific approach to the world. ”He posed four questions to which he said, economics had no effective answer “why has unemployment risen so strongly in many Western economies in the past 20 years? Why has the unemployment experience of Western Countries been so diverse? What determines economic growth in the long term? What will be the rate of growth of the British economy over the next year? He criticised the pressure on eastern European leaders to move to free market economies as soon as possible. “This advice seems to be contrary to virtually the whole of economic history since the industrial revolution.” The Age 1992

Tax proposals would replace deductions with low rates

Source: Houston Chronicle Posted on 11.03.05 by R. Lee Wrights "Declaring the income-tax system 'has become a running joke,' a presidential panel recommended Tuesday rewriting tax laws by eliminating nearly every deduction and credit and replacing them with simpler benefits for more taxpayers. Treasury Secretary John Snow said he would study the report, issued by the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, and hoped to present formal recommendations to President Bush later this year." (11/01/05) Link: http://tinyurl.com/axxu9

Discovery of Gold

After the discovery of gold in 1850 the population rose dramatically and municipal problems multiplied. But the all important access to land was largely denied to many settlers because so much that was favourably situated or well watered and fertile had become locked up by the squatters, many of whom had gained possession, often illegally, of tracts as large as European principalities. Doug Herps past Deputy Valuer-General

The First

The province of New Plymouth gave effect to this principle, this being probably the first instance in modern times of the practical adoption by ratepayers of the system which became known as rating on the Unimproved Capital Value of land. 1855*

Introduced 1878

After provincial government was abolished in New Zealand, a national land tax was introduced which required that: all land shall be valued at the capital value thereof to sell, after deducting therefrom the value of all improvements thereon. 1878*

Samual Griffiths

Liberal-Conservative Coalition Government introduced the Valuation and Rating Act (Qld.), a measure which excluded improvements from local authority rating in both urban and rural areas and was the first legislation in Australia to impose rater (as opposed to land tax) on the unimproved capital value of land. 1890*

Inquiry 1896

A Queensland Royal Commission endorsed this concept and prompted a consolidating Act, the Local Authorities Act, which drew no distinction between rural and urban local authorities and confirmed the previously established principle of valuing land, excluding improvements, for local rating.

Platform Plank

The natural and inalienable rights of the whole community to the land - by the taxation of that value which accrues to the land by the presence and needs of the community, irrespective of improvements effected by human exertion.... and the abolition of our present unjust and injurious method of raising municipal revenue by the taxation of improvements effected by labour. Labor Party platform plank 13, 1891*

Roy Hendy

The City of Sydney adopted site-value taxation in 1916 by resolution of the City Council. There had been a continuous agitation directed against the taxation of improvements in the form of annual-value assessments on highly developed properties in particular as well as against the system in general. It was argued that no encouragement was given to the erection of modern buildings when faced with taxation calculated upon its total earning power. The removal of the rates on buildings encouraged their improvement as well as the erection of many fine new structures. Something in the nature of a transformation took place in the main business section where numerous large, modern office and other buildings were erected. The office buildings were well distributed. The system of rating on the unimproved capital value has encouraged the establishment of factory premises of all kinds. The eradication of large sections in slum areas has taken place because of the growth of industrialism in Sydney. The main factor, however, in this industrial growth has been that the City of Sydney has the greatest shipping port in the Commonwealth and has become its most important distribution centre. Town Clerk 1916*

Our Cities

State and local authorities should consider the reduction of the rate of taxation on buildings and the corresponding increase of such rates on land, in order to lower the tax burden on home owners and the occupants of low-rent houses, and to stimulate rehabilitation of blighted area and slums. Urbanism Committee of the National Resources Committee USA Our Cities, Their Role in the National Economy p.76 1937*

Inquiry 1945

The City Council appointed an independent committee of inquiry to examine complaints that there were inequities requiring attention. The committee reported in that the complaints were not justified and the majority recommended that no change should be made. This recommendation was adopted by the City Council. In its report to the Municipal Council the Independent Committee stated: Opposition to this site value taxation was, in some cases, inspired by the belief that it favoured the rich and was to the detriment of the poor...There are numerous properties in the city paying assessment rates on sites valued at tens of thousands of pounds. There is therefore, no justification for the claim that the taxation of site values favours the rich. On the contrary each class pays rates on proportion to the extent to which he uses the land and the contribution of the rich are, to considerable extent, expended...for amenities used almost exclusively by the areas within the municipality occupied by the so-called working classes.

Transvaal Chamber of Commerce

The Chamber gave evidence before the Transvaal (Province) Rating Commission in which it said: The Chamber believes that the site-rating system affords greater recognition of the principle of taxation in proportion to ability to pay than does any other rating system. 1948*

H.S. Mabin

The Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce strongly favours the rating of land values only. We are of opinion that this system has had a good deal to do with the development of Johannesburg into the premier industrial and commercial duty of the Southern African sub-continent, The secretary, Mr.H.S. Mabin, M.A. 1953*

Water Clause

Clause 165 of the Water Act 1958 gave powers to Water Works Trusts within municipalities rating Unim proved Capital Value to use that basis for water rates. The corresponding powers for sewerage rates were given by Clause 85 of the Sewerage Districts Act 1958. Water Trusts and Sewerage Boards in areas where the municipal council had adopted Site Value rating had optional powers to use Site Value as the basis for water and sewage rates.

A Three Pronged Attack

In 1958 the London Council, supported by several hundred municipal councils, and the Urbanism Committee of the National Resources Committee in the United States, the Canadian Federation of Mayors and Municipalites all pushed to seek power to reduce taxation of improvements and to increase rates on land values.

Fortune Magazine

Land is set apart from the market action of supply and demand by preferential tax treatment. There is evident inequity in a system that puts most of the tax burden on improvemnts whicle preserving an anachronistic tax incentive to land ownership. (1963)*

James Clarkson

Just correcting the gross underassessment of idle and underused land enabled us to reduce the taxes on many homes by as much as 22%. Mayor, Southfield Michigan. 1969*

Carl H. Madden

A powerful tool for rebuilding urban centers through private initiative lies in reforming the property tax. Higher taxation of location values and lower taxation of improvements would help push land into more effective use. Chief Economist United States of Chamber of Commerce. 1969

US Congressional Research Service

Higher taxes on land lower taxation of improvements would help stimulate development and redevelopment. Holders of sites in and around the center would be induced to develop their land or sell it to those who will, so there would be less leap-frogging out beyond the fringes. Reduced fringe development would reduce the cost of providing public services and increase the conservation of green areas and op0en space surrounding the city. *(1971)

Arthur P Becker

If improvements were untaxed and the whole weight of the realty tax were shifted to location values: Rents would come down as new construction eases the housing shortage.Urban redevelopment would be accelerated at no cost to the taxpayers. All municipal costs are multiplied by distance. Prof of Economics Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chairman, Tax Committee National Tax Association 1973

Steven Cord

The American, in 1981 arrived at a figure of US $391.4 billion as the capital value of land in the United States - or 166% of the national income

Melbourne's Rail Loop

lt generally is not known that Melbourne's underground railway in 1982 was partly built and was maintained by a similar development fund, to Perth's (posted on Blog) although in this instance the development rate is imposed on the net annual value of land and improvements. Nevertheless the principle of paying for a large public work from the land values enhanced thereby is sound and much to be preferred to the ill-considered arrangements for funding by tolls.

Metropolitan Improvement Act (WA)

Those who are familiar with Perth will have noticed how clean and well-planned a city it is and how well served with parklands. This undoubtedly is due largely to its Metropolitan Improvement Act (WA) 1983 under which an annually increasing fund, amounting to $7 million is raised by a rate of a fraction of 1% on Perth's site values to defray the cost of providing roads, parks, open spaces and similar amenities within the Perth Metropolitan Region Planning Authority.

Doug Herps

A tribute to the integrity of his conclusion (A. Hutchinson 1975 ). If he had had the benefit of the land market information available to me and had used a market rate of 8% to convert the official valuations to a rental equivalent, he could have concluded that the apparent site rent was a little over 50% of total revenues collected in that year. George, however, together with the Physiocrats and Adam Smith, argued that the current market value of land represented only that part of economic rent left in the hands of landholders. The true potential rent of land is this figure plus all other taxation; that is to say, existing taxation diminishes rent and all taxation is ultimately at the expense of rent. If you wish to pursue and test this argument you will find it clearly expounded in Chapter I, Book VI of Progress and Poverty. My estimate of a capital value of $270 billions for Australian land represents 145% of this country's Gross Domestic Product. Deputy Valuer General NSW 1984

David Richards

In England, using 1985 United Kingdom Central Statistical Office figures, conservatively estimated that the capital value of land in the United Kingdom was £UK485 billlon, representing 183% of national income.

1896 to 1986

Since the Rating on Unimproved Value Act became law in 1896, under the right to demand a poll, by 1986 the citizens of 90% of New Zealand's municipalities voted in favour of land value rating.

NZ 1988 Poll provision removed

Central government removed the citizen's right to demand a poll, and through this subversion of the democratic process capital value rating has been imposed subsequently on the citizens of Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington.

Collins Report on State Land Tax NSW 1988

Land tax be increased at the expense of payroll tax.

NZ Internal Affairs Coordinating Committee 1989

Undifferentiated Land Value Rating is the only rating system fully consistent with efficient resource allocation. It encourages an optimal use of high value sites because rates based on land value penalise inefficient usage of the site...a landowner is nonethelesws required to contribute financially to the community on the basis of that property's potential.

Month of Debate

During a month of public debate to review New Zealand's Waitakere City's land value rating system, there were less than 2,000 submissions in favour of capital value rating, and an overwhelming 16,000 against. The Council voted unanimously to retain land value rating in 1993.

Report Number 30

If improvements were included in the land tax base, both developed and redevelopment would be likely to be scaled down. To the extent that less building occurred overall, there could be a reduction in the areas of cities. This change would not be desirable unless such a reduction were an object in itself. A tax on improvements would be likely to result in more land remaining undeveloped for urban purposes. Using umimproved capital values as a rates base has the advantage that it does not unduly discourage site development. Industry Commission 1993, p.276

Business Editor, The Age

The answer is the divide between the east and west of Melbourne is getting worse, The unemployment rate in the north western region stretching from Brunswick through broadmeadows out to the shire of Bulla is still 16 per cent, according the latest regional Bureau of Statistics figures. In the outer western region- that's Altona and Sunshine out to Melton- it's 15.1 per cent...All this has the federal Deet searching for new options before the chasm in Melbourne employment opportunities reaches the proprtions of the north and south of Britain. To give an example, in the manufacturing industry in the morth-west of Melbourne from 1989 to 1994 there was a loss of 9,200 jobs. "Large numbers of companies have just closed down, they won't be back. That's again different from previous recessions. In the past they have put off a lot of people and kept going, this time around, given the overall industry restructuring, they just couldn't compete, so they have just closed down. *(west & north taxed east isn't). Stephen Dabkowski Business Editor Sunday Age 19/3/1995

How to Change to Site Value Rating

1) Any Councillor can give notice in writing to the CEO of his/her intention to move at the next meeting that the council carry a resolution to adopt Part (Number) Rating on Site Values of the Local Government Act and request that notice of such be included on the agenda. 2) By special resolution of the elected Municipal Council. What action follows such a resolution? The council gives each occupier or owner a notice setting out that particulars of valuation and comparing the rates payable under the two rating systems for his property. The council advertises in a local paper and the government Gazette 3) By a poll following presentation of a demand signed by the statutory number of ratepayers. The Council must take a poll and give effect to the result where a demand for such poll is presented to it signed by at least 10% of those whose names appear on the municipal roll. Coucnils ahve been known to ignore the law in this regard. Other Steps Ratepayers can elect Councillors favourable to Site Value rating to replace others opposed to it.

Jeffrey J Smith

Ending taxes on wages and interest lets individuals reap as they sow. Zero taxes on production lets us use labour and capital most efficiently. Full-value fees for possession impels us to put land to highest and best use.

Country Party

The collection of the unimproved land values rental, for all public purposes, and the ultimate abolition of all taxation. Country Party Committee of Inquiry, 1933.

Inquiry 1973

It will be clear that a rental leasehold system can capture both kinds of unearned increment merely by adjusting rates in proportion to the increase in land values, that is by charging economic rents at all times.” a) A rate on land is the most appropriate method of financing the services which council are authorised to provide under the LGA. b) The claim that ‘rates have reached saturation point’ is not established. Commission of Inquiry into Land Tenures, 1973

Housing Industry Association

Land Tax is a neutral tax. Affordability Index, 1989

Inquiry 1983

Land Tax assists economic growth, development and employment by forcing landowners to put their assets to their most effective use. Committee of Inquiry into Land Tax, 1983