Land Tax for Philadelphia

$\\Merc\hallwatch\hallwatch3.PNG$

Home > Write Your Elected Officials > Land Tax for Philadelphia

Write About the Land Tax

letters.

Ok, so you've decided to write about the Land Tax. Good for you! Letters from active, informed citizens help our elected officials make the right decisions.

Just fill out this form and hit the submit button and your letter will be faxed to City Council, the Mayor and the Board of Revision of Taxes.

Note: Use the "I want to keep my message private" checkbox if you'd rather not have your message posted on the site. Otherwise, your message will be posted on a public area of this site to inspire others to write. Initials will be used instead of a name, and no other personal information will be revealed. (If you fill out the Your Name: block, you don't need to type your name in the Message: block.)

See tips on what to write.

Privacy I want to keep my letter private.

Your Name:

Your email:

Your phone:

Street:

City:

State:

Zip:

Subject:

Tell Friends:

Example:
myfriend1@hotmail.com myfriend2@yahoo.com

Do you have friends who might like to write, too? If you enter their email addresses above, we'll send them a copy of your email as well as instructions on how they can send their own letter.

Message: Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Tips on What to Write

Tips provided by Diane A. Lucidi
Director of Government & Public Affairs
Greater Philadelphia Association of REALTORS

Every time the tax on buildings is reduced, somebody builds; every time the tax on land is raised, somebody builds. Can Philadelphia turn away from the destructive policies of the past to a policy that treats all the same, with no privilege or preferential treatment?

Advantages of a Land Value Tax

It's worked for other cities.
- We know that in Pittsburgh, with just a modest land tax over 85 years, the cost of housing there is just about the lowest in the country.
- We know that in Harrisburg, the number of vacant structures went from over 4000 to less than 500 after the land tax was passed.
State or Federal aid is not needed to implement this form of taxation. If the necessary legislation to implement a Land Value Tax in Philadelphia is passed, only a change in computer programming is needed to change the tax bills.
This is a progressive tax. Businesses, developers and groups such as the Sierra Club and the Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse agree that the Land Tax would be a good thing.
This is an easy tax to collect and a difficult tax to avoid. Land is there for everyone to see. You can't put it in a Swiss bank account. You can't burn it down and you can't move it.
Land has no element of labor in it, land is just what is found in nature and, therefore, in taxing land we are not taking the bread from anyone's mouth.