I have been taught and experience confirms that the best resource to tax is wealth. The measurement of wealth in the past has been income producing land-real property. Today, real property seldom produces income with the exception of land in urban areas. Because of its high demand and low supply, real property in urban areas produces significant capital gains. Capital gains are taxed as income payable only upon the sale of real property.
Income is a much better measurement of wealth in today's economy.
It has been my experience in managing rural local governments that it is very difficult to raise local revenue. In my memory, I have never experienced the joy of recommending the reduction of locally imposed taxes. Economic growth rarely pays the costs of a reassessment in rural Virginia. Inflation is reassessments best accomplice in rural Virginia, if increased revenue is needed. On a closing note, the 2000 session of the Virginia General Assembly created an eighteen member, eighteen month Rural Prosperity Study Commission.