Taxing sites but not buildings, turbo-charges growth management, spurring development of the most valuable locations in developed areas. A study of eight randomly selected urban and suburban neighborhoods in King County found that between 8 and 63 percent of residential land is currently vacant or radically underused. Existing zoning codes in the city of Seattle alone can accommodate an additional 113,000 housing units. Under land-value taxation, parking lots, a typical holding pattern for land speculators, give way to buildings. Supplies of apartment and office space increase.
Rental prices moderate.
To ease the traffic congestion that threatens to choke commerce in our cities, even while it squanders time, fuel, and clean air, localities could tax rush-hour driving on busy routes. The best-kept secret among transportation experts is the near universal agreement that tolls are the only real solution to worsening gridlock. Tax greenhouse gases and slash payroll taxes. Lowering payroll taxes is the best deal in a federal tax shift because payroll taxes are antiwork and viciously regressive. Some 70 percent of American households contribute more in payroll taxes than in federal income taxes, and payroll taxes alone push about 1 million children in working families below the poverty line.