The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-14
TAXES AND
 SOCIAL WELFARE
Plan for Homes and Factories to Es- cape High Rents, Conges-
 ton and Sums

ton and Sums | (By Allen T. Burns, Secretary, Pitts bugrh Civic Commission.) | Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bureau) Pittsburgh and Scranton are the first cities in the United States to cut the tax rate on buildings radically lower than the rate on land, following the plan which has attracted so auch attention in the cities of Western Can ada.
 For generation Pittsburgh had suf- fered from a tax system which put a premium on holding land for specu- 1ative purposes. The holdings of old
 estates were classed agricultural land and paid only one half the rate
 charged against office buildings and
 workingmens houses. The Legisla- ture of 1913 has turned the situation inside out to give an advantage to the man who improves his real estate. The act will fix the tax rate on all buildings at zone-hs If the rate on land.
 This will work out as follows: To raise all present city revenues an av- craze of 15 mills has been assessed in Pittsburgh. A tax of IS mills on land and g mills buildings would raise present revenues at the present as- sessed value of land, which is practi-
 cally twice that of buildings. An in crease of 3 mills land would raise the same amount as has been raised by the mills by which 1t is proposed to decrease the rate on buildings. To permit adjustment of investments and prevent hardships this change in
 rate will be spread over twelve years. The first year the rate on buildings will be reduced to 90 per cent of that on land, the third year 30 per cent and so on by reductions of 10 per cent l every third year until 50 per cent is reached in twelve years. The movement gained impulse from the. report of the British Board of Trade on the cost of living in America which showed that workmen in Pitts l burgh pay higher rents than in com peting cities; 19 per cent higher than in Philadelphia; 47 per cent higher 1 than in Cleveland, 75 per cent higher than in Baltimore
 Inquiry disclosed that Pittsburgh manufactur were paying 50 cents | to one dollar per square foot per year for floor space while space in in terior Pennsylvania cities competing with Pittsburgh can be had for 20 to i 30 cents.
 In his Economic Survey of z Pitts burgh for 1912 Prof. J. F. Holdsworth figured that the average value of land per acre in Pittsburgh was 19,090, trif1e less than in New York, but high
 CT than in any of the other ten larg-
 est cities of America.
 So it was that the Pittsburgh Civic Comm iAsion, the Real Estate Dealers 1 Associa tion, and the Pittsburgh Board 1 of Trade joined in this tax campaign as the means which, to their minds,
 would get them three things: lower rents
 Relief of manufacturers. and other l enterprises from prohtbftive prices for land needed for building and expan- sion. Since this land is being held
 at impossible prices by specI1atore.g the development and growth of the com
 munity is retarded.
 1 Lower taxes as an inducement for developing the city and it's business. Charts and tables were prepared
 showing the effect of the new tax rates or various kinds of real estate,
 and especially on the land and build | ings of the small industries which Pittsburgh is especially keen to de-
 velop subsidiary to steel. l The thirteenth ward, which contains
 more homes than any other ward of Pittsburgh, was made the basis of a
 calculation to the effect that the tax ation on 3,982 homes would be reduced
 15 to 25 per cent, 800 would be reduced l 5 to 10 per cent and 40 would pay the
 same under the present system, l 2, 3So vacant lots would pay an in- l crease of 20 per cent.
 
 the Pittsburgh bodies cited the fact 1 that Great Britain had recently lev jed new land taxes to force vacant land into use. Hamburg, Frankfort and Cologne have adopted this line of l tax reform as a method of securing I better housfng-in some German cities | workin gmen's homes are entirely ex- l ernpt-and the cities of Australia and New Zealand generally tax buildings
 at less than full rate. The plan, of course is the one which has been urg- 1 ed for several years by the New York Congestion Committee, and which they | failed to get the Legislature to put
 before the people of Greater New York on a referendum.
 l From being one of the most back ward cities in the country in the mat l ter of taxation, Pittsburgh thus leaps l the United States to experiment, along the new lines. The beneficiaries of the plan, in the words of its advo- cates, will be:
 All renter@for the reduction in taxes on buildings will decrease rents to the same extent.
 Manufacturers-t can secure l cheaper land, and after building, taxes will be far less than in other cities.
 Every property owner-if he has
 built an improvement worth more
 than half the value of his land. 1 Every real estate bfeker-rea1 es-
 tate transactions will be stimulated. 1 The 1abeFIng man-buildinE and in dustry will be increased and work | more plentiful
 The city-honnes and factories will | -l-Y