THE GEORGIST NEWS

This movement rocks! There's even more news this issue than last! Well, never too much good news. Below you'll find new laws to recover ground rents, new political entities to carry our message, more coverage in the media, sites for grants and data, and comforting remarks from greats of the past. As always, we invite you to send us your news and views to share with others.

The deadline for our August 2006 issue is July 25.

You can always reach the Georgist News at gn@progress.org.

CONTENTS: (to return here just click the headline)

  1. Congratulations to the New CGO Officers
  2. Clairton lowers tax on buildings
  3. NH Legislature Passes Downtown Revitalization Bill
  4. Florida reform committee to weigh LVT
  5. LVT-Friendly Florida Candidate Runs for Congress
  6. Regional Plan Assoc. Report includes LVT analysis
  7. Euro Transport Ministers give a nod
  8. JLE Property Impact Study
  9. South African Treasury Paper
10. Great Britain's Financial Times (June 8)
11. Mauritius Times (online issue 215, June)
12. Wheels of Fortune reviewed by UK's IEA
13. The Globe and Mail of Toronto, June 20
14. This Week on BlueOregon
15. Fairhope residents explore insights of founders' leader
16. Writer updates economic book that inspired Fairhope
17. FLOW, New sympathetic organization
18. Abe Lincoln on Land
19. Philosopher John Dewey
20. Land Trust Groups Gain Ground
21. Global warming movie
22. Useful links for forecasting
23. Pennsylvania Tax Justice Summit
24. RFP for the David C. Lincoln Fellowship in LVT
25. Lost geoist play
26. AMI launches chapters
27. Emergency passed
28. Letters to Editor
29. What Henry George Asked of Us
30. Next Month's Georgist News
31. AT THE MARGIN: Quips and Quotes
32. About The Georgist News

1. Congratulations to the New CGO Officers

Congrats to the newly elected Council of Georgist Organization officers: Ted Gwartney, President; Ed Dodson, Vice President; Pia DeSilva, Secretary; Toni Gwartney, Treasurer. Thanks to all who stood for election (and who mustered the gumption to vote). They take office at the end of the next annual conference of the CGO, July 19 - 23 in Chicago.

Prices have gone up for the 2006 CGO conference: full packages are $425. Payment must be received by July 5. After that, prices go up to $450, and neither meals nor space on the el tour can be guaranteed.

The conference will be "blogged," thanks to Jamie Reynolds, who has http://thehenrygeorgeblog.blogspot.com/2006/
06/boom-bust-cycles-and-neoclassical-myth.html and will be coming to the CGO conference, thanks to Sue Walton's initiative. He is a NYS-based student of Kris Feder at Bard. Wyn Achenbaum discovered the twenty-eight-year-old Georgist via Google's blog search capability. Looking forward to seeing you all!

The CGO follows on the heels of the biannual conference of the International Union for Land-Value Taxation & Free Trade in London from July 2 to 8.

And it precedes another meeting, initiated by your editor, up the lake in Milwaukee. Affordable Housing activist and professional, Bill Sell, notified his extensive list, which includes the mayor: "Dear friend, neighbor, acquaintance. Please keep July 24th open for an opening discussion of True property tax reform. I sent you an email earlier this week. If you did not get it, please let me know. This is going to be a highly significant event, with two men who have explored and developed a property tax that works. See "Where a Tax Reform Has Worked: 28 Case Summaries" at www.progress.org/geonomy/geono05.php

This is the big event. We are going to start something in Milwaukee that will shake our thinking, and maybe our tax structure. Please feel free to join us.

2. Clairton lowers tax on buildings

School officials said Clairton will be the least expensive city or borough in Allegheny County in which to build or to live after they approved a budget that lowers combined city and school taxes on buildings to 4.32 mills. However, while that's compared to a combined 29.5-mill rate without land value taxation, larger landowners such as U.S. Steel and those with largely unused lots may expect higher school tax bills in 2006-07. The spending plan approved Monday by Clairton City School District's board of directors is another deficit budget. The board voted 7-1 to ratify a plan that anticipates $13,118,500 in expenditures and projects $12,910,000 in revenues. www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16844618
&BRD=1282&PAG=461&dept_id=182121&rfi=6

Josh notes: CSE has worked with the Clairton School Board for the past three years to educate the Board and Staff about LVT. They ran the numbers and asked all the right questions. Clairton is a tough old steel town. LVT for Clairton city and schools will provide a measure of tax relief for homeowners and seniors that exceeds (in dollars) both the GOP and Democratic tax reform plans coming out of Harrisburg.

3. NH Legislature passes downtown revitalization bill

As part of the ongoing efforts of Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) to fight sprawl and promote smart growth, CLF, working with key stakeholders, wrote new legislation (House Bill 657) recently passed and signed into law by New Hampshire Governor John Lynch. The new law enables New Hampshire communities to provide a tax incentive to property owners who substantially rehabilitate underutilized downtown buildings. In particular, property owners can be granted a tax relief period during which property taxes on renovated buildings will not increase as a result of the rehabilitation. The duration of the tax relief period, determined at the community level, can be up to five years, with up to an additional four years for projects that include affordable housing.

ed. note: Abating taxes has worked before, but works best when the removal is permanent and the resultant rise in site value is recovered by the community; that is, a total property tax shift from improvements to locations.

4. Florida reform committee to weigh LVT

Because homeowners in Florida, which has one of the most rapid growth rates in the nation, continue to struggle with the burden of increased insurance costs and escalating property taxes, Gov. Jeb Bush created the Property Tax Reform Committee. The committee will address the differential tax burden that has developed between first-time homestead owners and long-term homestead owners and between homestead owners and non-homestead owners. The committee will provide input to the Department of Revenue and the Office of Economic and Demographic Research. Because total property tax collections have exceeded growth in total personal income, the Property Tax Reform Committee will also look to alternative methods for raising sufficient revenues, including split rate and land-value taxation. The committee will consist of fifteen members who will be appointed by the governor, two members of the Florida Senate, and two members of the Florida House of Representatives. The rest will come from the public and business associations, professional associations, governmental associations, and local, regional and state agencies. The advisory committee is to have its first meeting by August and submit its final report by December. To be considered for appointment to the Property Tax Reform Committee, submit your name to Gov. Bush at jeb.bush@myflorida.com.

Wyn is happy to send some information and links, since her website has pages that speak to the canons of taxation. www.venicegondolier.com/NewsArchive3/062806/vn5.htm

5. LVT-friendly Florida candidate runs for Congress

The Democratic Freedom Caucus (DFC), whose platform advocates the land tax shift, has endorsed Frank Gonzalez, a Democratic candidate for Congress in District 21 in Florida. Gonzalez has indicated his agreement with the DFC Platform's views regarding the land tax shift. He also has freedom-oriented stands on civil liberties and economic freedom, in which he includes stopping corporate welfare and other favoritism to special interests. See his statements on the DFA Link page and on his campaign site: DFA link: www.dfalink.com/campaign.php?id=1137
Campaign website: www.electfrank.org
The endorsement will also soon appear on the DFC's website: www.democraticfreedomcaucus.org

6. Regional Plan Association report includes LVT analysis

New Jersey Coalition for the Public Good announced that the Regional Plan Association, in partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, released a report analyzing five proposals for fundamental property tax reform in New Jersey. The report, Fundamental Property Tax Reform II: A Guide for Evaluating Proposals, rates each proposal on how it would affect land use, social equity, efficiency and fiscal health, based on seven specific criteria. It analyzed land value taxation. The RPA report is available online at: www.rpa.org/pdf/RPAproptax050206.pdf

7. Euro Transport Ministers give a nod

The European Conference of Ministers of Transport discussed a "Report on CO2 Abatement Policies for the Transport Sector" at a meeting in Dublin on May 17th and 18th. The report of 232 pages, not yet officially published, discussed aspects of CO2 reduction. "The Ministers agreed to the thrust of the conclusions and recommendations." The report praises the work of TfL on Congestion Charging and draws attention to Location Benefit Levy. This is the first time that "Location Benefit Levy," an expression I coined, has been used in an official document. I believe it is a better description than "Land Value Tax," as it makes clear landowners pay a levy to recompense the community for the financial benefit they receive as their location becomes more valuable solely because of the community's actions.

8. JLE Property Impact Study

PTEG published its report, Comprehensive Spending Review 2007: The case for transport in the city regions. "The report also points to a link between land and property values and transport infrastructure, stating that the most rigorous study of this type in the UK is of the Jubilee Line Extension, which recorded uplifts in property values of £2bn at Canary Wharf and £800m at Southwark." The report is available at: www.pteg.net/NR/rdonlyres/7E742E26-8152-4250-8AD5-
0CB93C24EE81/0/CSR2007TheCaseForTransport060620.pdf

GLA Economics is now also studying LVT in a meaningful way. This is not in isolation. At the UN Habitat's World forum in Vancouver in June, we learned that both the UN and the World Bank are now seriously considering Annual Land Value Tax as a tool to provide infrastructure, especially in the poorer communities of the world who otherwise are unable to fund basic services like water and sewerage treatment, let alone transportation.

9. South African Treasury Paper

You will applaud this new policy paper from the SA Treasury. I loved 6.1 and following - it is full on HG. Will anyone want to give their comments? www.treasury.gov.za/tax/Draft Environmental Fiscal Reform Policy Paper 6 April 2006.pdf

10. Great Britain's Financial Times (June 8)

"Increases in land values give not only a good indication of the benefits of infrastructure investments, but also provide an efficient and just way of financing their costs. It is efficient to tax these values because the tax would reduce the size of a windfall, while other taxes used to pay for infrastructure reduce effort, penalize the division of labor, or discourage capital accumulation. It is also just, because the chief beneficiaries [nearby landowners] would bear the cost."

11. Mauritius Times (online issue 215, June)

"Capture the proceeds from windfall taxes on land sales in a permanent 'fund for future generations'. The revenues should not be coursed through the annual national budget. That may serve the interests of the government in power for a short period before the proceeds are dissipated. Instead, the funds obtained from taxes on land sales should be sequestered and invested. Government should use only the yield from that corpus for annual capital investments in social housing and other social infrastructure; i.e., schools, universities, hospitals, public leisure facilities, retirement homes, care homes for the elderly, etc.."

12. Wheels of Fortune reviewed by UK's IEA

Wheels of Fortune: Self-funding Infrastructure and the Free Market Case for a Land Tax is by Fred Harrison. Can large-scale infrastructure projects be brought to fruition only through government intervention to fund the initial capital outlay? Where infrastructure projects have been attempted without public money, such as in the construction of the Channel Tunnel, post-completion operating revenues have often been insufficient to repay the initial debt. The London Underground Jubilee Line extension increased land values by close to £3 billion around just two stations. When such projects are publicly funded, this represents a substantial transfer of wealth from taxpayers to local property owners. OTOH, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore have utilized the value of land to fund the construction and maintenance of extremely efficient, modern transport systems that now operate successfully without taxpayers' money. It is estimated that for every £1 of tax raised by the government, as much as £2 of wealth is lost to the economy as a result of the opportunity cost of activities forgone. Reassigning the tax burden from capital and labor to land would enable many existing taxes to be abolished, would reduce the deadweight losses resulting from taxation, and would enable market mechanisms to more accurately reflect the costs and benefits of the provision of different goods and services. www.iea.org.uk/files/upld-publication307pdf?.pdf

13. The Globe and Mail of Toronto, June 20

If the Ontario Government really wants to contain urban sprawl "by encouraging new growth within existing built-up areas" (The Globe. Mail, June 17), then they should examine the example of Harrisburg in Pennsylvania, where an Annual Land Value Tax, called the Two-Tier Tax, has been adopted. The consequence of taxing site value in Harrisburg is an 85% reduction of empty sites and buildings with whole areas previously blighted now revitalized with the building and refurbishment of affordable business premises and homes. The resultant inward investment has increased the number of firms paying taxes to the city from 1900 to 9000 and led to a dramatic drop in unemployment, crime, and fires. The lesson is obvious: to contain urban sprawl and create prosperous communities, tax location value, which is created by all of us and do not tax buildings, wages, trade and enterprise!

14. This Week on BlueOregon

BlueOregon is the regular weekly e-newsletter of news and commentary for Oregon progressives. Contributors include elected officials and Democratic Party activists and leaders. The June 20 guest column by your editor was "Tax land, not buildings." In less than 24 hours, it drew 20 replies, including offers to help get it on the ballot. Another wrote, "Yes, for taxing land to curb sprawl. My little organic farm thanks you. I previously thought my only option to curb sprawl involved our right to bear arms. :)"

15. Fairhope residents explore insights of founders' leader

A group of Fairhopers has begun meeting monthly to examine how George's principles apply to the problems of the Internet Age. "We're interested in the whole concept of the philosophy of Henry George," said Edward Lawrence, the president of the Georgist Association of Alabama and a director of the Fairhope Single Tax Corp. "We look at what he had to say in the 1870s and 1880s and how that's relevant today," Lawrence said. "Downtown makes up only 1 or 2 percent of the land area, but it can produce 20 percent of the tax revenue and 30 percent of the employment. That's significant economically and aesthetically." Sue Walton, administrator of the Council of Georgist organizations in Chicago, said there are 36 active groups that espouse George's economic philosophy.

16. Writer updates economic book that helped to inspire Fairhope

Bob Drake immediately embraced the economic philosophy of Henry George when he took a class on the Georgist movement in Chicago in 1999. Drake, though, quickly identified a problem: George's seminal book, "Progress and Poverty," which was published in 1879, is difficult for modern readers to navigate because of long sentence structure and numerous historical and mythological allusions. That prompted Drake, who is now the president of the board and the director of education at the Henry George School in Chicago, to update "Progress and Poverty" into modern language. Drake also said George's philosophy has contemporary applications, even though his book was published more than 125 years ago.

Many economists and politicians foster the illusion that great fortunes and poverty stem from the presence or absence of individual skill and risk-taking. Henry George, by contrast, showed that the wealth gap occurs because a few people are allowed to monopolize natural opportunities and deny them to others. George did not advocate equality of income, the forcible redistribution of wealth, or government management of the economy. He simply believed that in a society not burdened by the demands of a privileged elite, a full and satisfying life would be attainable by everyone.

The official book launch will be on July 19th at the Council of Georgist Organizations conference. Its publisher is the New York-based Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. Special Pre-Publication Price: $10.80 (+ shipping) until July 31, 2006. Regular Price: $12.95 (+ shipping). To Be Shipped in August. Paperback 325 pp. 2006 0-911312-98-6. Contact the publisher at www.schalkenbach.org or 800-269-9555.

17. FLOW, New sympathetic organization

Another organization seems to be in the same ballpark as other geoist ones. FLOW is a non-profit organization that promotes freedom and the entrepreneurial spirit as ways to move toward a better society, and FLOW attempts to go beyond left and right. For example, while advocating economic freedom, FLOW shows recognition that land is a special case. In his essay on The Flow Vision for the 21st Century, CEO Michael Strong looks forward to seeing support developing "for a green tax shift using geonomic principles and for innovative property rights solutions and Ostrom solutions to commons problems." www.flowproject.org/

18. Abe Lincoln on Land

The two-volume work on Lincoln, "Abraham Lincoln and the Men of his Time," by Robert H. Browne, contains the following letter written by Abraham Lincoln to Mr. Girdley, his partner in the law firm of Davis, Lincoln and Gridley. This was reprinted in The Freeman, February, 1939.

"I respect the man who properly named these villains, land sharks. They are like the wretched ghouls who follow a ship and fatten on its offal.

"The land, the earth God gave to man for his home, sustenance and support, should never be in the possession of any man, corporation, society or unfriendly government any more than air or water - if as much. An individual or company, or enterprise acquiring land should hold no more than is required for their home and sustenance, and never more than they have in actual use in the prudent management of their legitimate business, and this much should not be permitted when it creates an exclusive monopoly. All that is not so used should be held for the free use of every family to make homesteads and to hold them as long as they are so occupied.

"The idle talk of foolish men, that is so common now, will find its way against it, with whatever force it may possess, and as strongly promoted and carried on as it can be by land monopolists, grasping landlords and the titled and untitled, senseless enemies of mankind everywhere."

19. Philosopher John Dewey

In 1938, the Henry George School in New York acquired its own building in Manhattan, located at 30 E. 29th Street. Shortly thereafter, a letter from philosopher John Dewey to the Henry George School in New York was reprinted in the September issue of The Freeman. Dewey wrote, "I congratulate you on the new splendid development. The group of Henry George Schools have done a fine work in economic and social education and the new centre is both a reward for the good work already done and an assurance of its continued progress on a larger scale. It must be a source of great encouragement to those who have devoted themselves so completely to building up a most needed public educational work." That new building had space for 21 classrooms and a weekly attendance of 6,000 students.

20. Land Trust Groups Gain Ground

The following comes from the Fannie Mae Foundation website, Knowledgeplex.

Community land trusts are gaining momentum as housing costs continue to climb, according to an opinion article in the Rocky Mountain News. Land trusts offer first-time buyers an opportunity to build some equity but, by limiting that equity, ensure that the homes remain affordable to future buyers, wrote Aaron Miripol, executive director for Thistle Community Housing in Boulder, Colo. Thistle manages the largest community land trust west of the Mississippi, with more than 300 permanently affordable homes built or under construction, said the article. Land trust neighborhoods resemble conventional neighborhoods, Miripol said. Currently, more than 6,000 homes nationwide are in land trusts. The mayor and city council of Irvine, California plan to build 9,700 permanently affordable homes by 2025 - representing about 10 percent of the city's housing stock - on a land trust. In July, land trust leaders from around the country will meet in Boulder to create a new National Community Land Trust network, Miripol said.

21. Global warming movie

The climate crisis came alive as Al Gore & Co. actually did a pretty fair job with An Inconvenient Truth. His documentary treats a very tough, complex subject which he handled with expert facility. It has developed over almost 40 years, since his Harvard days in the late 60s where he was introduced to the first empirical studies in one of his classes. See it asap.

ed. note: If climate change does motivate people to seek solutions, a critical mass might turn to economic solutions; such as, ending subsidies to burning fossil fuels while instead collecting site values. Having to pay over site rents would both make fuels in the ground less profitable plus reduce demand for any fuel. Motivating owners to use urban sites more intensely would make cities more compact, shortening trip distances, thereby saving fuel.

22. Useful links for forecasting

In the spring of 2006 at Santa Clara University, I taught a class on real estate economics: Economics 156. The class web site is www.foldvary.net/econ156.html. The web site will stay up, as I will teach it again next spring. The web site includes links to real estate cycle news and derivatives markets; such as, a new housing futures market and a bear market real estate fund.

23. Pennsylvania Tax Justice Summit

According to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), Pennsylvania is rated among the "Terrible Ten" states in tax justice; meaning that the tax burden falls disproportionately on the state's lowest wage earners. Good Schools Pennsylvania is supporting the Keystone Research Center in organizing a Tax Justice Summit July 28 in Camp Hill (near Harrisburg) to explore a moral-religious argument for tax reform. The keynote speaker will be University of Alabama Law Professor, Susan Pace Hamill, who has become known nationally for her work that names fair tax policy as one of the most important issues confronting people of faith. The summit is supported by a grant from the Ottinger Foundation. Additional co-sponsors of the event include the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, The Interfaith Alliance of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council of Churches, and Christian Churches United of the Tri-County Christian Associates of Southwest PA. Register by July 14th at the Keystone Research Center.

24. RFP for the David C. Lincoln Fellowship in Land Value Taxation

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy hereby invites applications for David C. Lincoln Fellowships, a program to develop academic and professional interest in land value taxation through support for major research projects. Projects may address either the basic theory of land value taxation or its application to specific issues, domestic or international. Research funding for each approved project will be between $20,000 and $40,000 per year. For more information and to review the Application Guidelines, visit www.lincolninst.edu/education/dcl_fellowships.asp. Email applications must be received at fellowships@lincolninst.edu by August 15, 2006. If you have questions about the application process, email mording@lincolninst.edu.

25. Lost geoist play

Item in The Freeman, dated December 1938: "Ed Ross, of Arden, Del., has written a one-act play in which Georgist principles are vividly illustrated. In spite of its purely propagandist purpose, it is entertaining and highly amusing. Mr. Ross claims it will take forty-five minutes to perform. About twenty characters are in the cast. It is proposed to give this playlet as part of an entertainment and dance to be held next February. Mr. Ross plans to start rehearsals after first of the year." What can anyone find out about this play? Did it every get produced? Was it written up in Arden's newsletter? And, better still, is a copy of the script sitting around in a box somewhere? Maybe this play could be resurrected and put on in Arden once again? Anxious for any information.

26. AMI launches chapters

The American Monetary Institute launched several new chapters in Corning, Iowa; Brookings, South Dakota; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Centralia, Washington. The full research results of the American Monetary Institute are found in Stephen Zarlenga's book, The Lost Science of Money. They have been preparing a comprehensive monetary reform act. The draft proposal can be reviewed and critiqued on the AMI website, www.monetary.org.

27. Emergency passed

Last month we reported Damon Gross' emergency admission to the hospital. Damon is now home. He's got a basket of pills to take and appointments to set up. But he's feeling a lot better.

28. Letters to Editor

Comprehensive, concise, graceful. (please don't quote me)
ed. note: Please note absence of quote marks.

From Paul Metz metz@integer-consult.com
My congrats on your editorial work for the Georgist newsletter. Very readable. Hopefully it will attract many new readers ... not only Greens.

From Paul M., IHG Managua nssmga@ibw.com.ni
Wow! Excellent issue! Undeniably impressive for the amount of content! Way to go, Jeff S.!

From Mike O'Mara romike@crosslink.net
Another good issue. I just forwarded excerpts from the newsletter about Canadian and Australian Greens to two other people. I'm curious about Chodorov et al's efforts to mathematicize Henry George. I wonder if Tideman, Foldvary, and other modern geonomists have models that do what Chodorov and his colleagues were trying to do?

29. What Henry George Asked of Us

In an address George delivered in New York City on the 19th of November, 1887, George spoke to some 6,000 members of the Anti-Poverty Society. "And so let us go on, each in our way spreading the fire and the hope of this new crusade, not merely in our meetings, but in our homes and our lives, talking to friends and acquaintances, in asking questions and setting men to thinking. Our work is the work of education - the education of men and women, of graybeards as well as the little children. What we have to do is to awaken thought, to arouse conscience, to get men to see the simple truth that justice and liberty are the great remedies for all social and political evils."

30. Next Month's Georgist News

Please keep sending your reports, comments, and other interesting material to jjs@geonomics.org. And of course you may continue to reach the Georgist News at gn@progress.org.

If you know anyone who might enjoy reading this newsletter, please forward them an issue and ask them to subscribe. As always, it's free.

31. AT THE MARGIN: Quips and Quotes

College Economics Instructor: "What is Capital?" Student: "When you lend somebody $5.00." Instructor: "What is Labor?" Student: "When you try to get it back."
- The Freeman, June 1939

"Whether I own the bird or the cage, it's the same thing."
- Arthur Schopenhauer

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
- Arthur Schopenhauer

"I'm stalwart, you are stubborn, he, she, or it is pigheaded."
- Bertrand Russell

"Sex is one of the most wholesome, beautiful, and natural experiences that money can buy."
- Steve Martin

32. About The Georgist News

The Georgist News, a project of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, is an (plain text) email newsletter. It is brought to you free of charge. Its purpose is to keep you updated on the latest news, world events, projects, and initiatives of relevance to people who, like Henry George, seek a world free from special privilege and free from the causes of poverty.

The Georgist News on the WWW - http://www.georgist.com/