Incentive Property Taxation Supports “Main Street” Revitalization

Tom Gihring
Common Ground OR/WA
Seattle, Washington
February 2001

“Many economists have asserted that a general land value tax (LVT) would itself tend to resolve most of the problems of stagnation and site underutilization in commercial strips in older town centers. In some states, however, there has been a long-standing resistance to changes in the property tax structure. In Washington State, constitutional prohibitions against non-uniform taxation present an additional barrier to implementing LVT. Public support may not be sufficiently strong at this time to pass a constitutional amendment authorizing a change in the general property tax structure to allow differential rates. A possible interim measure is a geographically limited approach to the capture of rising land values.”