Wednesday, January 31, 2007

New Projects for Land Value Taxation

Penndel Borough is a smallish town north of Philly and South of Trenton. It's part of a long-moribund industrial and commercial corridor that marked US-1.

When the Interstates took over our lives, the hotels, diners and other relics of our 1920-1940s early love affair with highways faded. Penndel is no different. the frontage of route 1 is now filled with lots of truck and auto-oriented businesses and many abandoned industrial sites. Penndel, like many other smaller towns with no particular charms for yuppy saviors is struggling fiscally and demographically; it is aging.

CSE - the little foundation I direct - was contacted by a local businessman who senses that increasing the local wage tax might not be a good idea. We couldn't agree more, so we are doing a study next month.

The rub? Bucks County hasn't done a reassessment since the early 1970s! That's routine in Pennsylvania; it gives the newer parts of a county a real advantage in low values, while poorer and older parts of a county get overcharged.

So, the numbers might be useless...

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