Issues-Advocacy
Starts Wednesday, February 5, 2014 at 7:30 PM for 120 minutes
PAST EVENT
Location: The NYC Conference and Seminar Center, 71 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010
Why
is there so much building in NYC, but so little affordable housing?
Why do so many people want to live and work here, yet the market does
not meet the demand?
The
answer may be literally beneath our feet, in the collective value of
the Land. The Land is part of the
commons that gets its value not from any specific building, but from
the demand of all of us who share and contribute to the commons.
Common Ground-NYC and the Henry George School invite
you to a seminar on the effect of under-taxing NYC land
and over-taxing its buildings and improvements.
By replacing the
existing tax system with a split-rate tax that taxes land higher than
buildings, we will encourage more efficient use of land and more opportunities
for development that will provide jobs and businesses for the city. The
split rate tax has been used successfully all over the world to improve
communities, ranging from Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, PA, to Singapore and Hong
Kong. It is perhaps the most proven economic theorem in the
world.
The
seminar will
cover local examples of inefficient taxation ranging from McDonalds's
(one of the biggest real estate owners in the city) to the new
Billionaire's Row on 57 street. At the end, participants will know
where
billions of dollars in city revenues can be found. They will also
understand how only the tax on land can actually spur
growth and opportunity, unlike all other taxes that discourage
productivity.
The
seminar is particularly timely given Mayor Bill de Blasio's and Comptroller
Scott Stringer's support for taxing vacant land at higher prices to encourage
development .
Action
steps given at the end will show activists how they can make New York
City a vibrant, livable, sustainable, city for ALL its residents.
The seminar will
be given at:
The NYC Conference and Seminar Center,
71 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010
6:30-8:30 on February 5.
It will be recorded
for webcasting as well.
Organization: Common Ground-NYC / Henry George School
Directions: 71 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010
Contact Info: Scott Baker (ssbaker305@yahoo.com)
(Registration Required)
Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.
His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:
http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/
Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of (more...)