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- Title
Pittsburgh's Pioneering in Scientific Taxation, II.
- Authors
Williams, Percy R.
- Abstract
The article focuses on the taxation in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania may boast of being the first state in the Union to adopt the single tax principle and write it into law. This is an unusual distinction for our city and to single taxers throughout the country such progress in this boss-ridden machine controlled commonwealth will, no doubt, be welcome news. Those who worked for the bill during its passage did not, of course, label it as a single tax measure but appealed to the common sense of the members of the Legislature. The repeal bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by which Mitchell Hamilton of Allegheny County on February 9, 1915, and referred to the committee on municipal corporations. One of the major arguments advanced for the repeal in this debate was that the City of Pittsburgh was losing and would continue to lose much potential revenue through the lower tax rate on buildings, though, as a matter of fact, there had been no loss of revenue; it was merely a matter of shifting some of the burden from one source to another, there being no tax rate limitation to hinder this process. The principle upon which the new tax system is based--that unimproved land, being held out of use, should pay a higher tax than land upon which buildings have been erected!is a principle which can operate only to the benefit of the commumity.
- Subjects
PENNSYLVANIA; TAXATION; REVENUE; COMMUNITIES; TAX rates; MUNICIPAL government
- Publication
American Journal of Economics & Sociology, 1962, Vol 21, Issue 2, p209
- ISSN
0002-9246
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1536-7150.1962.tb00840.x