The City of Philadelphia

Philadelphia faces a number of public finance challenges

• An unfair property tax that penalizes maintenance and improvements while encouraging blight and speculation.
• A contracting economic climate combined with a prohibitive business environment that is driving down tax revenues and driving away growth
  

To tackle these challenges, the Common Wealth solution involves the following policy recommendations:

1. A land value tax/ universal abatement, which would buffer the impact on homes and apartments while falling heavily on vacant and industrial lands.
2. Convert the property tax to a land value tax, simultaneously reducing the tax on buildings and increasing the tax on land while maintaining current revenue levels.
3. Phase out the business and wages taxes through a revenue neutral shift onto a land value tax, stimulating reinvestment and relocation of people and enterprise back into the city.

In attempting to quickly respond to the problems as they develop, we've been putting together land value tax shift scenarios for each of the cases. Click here to see what we've provided so far, and check back often!