One way of raising local tax revenues without raising local tax rates is to replace low-valued property with higher-valued property.
It is important to keep in mind that this drive to increase government revenue by making every square foot of buildable land more expensive, more scarce lies at the heart of most, if not all, local development policy.
This is why local government staff and many brainwashed local elected officials love mass transit, especially rail. It gives them a lever with which to ramp up density. The higher the density, the greater the revenue. Profit.
Then there is the free-rider problem. Add in developers looking for sweetheart deals and bankers looking for fat bond placement fees and of course we get big transit-oriented development (20 to 35 units per acre) plans, often financed via tax-increment debt. That is certainly the plan for CATS’ $373 million North commuter rail line to Davidson.
Eminent domain only comes into play in the tertiary stages of the revenue disease. Greater protections on the power’s use and abuse in North Carolina are absolutely needed. It would be worthwhile to just to stop one unjust taking on “economic development” grounds.
But that won’t cure the revenue fever. The sickness will require continued agressive treatment.
