Why not convince townships its fruitless to chase ratables?
There is evidence that some municipalities are getting the message and are downzoning accordingly. The trouble is, they are not creating the compact, mixed use growth areas that will ensure economic growth and provide the housing that we need. If state government provided better research to municipalities, offered education about the impact of new development, they could then make better decisions. Isn’t a statewide property tax linked and an extension of tax base sharing? In Washington state, statewide property tax has an equalizing effect, and it is in place in some states. Here, however, it’s controversial. Without it, however, sooner or later the problem of increasing gaps in quality of schools will spur this. Looking at this problem simply as a property tax issue gets away from the idea of actually trying to reform the way we develop. Just making municipalities less reliant on property tax is not enough. If property taxes are lowered by a substantial amount, homeowners will be hap
