Quote:
Originally Posted by timun
If we really wanted to charges property taxes based roughly on costs incurred to service a given property we would divvy it up by neighbourhood population density and distance from downtown, i.e. the more spread out and further away a neighbourhood is from the city centre, the more money you pay. It'll never happen though, it's political suicide.
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No,
The cost of sprawl is based on the square footage of land you occupy rather than distance from downtown. Distance from downtown is just a matter of income.
A person with a 50 foot x 150 pre 1990 lot causes the rest of the city to be get bigger requiring servicing. A modern burb with a 35 x 100 has 1/4 the impact. Apartment dwellers get screwed even more where they might only take up 50 square feet of city. The goal should be to have to pay for the externalities of your decision.
So a portion of property taxes should be area based and a portion flat and a portion based on income.