Mary Newsom

Property taxes and sprawl

Jon Boyd, Jul 02, 10.

Tagged with sprawl, urbanism, property taxes, mixed use, big box

If you’re worried about local government’s fiscal crisis – and if you’re not, you should be; it’s why hundreds of local teachers are getting laid off, libraries closed and hours slashed – then you should read this.

I’m listening as Peter Katz, a local government official from Sarasota, Fla., shows a series of charts and graphs and talks about property taxes in Florida. In terms of land development in Florida, he says, “It’s like we’re falling off the edge of the earth. People are completely freaked out.”

So he decided to look at exactly where local property tax revenues come from. He shows bar graphs showing residential property tax revenue per acre in Sarasota County. The biggest revenues come from city residential areas.

Next he shows bar graphs showing revenue per acre for retail development. Here comes surprise No. 1. Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club development brings in only about as much, per acre, as city residential. (Think of all those acres of parking lots.) The biggest revenues come from Southgate Mall, an upscale shopping center. That’s not so surprising.

Then he shows the one that blows away the room – and this is a room of growth policy geeks, remember. He shows a bar graph on a whole different scale. In terms of property tax revenue per acre, high-rise downtown urban mixed use projects bring in more local revenue than even Southgate Mall, by what looks to my eye as a factor of about 10.

Next highest is mid-rise urban mixed use projects.

Full Story: Best tax revenue bang for the buck? Not what you’d think
Source: The Naked City blog, June 28, 2010

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