From Groundswell, Common Ground USA’s Blog
Work Group Holds Listening Sessions on Property Tax Study & Social meeting October 12th
Join Us and Rep. Chotzen for a Lively Social Event We’re excited to have Rep. Chotzen (D-SE Portland) join us Monday, Oct. 12, to learn about the prospects for property tax...
Globe-trotting Georgist Robbe Demey interviews local NYC Georgist in new Video
I was very happy to have Robbe Demey interview me for his Georgist YouTube channel: Aboveground, on a wide range of topics in the summer of 2026: "Talking with Scott Baker,...
Streetsblog: “By George! Could A ‘Land Value Tax’ Fund The Interborough Express?”
"New York could raise billions of dollars for the proposed IBX by taxing the increase in property values from the new rail line." An article in New York City's Streetsblog...
New Report: Modernizing Property Tax Assessments in Allegheny County
Allegheny County has not conducted periodic, regular property reassessments since the 1970s. As a result, assessed values have drifted further and further away from actual market...
Contra Watling on “The failure of the land value tax”
There are many successful examples of land valuation and land value taxation, which critics don't engage with. Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester and widely seen as a...
Where did the Land Value Go? Assessments and Condominiums in New England
SUMMARY Condominium parcels in most New England jurisdictions are assessed at a single value per unit, with no separate land component itemized on the assessment roll....
Back to Earth: The Case for Lowering Speculative Land Values
By Daniel Wortel-London The inflation-adjusted price of residential land in the U.S. quadrupled between 1975 and 2006. By 2025, New York City’s land values were estimated at...
Introducing: The Game of Prosperity
Ed. Note: This is from Evan Atlas, an active young man in upstate New York working on social causes, including Land value Taxation and Georgist goals. He writes: "I find Georgism...
Higher Property Taxes Drive Home Affordability
The relationship between property taxes and home prices is worth remembering now that so many states want to get rid of the former and wrongly expect more affordability of the...
Property Taxes Aren’t the Cause of Our Housing Crisis, They’re a Solution to It
Taxing land and buildings at different rates can discourage land speculation and encourage housing development. Property taxes, which tend to increase along with home prices, are...
Two States Pass Land Value Tax Enablement — Landscape 8
With back-to-back wins in Virginia and Kentucky, land value taxation is re-emerging as a viable policy tool. Big news today: it’s been many years since a land value tax bill has...
A German State Quietly Implemented a Land Value Tax
In Baden-Württemberg, a quiet reform shows land value taxation isn’t just theory—it’s already happening. In 2025, Baden-Württemberg – a German state of 11 million residents –...
New York Renters and Homeowners Want Property Tax Reforms Now
New survey finds that Land Value Taxation has majority support statewide NEW YORK, NY — The Community Service Society of New...
Affordable Housing with a Socialist Mayor – a Policy Brief
Common Ground USA member: Marty RowlandMarch 31, 2025 It's Spring 2026, so I must be writing about Seattle's Katie Wilson or New York City's Zohran Mamdani. Living in Forest...
CHANGING YOUR STATE’S CURRENT PROPERTY TAX TO A LAND VALUE TAX
A discourse on navigating the transitionCommon Ground-OR/WAMarch 2026 In this document we propose four steps that will ease the transition from a state’s present equal rate...
The State of the U.S. Economy and Society – 2026
A presentation on The State of the U.S. Economy and Society made March 16, 2026 at the Cherry Hill Library, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The material I pulled together for this...
The Failures of the Oil Futures Market
This is a good time to become critical of the oil futures market, which is what controls the price of oil, and its derivatives, like gasoline and jet fuel, etc. First, America...
BOOM: Unanimous Vote Puts Land Value Tax Enablement on Governor’s Desk
In Virginia, a unanimous senate vote puts LVT on the Governors desk. Meanwhile, Kentucky also joins the momentum as other states continue on toward LVT enablement. Earlier this...
Local Law to Create a New York City Land Bank Passes
NYC Council Introduction 570, introduced and sponsored by upper west side council member Gale Brewer in 2024 has passed the council into law. The official legislation ledger...
Ohio at the Crosslands: Will it Retain or Eliminate Property Taxes, or Implement a Land Value Tax Instead?
Grassroots activists are proposing to eliminate the hated property taxes in Ohio, apparently having learned nothing from the catastrophic property tax cap from California's prop...
Event – The third annual meeting of the Geoist Network
The third annual meeting of the Geoist Network will be held June 29 to July 2 at Waterperry House, near Oxford. The goals of the meeting are to connect scholars and advocates of...
Replacing the Current 4-Class Property Tax in New York City with a Land Value Tax (Updated 3/15/26)
By Scott Baker and Grok 5 Version 2.0: https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=2032118973647515773 A major land value reassessment in my and Grok’s original paper: Replacing the...
Henry George – Political Economy and Social Philosophy
Part I – based on Progress and Poverty by Henry George Compiled by Mike Curtis Part I - Fundamental Principles of Political Economy. Fundamental Principles of Political Economy...
How to pay for Mass Transit Expansions in New York City, from Value Capture
A new video responding to New York City Mayor Mamdani's proposal to institute an open-ended commitment to create free buses, which the Metropolitan Transit Authority says will...
Higher property tax bills due in part to hospital and clinical practice consolidation into tax-exempt conglomerates
Better Cities Committee A federal cross-subsidy, Section 340B Drug Pricing Program of the Public Health Service Act of 1992, requires Medicaid-participating pharmaceutical...
CGUSA Mid-Atlantic Chapter Report
Baltimore Thrive - https://baltimorethrive.org/ At Baltimore Thrive, we envision a city transformed by a land value tax shift and fair property assessments. Our...
Indivisible
"With Liberty And Justice For All" Given a nation with democratic institutions, in which one class rolls in wealth and the many seethe with discontent at a condition of things...
Smart Talk: Land, Housing, and the Economy
In this edition of Smart Talk (a Henry George School program), Ed Dodson speaks with Dr. John Muellbauer, Professor of Economics at Nuffield College, Oxford University, and...
CGUSA members make progress but get stalled on Virginia LVT bill
Ed: The following is an email thread showing progress on a recent Virginia Land Value Tax effort. It is presented here as a follow-up to a posting on the member Google group, but...
New York’s Housing Affordability Crisis – What’s land got to do with it?
New York City faces a severe housing affordability crisis, with 55% of households rent-burdened and homelessness at record highs. While conventional solutions focus on increasing...
Private Land Fee on Chrysler Building Proves Concept of Land Value Tax
Former owner Tishman Speyer closes in on Chrysler Building deal According to Crain's Magazine in New York City: "Prominent developer Tishman Speyer is in advanced talks to...
Fixing retail with land value capture
How to create beautiful shopping streets everywhere. A lot of what we find interesting about cities is the retail within them. We lean on retail – shops, cafes, restaurants and...
The Land Tax Gambit: Could a Levy on Dirt Revitalize America’s Empty Storefronts?
As retail vacancies plague American cities, economists and urban planners are reviving a radical idea: the land value tax. This policy shifts the tax burden from buildings to the...
How a state bill proposed by state Sen. Rachel May could reshape property taxes in Syracuse — and spur development
Mayor Sharon Owens has expressed early interest in the bill, which could allow Syracuse to opt into a pilot program to change how property is taxed. Mayor Sharon Owens believes a...
“The world is run by strength, force, and power” – White House policy chief, Stephen Miller
Was he right? It is certainly true that it was the strength of the British and the American Colonists that drove the indigenous peoples out of the eastern areas of the 13...
REVIEW OF THE BOOK:
Ending Redlining Through a Community-Centered Reform of the Community Reinvestment Act By Josh Silver Reviewed by Edward J. Dodson, M.L.A. / January 2026...
WOMEN, EARTH and ECONOMIC POWER
by Alanna Hartzok, UN NGO Representative for the International Union for Land Value Taxation (theIU.org) and Co-Director, Earth Rights Institute Women once enjoyed a special...
Brian Potter reviews “The Land Trap”
Brian Potter, in his weekly Construction Physics blog, gives a mini-review of Lars Doucet's "The Land Trap," reprinted below. See the full blog post here:...
California State Multi-family Housing Bill & Relation to Land Value Taxation
Georgist and student 2024 Henry George in the 21st Century Writing Contest winner, Jamal Thomas, has modeled a citizen proposed bill to increase housing, paving the way for Land...
The 18 Year Land Cycle is Coming Right on Time and May be Worse than the Last One in 2008
The 18 year land cycle is starting right on time. 2026 will be the nadir of it, like 2008 was the last nadir, though the bottom may take a couple more years just like last time....
These 6 States Might Eliminate Property Taxes
Georgists are facing headwinds these days, with at least 6 states strongly proposing the elimination of property taxes. Without the basis of property taxes, shifts to a...
Why Ohio must keep the property tax
Everyone hates taxes, but we do need some government. You can ask whether a dollar provides more benefit in the government budget or in your own pocket. You can also ask whether...
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Champion of the Landless
NY State Assemblyman and Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani has been declared the winner in the 2025 New York City Mayoral election, defeating Republican Curtis Sliwa and Independent Andrew Cuomo.
Mamdani’s campaign bore striking resemblance to that of Henry George, the political economist who, in 1886, ran for mayor on a platform confronting the same contradiction: a city bursting with progress yet mired in poverty. Like George, Mamdani named the problem of exorbitant rents. But he has not yet embraced George’s solution, which would address inequality while enhancing prosperity: the land value tax.
The Rent is Too Dam High
Greetings and salutations Mr. Zohran Mamdani: There is no doubt you have identified the problem: "The rent is too damned high". You are anamazing personality, and I have every...
By George! Can a Land Value Tax Work in Gotham?
In this seminal study article, professor of economics at Rutgers University-Newark, Jason M. Barr teams up with internationally recognized expert on housing markets and housing price indices, Ronan C. Lyons (click on the names above for more bio information).
On using (and not abusing) history
A President from the great state of New York serving one of his two nonconsecutive terms in the White House. A precocious political talent running for Mayor of New York City....
Henry George, The Remnant and Practical Politics
For those who have viewed this video and have an interest in discussing the content, I will be leading a Zoom discussion next Tuesday (the...
Henry George, the remnant, and practical politics – A video history
This video tells the story of how Henry George and his close supporters in the United States attempted to forge a national activist movement and attempt to have the U.S....
The Global Collapse of 2026
Discover the profound insights of Fred Harrison, the visionary economic writer whose groundbreaking theories offer solutions to some of the world's most urgent challenges....
Graduate work with an impact — in big cities and on campus
PhD student Nick Allen has helped mainstream new tax-reform concepts for policymakers, while working to enhance MIT grad-school life. Peter Dizikes | MIT News Publication Date:...
The Land Value Group will be having a booth at YIMBYTOWN September 14-16
The Land Value Group, which is composed of Center for the Study of Economics, Public Revenue Education Council and Common Ground USA, will be having a booth at YIMBYTOWN...
Trump Administration Seeking to Re-Privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
From the Washingtonians for Public Banking: This effects not just the banks, but the housing market too, coming up on the 18th year of the...
Speakers Bureau added to Common Ground Website
Screenshot A new Speakers Bureau has been added to the CGUSA website between the About Us and Donate dropdowns. This dynamic addition to the menu will include updated Georgist...
A Night Lecture on Progress & Poverty
The old title was the Life of Henry George. The new title is Progress & Poverty. In any case I hope you can join us for this zoom version of our 10 Lecture...
“Abundance” Wants to Save Liberalism. It Can’t.
Video podcaster Shenandoah's review of Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Shenandoah writes "my review of Abundance, the new book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson —...
The Limits of Sprawl
By Paul Krugman Noble prize-winning Paul Krugman writes about Atlanta sprawl and how Atlanta is being constrained by increasing traffic as a result of it, while mass...
Shenandoah’s review of Abundance, the new book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Shenandoah's review of Abundance, the new book by ezra klein and derek thompson — what it gets right, what it misses, and how its vision of “abundance liberalism” might actually...
CGUSA SPEAKERS BUREAU AS OF 5/31/25
CGUSA SPEAKERS BUREAU AS OF 5/31/25 The following are people who will speak in favor of Georgism, possibly for a fee TBD. Kenneth E. Barden Kenneth E. Barden is an attorney with...
LVT Landscape #3: LVT Momentum is Worldwide
It's more than South Korea's new president supporting Land Value Tax. Welcome to the third addition of LVT Landscape, a roundup of the movement in the land value tax...
The Ballad of Post-George Georgists
For inspiration, solace, or just to remember