The State of Illinois currently suffers from a budget deficit, public debt, a pension crisis, and widespread disagreement about what to tax and how to solve the state's budget woes. I believe that Henry George, and his idea of Land Value Taxation, could do a lot to solve these problems.
I wrote the two following e-mails on October 6th, 2020, on the advice of the Lake County tax assessor, in order to communicate to my elected representatives what I think the solution should be. The first is addressed to a Democratic member of the Illinois State Assembly, and the second is addressed to a Republican member of the same body.
The introductions, and names of the particular lawmakers, have been removed.
First E-Mail (to Democrats):
My name is Joe Kopsick, I'm a 33-year-old voter from Waukegan. I'm also running for office.
I was wondering if you've ever heard of Henry George or his idea of Land Value Taxation. George had a big influence on the Democratic Party in the 1880s, and almost became the mayor of New York City. I think George's ideas could do a lot to help Illinois's tax problems.
Illinoisans are currently debating how to prevent property taxes from rising when property values rise, and how much to tax income. Instead of talking about how much to tax income, I believe we should be talking about whether to tax it at all.
I also believe that we should pay less attention to the issue of whether "Is the tax funding something worthwhile", and more attention to "is it helpful, efficient, and ethical to tax this source of revenue in the first place?" If we keep taxing production, we will deplete our revenue base. But if we tax things we want to discourage, like destruction, then the need for government solutions to that destruction, will decrease, while the size of the budget decreases too. Government will enter the picture, solve the problem, and then go away; instead of sticking around forever to permanently administer programs that were originally intended only as temporary fixes.
It's not that I think it's wrong to tax billionaires. It's that we should be taxing people for acquiring wealth through illicit or fraudulent purposes that take advantage of taxpayers; we shouldn't be taxing them solely for earning money, as if doing so were a crime. The people who pay the highest taxes, should be the people who acquired their wealth through destroying and wasting, or polluting, or selling things they didn't produce. People who produce and earn through their own hard work and effort, should either be taxed less than they are now, or else not at all. Or else they should be taxed solely in proportion to how much they owe the taxpayers for providing forms of assistance that helped them acquire their wealth.
Capital gains taxes, and corporate income taxes, should of course be regarded as different from earned income that results from laboring in exchange for wages. But we must understand that imposing higher and higher taxes on income and property, will eventually have the effect of punishing or discouraging people from being more productive or increasing the value of their homes.
This idea is called the Laffer Curve. Henry George's idea is basically just the Laffer Curve, but applied to land taxes and property taxes, instead of income taxes.
Lawmakers must understand that most people don't like paying taxes; and for that reason, we should avoid taxing forms of voluntary exchange which we have no logical reason to discourage if we want people to prosper. I believe that earning income, and buying and selling, are harmless forms of productive economic activity, which should not be punished.
Second E-Mail (to Republicans):
My name is Joe Kopsick, I'm a 33-year-old voter living in Waukegan. I'm also running for office.
Are you familiar with the Laffer Curve (named for Reagan adviser Art Laffer)? It's the idea that if a person is taxed at too high a rate, they will eventually stop producing, in order to avoid taxes.
I think the tax code should change, to reflect the fact that most people don't like taxes, and will try to avoid them. I think we should be taxing wasteful and destructive activities, in order to penalize them on purpose; instead of accidentally penalizing productivity, by confiscating people's money through income taxes, and by taxing sales.
Earning money and buying and selling are are productive activities that harm nobody, and so in my opinion they should be completely untaxed, or at least taxed at a lower rate than they are now. [Raising expected revenues from other sources of revenue could easily replace the gaps in funding which would be caused by the elimination of income and sales taxes.]
I believe that we should shift from a system based on taxing income and sales and the improvements we make to our homes, to a system based on taxing the non-improvement of land.
Taxing unimproved land value at a higher rate than the rate at which we tax buildings, could even help solve the property tax problem. Property taxes would stop going up just because property values go up. This would also solve most of the gentrification problem.
Several Pittsburgh suburbs tried this system for a while and had a lot of success with it (in decreasing unemployment, and decreasing the number of unoccupied properties that are just taking up space and have no economic activity happening on them).
I think this idea could potentially get Democrats to understand how destructive the income tax is, and understand that they really are discouraging productivity and earnings. And once the Democrats understand that, bipartisan compromise with Republicans will be a more realistic prospect.
Conclusion of Both E-Mails:
Does this make sense to you? Are you interested in learning more about Henry George and Land Value Taxation? If so, please e-mail me at jwkopsick@gmail.com, or call me at 608-417-9395.
This is a personalized e-mail and not an automatically generated message; I am contacting you on behalf of myself, not on the behalf of any organization.
Thanks for reading, I look forward to your response.
Joseph W. Kopsick
608-417-9395
jwkopsick@gmail.com
Waukegan, IL 60085
E-Mails Written on October 6th, 2020
Introduction Written on October 8th, 2020
Originally Published on October 8th, 2020
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