Adding a Land or Property Value Tax

[Stylesjl]

Partly based on a discussion here:
viewtopic.php?t=9740

Basically one of the problems with the city budgets is that they need to provide services to those who purchase land from the cities such as Safety, Education, Culture, etc

However land is a one-time purchase, meaning that eventually the long term cost of supporting all of that purchased land will exceed the amount the city gained from the purchase, causing long term fiscal problems. In theory this could be mitigated in part by the fact that land is frequently purchased by companies to increase their profits and those profits are taxed (along with consumers and individual incomes), however this mechanism is very indirect and it also backfires when the economy goes into recession.

Potential solution is to implement a Land Value or Property tax, which can be more stable in the event of a recession and is also better proportioned to the amount of services a city needs to provide.

The difference being that a land tax is the tax on the value of unimproved land (i.e the value the land would have even if there is nothing on it).
Property tax is the total value of the land, including the improvements on it.

Either example would help to resolve this budget problem. In general a town mayor could change the tax rate, the effects would be as follows:

High Property Tax Rate = Decreased investment, Lower Land Prices and harms Real Estate Companies. May also cause mayor approval to fall.
High Land Value Tax Rate = Lower Land Prices. Also harms Real Estate companies and decreases the benefit of holding unused land. May also cause mayor approval to fall.

[rafaeltodero]

I completely agree with your idea, what's more, the city hall would have additional revenue to meet demands.

You didn't put it in the poll, but I think it would be cool to have an option for "both" to pay tax.

Those who do not have a building built on the land would pay a lower amount, and those who have a building would pay a higher amount.

The city hall could reduce or increase the tax for certain types of companies, it would be cool to see that in the game.