Planetizen Newswire
Keep up with essential planning news and commentary, delivered to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
Property Tax
SB 50 was often viewed as an attack on wealthy, single-family homeowners, but housing justice advocates also had issues with the legislation.
Curbed
More online shopping means fewer consumers are spending money at brick-and-mortar stores, with suburban malls hit especially hard. But municipalities are looking for creative strategies to navigate a post-mall world.
Land Lines
A new law, signed by Governor Kim Reynolds this week, will require extra steps of local officials before they can raise property taxes in the state of Iowa.
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who took office on Jan. 7, wants to hike the state's 28.6-cents gas tax, 15% lower than the national average, so cities like Duluth won't have to ask voters to pass sales tax increases to fund local road repairs.
KBJR
Pittsburgh is considering a gentrification and displacement prevention measure for longtime residents of rapidly changing neighborhoods in the city of Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The New York Times takes a deep dive into the "dark store theory" costing local municipalities millions, and potentially more, in property tax revenues all over the country.
The New York Times
Susana Mendoza, a Chicago mayoral candidate, reconsidered her plan for a graduated property tax after receiving pushback.
Crain's Chicago Business
A new bill proposed in the California legislature would cut back on the number of Prop. 13 property tax breaks handed down to heirs—who then live somewhere else.
Los Angeles Times
"Dark store theory" argues that nearby depreciated properties should figure into property valuations. The resulting property tax cuts mean local municipalities end up taking a huge hit.
CityLab
An inheritance tax benefit, along with Proposition 13, has resulted in lower tax rates passing down through generations and billions of dollars in lost tax revenue.
Los Angeles Times
St. Louis politicians are embroiled in controversy over the city's use of tax abatements, which come at the expense of funding for the city's school district. A map is seen as part of the solution.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The proposed property tax would double the county's stormwater capture capacity.
LAist
A ballot measure to enable older homeowners in California, particularly empty nesters, to downsize without losing their tax benefits granted to them by the 1978 Proposition 13, has qualified for the November ballot.
Los Angeles Times
Voters looking for a reason to vote against Prop 72, which provides a tax break for homeowners who install rainwater capture systems, won't find one. None were submitted. Proponents of measures for parks, climate, and transportation are not so lucky.
KQED Science
Affordable housing developers are increasingly asked to build middle-income units, but can't afford to do so.
Mercury News
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) appears to be backing away from a controversial plan to toll midtown Manhattan but shows no reservations about embracing land value capture, which some regard as a "taking" by taxing land proximate to subway stations.
Politico New York
A new report from the California Housing Partnership "revealed a wide gap between state support for homeowners and renters."
Los Angeles Times
When home values rise, the state constitution requires cuts to residential tax rates that severely impact less-developed areas.
The Denver Post
Oakland pilot program to buy up vacant lots and properties, whose owners have defaulted on their property taxes, to transform them into low- and medium-income housing.
CBS
The National Association of Home Builders has decided that the Republican tax reform proposal would lower property values.
USA Today
