Dr. Tom McDonnell:

NERI can talk about what the advantages or disadvantages of different policy options might be. We never go as far as to actually say we would vote "Yea" or "Nay" on something.

As to a site valuation tax, that is an excellent concept. I see no reason the two could not be combined or blended without necessarily being merged completely. The classic idea from the 19th century was, of course, the land tax from Henry George. The economics literature is clear that all of those taxes are extremely positive in terms of the economic benefits, particularly compared with some other taxes. They are not necessarily progressive because they are not based on income. When taxes are based on wealth, they generally are progressive. The site valuation tax has the advantage of not necessarily disincentivising development. On the other hand, the property tax perhaps reflects the real value and may be more progressive in terms of its actual effect. Personally, I think both taxes are good ideas. One would not necessarily have both of them in place. To get rid of a property tax and replace it with a site valuation tax would, I suspect, be politically very difficult.