Author: Chicago (Ill.). Board of EducationPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 2714
Book Description
Proceedings
Author: Chicago (Ill.). Board of EducationPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 2714
Book Description
Index to Current Urban Documents
Author: Subject Catalog of the Institute of Governmental Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley
Author: University of California, Berkeley. Institute of Governmental Studies. LibraryPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political science
Languages : en
Pages : 824
Book Description
The Journal of Housing
Author: Journal of Housing
Author: Improving Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for Economic Development
Author: David MerrimanPublisher:
ISBN: 9781558443778
Category : Economic development
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Economist David Merriman of the University of Illinois at Chicago reviews more than 30 individual studies in the most comprehensive assessment of tax increment financing (TIF) with practical recommendations for policy makers and practitioners. The report finds that while TIF has the potential to draw investment into neglected places, it has not accomplished the goal of promoting economic development in most cases. First implemented in the 1950s, TIF funds economic development within a defined district by earmarking increases in future property tax revenues that result from increases in real estate values in the district. The tax revenue can be used for public infrastructure or to compensate private developers for their investments, but TIF is prone to several pitfalls: it often captures some revenues that would have been generated through normal appreciation in property values, it can be exploited by cities to obtain revenues that would otherwise go to overlying government entities such as school districts, and it can make cities' financial decisions less transparent by separating them from the normal budget process. The report recommends several ways that state and local policy makers can reform TIF practices going forward.
The Challenge of Slums
Author: United Nations Human Settlements ProgrammePublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136554750
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
The Challenge of Slums presents the first global assessment of slums, emphasizing their problems and prospects. Using a newly formulated operational definition of slums, it presents estimates of the number of urban slum dwellers and examines the factors at all level, from local to global, that underlie the formation of slums as well as their social, spatial and economic characteristics and dynamics. It goes on to evaluate the principal policy responses to the slum challenge of the last few decades. From this assessment, the immensity of the challenges that slums pose is clear. Almost 1 billion people live in slums, the majority in the developing world where over 40 per cent of the urban population are slum dwellers. The number is growing and will continue to increase unless there is serious and concerted action by municipal authorities, governments, civil society and the international community. This report points the way forward and identifies the most promising approaches to achieving the United Nations Millennium Declaration targets for improving the lives of slum dwellers by scaling up participatory slum upgrading and poverty reduction programmes. The Global Report on Human Settlements is the most authoritative and up-to-date assessment of conditions and trends in the world's cities. Written in clear language and supported by informative graphics, case studies and extensive statistical data, it will be an essential tool and reference for researchers, academics, planners, public authorities and civil society organizations around the world.
The City is the Frontier
Author: Charles AbramsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : City planning
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The New Urban Frontier
Author: Neil SmithPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134787464
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 348
Book Description
Why have so many central and inner cities in Europe, North America and Australia been so radically revamped in the last three decades, converting urban decay into new chic? Will the process continue in the twenty-first century or has it ended? What does this mean for the people who live there? Can they do anything about it? This book challenges conventional wisdom, which holds gentrification to be the simple outcome of new middle-class tastes and a demand for urban living. It reveals gentrification as part of a much larger shift in the political economy and culture of the late twentieth century. Documenting in gritty detail the conflicts that gentrification brings to the new urban 'frontiers', the author explores the interconnections of urban policy, patterns of investment, eviction, and homelessness. The failure of liberal urban policy and the end of the 1980s financial boom have made the end-of-the-century city a darker and more dangerous place. Public policy and the private market are conspiring against minorities, working people, the poor, and the homeless as never before. In the emerging revanchist city, gentrification has become part of this policy of revenge.
Rethinking Property Tax Incentives for Business
Author: Daphne A. KenyonPublisher:
ISBN: 9781558442337
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The use of property tax incentives for business by local governments throughout the United States has escalated over the last 50 years. While there is little evidence that these tax incentives are an effective instrument to promote economic development, they cost state and local governments $5 to $10 billion each year in forgone revenue. Three major obstacles can impede the success of property tax incentives as an economic development tool. First, incentives are unlikely to have a significant impact on a firm's profitability since property taxes are a small part of the total costs for most businesses--averaging much less than 1 percent of total costs for the U.S. manufacturing sector. Second, tax breaks are sometimes given to businesses that would have chosen the same location even without the incentives. When this happens, property tax incentives merely deplete the tax base without promoting economic development. Third, widespread use of incentives within a metropolitan area reduces their effectiveness, because when firms can obtain similar tax breaks in most jurisdictions, incentives are less likely to affect business location decisions. This report reviews five types of property tax incentives and examines their characteristics, costs, and effectiveness: property tax abatement programs; tax increment finance; enterprise zones; firm-specific property tax incentives; and property tax exemptions in connection with issuance of industrial development bonds. Alternatives to tax incentives should be considered by policy makers, such as customized job training, labor market intermediaries, and business support services. State and local governments also can pursue a policy of broad-based taxes with low tax rates or adopt split-rate property taxation with lower taxes on buildings than land.State policy makers are in a good position to increase the effectiveness of property tax incentives since they control how local governments use them. For example, states can restrict the use of incentives to certain geographic areas or certain types of facilities; publish information on the use of property tax incentives; conduct studies on their effectiveness; and reduce destructive local tax competition by not reimbursing local governments for revenue they forgo when they award property tax incentives.Local government officials can make wiser use of property tax incentives for business and avoid such incentives when their costs exceed their benefits. Localities should set clear criteria for the types of projects eligible for incentives; limit tax breaks to mobile facilities that export goods or services out of the region; involve tax administrators and other stakeholders in decisions to grant incentives; cooperate on economic development with other jurisdictions in the area; and be clear from the outset that not all businesses that ask for an incentive will receive one.Despite a generally poor record in promoting economic development, property tax incentives continue to be used. The goal is laudable: attracting new businesses to a jurisdiction can increase income or employment, expand the tax base, and revitalize distressed urban areas. In a best case scenario, attracting a large facility can increase worker productivity and draw related firms to the area, creating a positive feedback loop. This report offers recommendations to improve the odds of achieving these economic development goals.