Property tax systems are how most of us pay for local government. Even if we don’t own our own homes or commercial spaces, landlords typically pass through the cost of property taxes to tenants. Local property tax systems in turn play a huge role in planning, zoning, placemaking, and capital improvement planning.
Upon closer inspection, property tax systems everywhere overburden some communities while under-burdening others. The pattern of those communities is one familiar to many — it’s the pattern of redlining. Property tax systems have been helping preserve racial disparities in wealth by contributing greatly to the extraction of wealth from historically redlined areas.
Join Next City for a presentation with Joe Minicozzi, urban designer and principal of Urban3, who will share how disparities in land value assessment end up subsidizing wealthier, whiter neighborhoods at the cost of overburdening historically redlined neighborhoods — and how people can have an impact on these systems. For over a decade, Minicozzi has used data and visualizations to help communities understand the economic impact of property tax systems on development. In this talk, he’ll do more of that and share solutions that are being implemented in communities across the country.
The presentation will followed by a Q&A, moderated by Oscar Perry Abello, senior economic justice correspondent at Next City.