My Introduction to Henry George
Edward J. Dodson
[January 2002]
Over the years, I have had many conversations with others engaged in
the effort to solve "the land question" once and for all
about how they first came upon the perspective Henry George's writings
bring to this moral and political debate. My own introduction came in
the middle of 1973, not long after I graduated from college and was
employed by a firm engaged in the financing of real estate
development. I was already quite concerned about degradation of the
environment and the sprawling form taken by development. After reading
an article in
Fortune magazine ("Land:
The Boom That Really Hurts," by Max Ways, July 1973), I
took upon myself to write the following letter to the Governor of
Pennsylvania.
July 27, 1973
The Honorable Milton Shapp
Governor of Pennsylvania
Enclosed is an article that appeared in the July issue of Fortune
magazine which analyzes the land boom in America. Of especial
interest are the comments regarding taxation of real estate and the
consequences of our present system on proper utilization of our land
resources.
Faced, as other states are, with overcrowded urban centers and
rising cost of land everywhere, shouldn't Pennsylvania have a master
plan of real estate development? If a substantial program is not
developed in the near future most Pennsylvanians won't be able to
afford the cost of a decent apartment let alone a home surrounded by
open land.
A few short years ago, our state was suffering from fiscal
catastrophe until your administration levied a personal income tax.
Though many Pennsylvanians complain about this tax, I support your
move to bring the state back into the black -- and also keep some of
our money at home where it can help Pennsylvanians. The state
lottery is also another great idea to help raise revenue. Failure to
appreciate the need for change in the tax structure on open real
estate, however, is losing the Commonwealth a great deal of revenue
and also stifling needed residential and industrial development.
As explained in Fortune:
"This special advantage enjoyed by landowners is right in
keeping with the tendency to all twentieth-century tax systems to
shoot anything that moves, and to spare anything that stands still.
Income taxes, corporation profit taxes, sales taxes, capital-gains
taxes, even estate taxes, all penalize motion. The value-added tax,
to which Europe is becoming addicted, uses an automatic to shoot at
every leap of the economic doe."
Is Pennsylvania going to fall victim to the negative practices that
are severely hurting the progress of our country in dealing with its
problems, or are we going to move into the twenty-first century
meeting it head-on?
Respectfully,
Edward J. Dodson
Within a remarkably few days, I received the following response from
a member of the Governor's staff:
August 3, 1973
Dear Mr. Dodson:
This is to assure you that we have received your most interesting
letter to the Governor concerning the possibility of Pennsylvania
developing a master plan of Real Estate Development.
I am asking the appropriate officials of the government to comment
on your letter and you can be sure it will be brought to the
Governor's attention upon his return from vacation.
Sincerely,
RICHARD A. DORAN
Special Assistant to the Governor
The above acknowledgement was following just days later by a more
detailed response from a director in the Commonwealth's Office of
State Planning and Development.
August 9,1973
Dear Mr. Dodson:
I am writing in further response to your recent letter to the
Governor concerning Comprehensive Land Use Planning.
First, let me fill you in on two interrelated projects of this
administration, both concerned with promoting rational developments
of our state, and improving the quality of life of our citizens.
First, in November of 1971 Governor Shapp charged our office with
developing a Comprehensive Investment Plan for Pennsylvania. The
plan, the first phase of which is nearing completion, will for the
first time set out a series of development targets for the economy,
for physical resources and for social and human resources. For each
of these it will estimate needs, resources available, and gaps.
In the area of land use, we will estimate how much land will be
required for industrial development, how much will be required for
new residential development, and how much will be required for
recreation and open spaces.
At the start, we will do this for each of the ten regions in the
state. Then the regional and county planning agencies will be
expected to carry planning down to the local level With this
information, we will be able to develop more rational plans for land
use. As you so accurately noted, the rising cost of land is a key
factor in Pennsylvania's future, and unless we begin to plan
comprehensively, neither businesses nor individuals will be able to
afford the land they need.
A second area of our work may also be of interest to you. I also
serve as Chairman of the Governor's Tax Reform Committee, and we are
about to complete an overall study of the tax structure in
Pennsylvania. As the article you enclosed pointed out, taxes on land
are a key issue in determining what that land is used for and what
it costs.
The Tax Reform Committee, through one of its subcommittees, did
detailed studies of the proerty tax in Pennsylvania, and in the
overall deliberations of the committee, the property tax was a major
issue.
As you so aptly noted, the issue of property taxes goes beyond that
of how much tax revenue a government body receives, or how much in
taxes an individual pays. It is also a major factor in determining
what land is used for and how much land costs. These facts all
entered into the committee deliberations, and will be reflected in
the recommendations which it makes to the Governor.
I hope you will see from this brief review of our work that we too
think the issue of Comprehensive Land Use Planning is a key one, and
that we are working on this issue from several directions.
Sincerely,
A. Edward Simon,
Director Office of State Planning and Development
As this was early in my professional working life, there were many
other pressing matters to think about and attend to. I did not have an
opportunity to follow-up or become involved with any of the citizen
groups engaged in the land-use planning challenges the people of the
Commonwealth were facing. Later that year, however, I received another
letter from Harrisburg, this time from someone who made reference to
the ideas of Henry George.
October 3, 1973
Dear Mr. Dodson:
Sometime ago Mr. Richard A Doran, Special Assistant to the
Governor, sent us a copy of your letter to the Governor concerning
land values.
I thought that you might want to see the enclosed article [Looking
for Solutions to Poor Land Use and Unfair Property Tax?]
written by Mr. A. L. Hydeman, Jr., the Department of Community
Affairs' Executive Deputy Secretary. This article explores the
proposal developed by Henry George concerning the possibility of a
land value tax. The Department of Community Affairs has been
advocating the George method as one possible alternative to the
property tax.
Sincerely,
Eugene R. Eisman, Urban Advisor
In 1978 I was hired by a Philadelphia-based regional commercial bank
to work in its residential mortgage lending group. I rented an
apartment in the City of Philadelphia and moved from the suburbs. Work
demands consumed much of my time. I was also running in many local
middle-distance road races, training in the evenings and on weekends.
Then, in 1980, as I was contemplating my future direction and
contemplating doing graduate work, I happened across a notice in the
Philadelphia newspaper for courses on economics at the Henry George
School of Social Science. I really don't remember for sure whether the
name of Henry George sounded familiar or not. The above correspondence
and articles had come with me in a file folder, waiting to be
rediscovered some years later. Re-reading the report by Max Ways today
is sobering. If only reason had prevailed in the early 1970's we would
have avoided many of the problems that now seem to have a
stranglehold around our collective necks.
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