Proposal for a Comprehensive
Land Use Plan for Pennsylvania

Edward J. Dodson

[A letter written to The Honorable Milton Shapp, Governor of Pennsylvania, 27 July, 1973, with responses received from members of Governor Shapp's administration]

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?

RESPONSE FROM RICHARD A. DORAN
Special Assistant to the Governor
3 August, 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.

RESPONSE FROM EDWARD SIMON
Director, Office of State Planning and Development
9 August, 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 property 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.

RESPONSE FROM
Eugene R. Eisman, Urban Advisor
3 October, 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 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.