The Holy Grail of Urbanism: Land Value Tax with Greg Miller

What if the biggest obstacle to building more housing and creating more sustainable urban development isn't zoning or financing — it's how we tax land? In this episode of Building Better Cities, host Kate Gasparro sits down with Greg Miller, founder of the Center for Land Economics, to unpack land value tax (LVT) and why it might be the missing lever for building more housing, increasing infrastructure investment, and achieving equitable community outcomes.Land is America's most valuable natural resource, worth an estimated $50 trillion — yet our current property tax system often rewards speculation over productive use. Greg and Kate dig into why vacant lots and surface parking lots in downtown corridors pay a fraction of the taxes that adjacent building tenants and businesses do, and how that imbalance shapes urban infrastructure, housing supply, and neighborhood investment.This conversation covers:What land value tax actually is — and how it differs from a standard property taxThe economics of land speculation and why it undermines sustainable citiesReal-world case studies, including Pittsburgh's decades-long experiment with split-rate taxation and a recent Spokane, Washington policy analysisThe history of Henry George and the 19th-century roots of land value tax theoryHow land value capture connects to tax increment financing (TIF), including New York City's Interborough Express (IBX) projectPractical policy levers cities and states can use to implement land value tax, from assessment reform to building exemptionsCommon misconceptions about land value tax and how to address themWhether you work in real estate, urban planning, municipal finance, or public-private partnerships, this episode offers a framework for thinking about how cities capture — and reinvest — the value they create.Resources:Pittsburgh should return to its roots in land value taxation (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)Could a LVT Fund the IBX? (Streetsblog NYC)America's land crisis is roaring back into politics (The Washington Post)Yes, a LVT is possible in Washington State (Sightline)The Hidden Costs of Tax Increment Financing (Lincoln Land Policy Institute)