Land-Value
Public Financing

Land value public financing, also known as the land value capture or return is a levy on the value of unimproved land. It disregards the value of any buildings or improvements, such that the basis of property taxes are solely on the assessed value of the land. It is a payment for the benefits received from municipal improvements such as the street and sewer systems, parks and schools. The 19th-century American writer and political economist Henry George was a proponent of the land value [capture] and believed that when the locational value of land was improved by public works, the "economic rent" of the land was the most logical source of public revenue. 

 

The land value [capture] is intended to encourage development and discourage speculative land investment.

—US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration