What I like about Daniel's thinking is that he tackles issues in depth, and tackles issues both on the political map - like GST - and other important ones that should be there. I always find myself thinking - to use the phrase so notably used by Thomas Paine - it's just "common sense".
Consider, for example this one (I quote from his site, and a letter linked to his site).
"land lottery tax" This would put an end to the absurd situation that as soon as a plot of land is rezoned for housing the owner pockets a vast increase in value at the expense of the new homeowner.
It has often puzzled me that in Jersey we have a situation where if you own a piece of land it is worth what it is worth one minute, and then if it is zoned as building land its value increases overnight 10, maybe a 100 times.
When the units eventually get built this inflation of the land value, for which windfall the owner has done precisely nothing, adds enormously to the cost of the units. We go on and on about the cost of housing in the island and yet this cause of the high prices carries on unchecked.
The States lose (if they are the developers), the buying public loses, the only ones to gain are the owners of land. So the States (i.e. taxpayers) and house purchasers put money directly into the pockets of the landowners.
Could this be part of the pressure to just keep building in Jersey? It is certainly and obviously wide open to corruption, as such huge sums of unearned cash are at stake.
Am I missing something? And why was a stop not put to this easy money long ago?
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