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Taxpayers definitely should have a bigger say in local government spending. In fact, our entire governmental organization in the United States has been turned on its head. Our constitution designed our governmental system to operate from the state level to the federal level. Over the years, starting with the ideas of Alexander Hamilton, the federal level has superseded most all power of the states.

This is especially true in the area of taxation. Not only has the importance of taxation grown many times beyond its original intent, but the income tax has allowed taxes to concentrate at the federal level with the hope that a portion will filter back to the states. This system has no resemblance to what the framers of the constitution had in mind. Income tax was never even a consideration.

To return to a sense of local control, the income tax should be abolished. It is unarguably the most difficult tax to collect and was only instituted because of the large amounts of funds that are possible and the relative ease of collecting at the federal level. The income tax was instrumental in the growth of the federal government and the large scale theft of value from the local communities. When income is taxed, great amounts of wealth are removed from local communities and transferred to the federal level. This is the primary reason for the tax.

Instead, taxes should be collected on the local level, originating at the county, and passed to the state level and finally to the federal level. The income tax is the least suited for this method. It also imposes the largest "dead weight" or impact on the economy. The land fee tax has the least negative effects on the economy and is the easiest to institute.

The county compiles a complete list of assessments of all land values within its jurisdiction. This is simply done by subtracting the depreciated improved value from the total value of a parcel. Comparable bare parcels are valued the same as similar improved parcels [minus improvements]. Then, the land rent or the "return" is figured on the land only. A percentage is deducted, between ten and twenty percent, to encourage entitlement rather than tenancy, and the remaining amount is paid as tax to the county.

Unlike other taxes that take from what citizens produce, the land fee takes back what the landlord reaps from society's improvements. While the worker does much to create his income, the land owner does nothing to gain increased land value as the community around him

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