Taxing Nothing: The Idea of a Vacant Property Tax Spreads

In the wake of the Great Recession, when many properties were sitting vacant, I began pushing a vacant property tax. The idea is that the tax would make it more costly to hold unoccupied housing. This gives owners more incentive to rent out a unit or to sell it, putting more property on the market and bringing pirces down.

The tax has several nice features. First, we already have an assessed value on the books, so it doesn't require a new administrative apparatus to impose a tax of say, 1-2 p...