Op-Ed: The Case for Shifting to a Land Value Tax

By Aaron Schechter

Property tax plays a critical role in how Seattle functions. In 2025, property tax represented over 22% of Seattle’s entire revenue stream, making it the City’s largest income category. Property tax brings in more than Seattle’s other significant income sources of sales tax, business and occupation (B&O) tax, and utility tax. This accounts for only about 30% of the property tax we pay, with the rest going to the County, Schools and other services. Here in the state of Washington, this revenue source is especially critical due to our lack of state income tax.

I believe that our method of assessing property tax is antiquated and unnecessarily discourages development. Current practice in King County, and essentially the entire United States, is to assess property values by combining the value of the land with the value of the improvements, unceremoniously adding them together, and then charging that year’s tax based on this sum. The improvements on the land - meaning the value of any and all structures on that land - are often assessed at dramatically higher values than the land itself.

Here in Seattle, we are blessed with being located on an isthmus. We are bound by water to the east and west and are thus unable to sprawl. This means that we have to look inward to accommodate our seemingly insatiable growth demand. Using data from 2025, the city of Seattle has $156.8 billion worth of appraised land value and a remarkably similar $159.5 billion worth of appraised improved value.

Note that not all of the properties included in those numbers are taxed, either because they are public properties or otherwise exempt. The value of taxable land in the city is $126.3 billion and taxable improvements are $137.7 billion. For the rest of this piece, I will be referring to the total appraised value, both taxable and non-taxable.

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https://www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-the-case-for-shifting-to-a-land-value-tax/